1. Baseball is…Fumbling the scuffed baseball during family backyard catches
2. Baseball is…Memories of spectacular diving catches on scarred front lawns
3. Baseball is…Teary eyes when recalling your only catch with mom, dad, or grandparents
4. Baseball is…Making a circus catch with your big bro pitching, thus saving your hide.
5. Baseball is…Sweaty summer nights scouring the night sky for a baseball to appear.
6. Baseball is…Spinning like a whirling dervish while hunting a fly ball lost in the sun.
7. Baseball is…The foreign fragrance of cut grass, amazing to a cement city boy visiting a pro ballpark
8. Baseball is…The open-mouthed wonder of a ten year-old seeing number 42’s smile directed at him.
9. Baseball is…Donning your new Stan Musial mitt replacing your pimpled pancake shaped glove
10. Baseball is…Sneaking your oily glove embracing a ball under your pillow to perfect its pocket.
11. Baseball is…Wearing a tattered, hand-me-down uniform mended by my mom’s trembling hand
12. Baseball is…A surreal, near spiritual feeling when prancing around in your refurbished uniform.
13. Baseball is…Strawberry tattooed legs, braced knees, and tinted toes targeted by rogue foul tips
14. Baseball is…The grand grin of pride after your legs carve the path to larceny: successful stolen bases
15. Baseball is…Comparing and boasting to our teammates about your designer scabs
16. Baseball is…Kids negotiating and calling their own games
17. Baseball is…Brouhahas settled by evidence of chalk deposits on Spalding’s from school wall boxes
18. Baseball is…Playing Baseball’s sired games like slap ball, punch ball, stoop ball, and stick ball
19. Baseball…Kids working together raking vacant land to create makeshift ball fields
20. Baseball is…Scouring rocky and weedy lots in search of remains of bald baseballs
21. Baseball is…Covering topless stringy baseballs with electrical tape resurrecting their baseball lives
23. Baseball is…Hunting for splintered bats in wiry pails posted at adult baseball games
24. Baseball is…Sitting at home operating on broken bats with screwdrivers, hammers and electrical tape
25. Baseball is…Tossing and turning in bed before the big game
26. Baseball is…The rhythmic clatter of spikes making you feel like a major league player.
27. Baseball is…Fun! Stepping in Umpire J’s batter’s box waving an oar at the plate. He chuckled.
28. Baseball is…Hearing the chuckling ump utter,” Wide strikes really? Enjoy the view behind the cage.”
29. Baseball is…The grimy chore of scooping and scrubbing mud off your spikes
30. Baseball is…Wishing you inhabited a foxhole after a rogue pitch lacerates a link atop the backstop
31. Baseball is…Long faces on moms, dads, grandparents and teammates after your strikeouts
32. Baseball is…Lacing a key hit, and those same fans igniting a crescendo of cheers.
33. Baseball is…Cutting your music academy tryout to pitch in your first high school game.
34. Baseball is…Choosing baseball games over concerts, yet eventually music won that game.
35. Baseball is…Never ending dugout stories, razzing, and laughter echoing from subterranean dugouts
36. Baseball is…Tiger fantasy camp coached by Gates, and sensing ghosts of Cobb and Greenberg
37. Baseball is…Watching Korean baseball and devouring homemade hot dogs during the pandemic
38. Baseball is…Pizza parties with your team, friends, and relatives after most games
39. Baseball is…Lessons learned on the baseball diamond preparing players for lifetime successes
40. Baseball is…Tender memories warming our hearts once the careworn spikes are hung forever.
Baseball is…
Baseball is…
Baseball is…