How Can You Not Be Romantic About Baseball?
As the World Series rolls on and the playoffs come to an end, we're reminded again of the beauty of baseball
Being a Reds fan is painful.
I will turn 30 years old in a few short weeks and while I haven’t been a Reds fan my entire life, I have been a baseball fan. I will make no illusions of my talent as a kid. I was the one that played right field because no one hit the ball there. My final season of baseball came to an abrupt end when I realized the coach had stopped calling me about make-up games and I don’t think that was an accident.
But I’ve always felt a connection to baseball. When I was around 10 or 11 years old, the Babe Ruth League World Series came to my hometown. For at least a week straight, my uncle would pick me up in the morning, drive me down to the baseball field and we’d set up lawn chairs deep down the left field line and watch a day’s worth of games.
I made it my mission that week to get every kid’s autograph in the World Series program. Kids that were only a handful of years my senior seemed at the time to be baseball giants.
One of my favorite memories came during a game under the lights when one of the kids launched a homer deep into the night. I thought I was quick to react to give chase but as I turned to run, my uncle was in a full sprint. Still, I chased after him while scouring the ground for the ball, all the while the kid responsible for the moon shot trotted the bases with fans roaring him on.
As I got to where I thought the ball landed, my uncle stood. He turned back to me, ball in hand and smile on his face. My initial feeling was of defeat, but that immediately turned to glee as he offered the ball to me. Competitive little Jacob never even considered the possibility my uncle was on my side.
I gleefully returned back to my seat, ball in hand. My uncle suggested we give the kid the ball after the game in return for an autograph and a picture. I distinctively remember the kid’s face lighting up when I handed him the ball before we took a photo with both of us on cloud nine.
Those memories are littered throughout my childhood. While my father was never a sports fan, my uncles passed down their love of the game to me. Eventually, they joined me many years later softball coaches for my sister as we attempted to pass down those same memories.
Eventually, all that led to me becoming a Reds fan much later than most. Take even a cursory glance at the Reds win-loss records through the 90s and 2000s and you’ll see why I was never particularly drawn to the franchise. In fact, there’s probably an argument I am to the Reds what the Billy Goat was to the Cubs. In 1990, the Reds swept the Oakland Athletics in four games in the World Series, the final win coming on Oct. 20.
Almost three weeks later to the day, I was born. Since then, the Reds have won one playoff series, that coming in 1995. Between 1991 and 2009, they made the playoffs once. Their first trip back to the playoffs in 2010 saw them no-hit in Game 1 of the NLDS.
In 2012, they returned to the playoffs and looked to be the best team in baseball. Between those two playoff appearances, I had committed fully to the Reds. After winning the first two games of the NLDS in San Francisco, the Reds turned home needing to win one of the next three games.
Fittingly, they blew back-to-back games, setting up a do-or-die Game 5. Chances to end playoff games are sparse and especially all-or-nothing games. I distinctly remember that thought going through my mind as I laid in my bed brewing over the Game 4 loss before looking up ticket prices. In a moment of spontaneity, I decided I was going to Game 5. My sister and I skipped class and headed down to Cincinnati ready to see something seemingly as rare as Halley’s Comet in a Red’s playoff series win.
What we were treated to was one of the biggest gut-punch losses ever. Ignorance may be bliss but it blinded me to the reality that the Giants’ Even Year Bullshit could not be overcome by loud cheers and hopeful wishes. But even as frustrating as that loss was, I still look back on that day fondly as it was a moment with family that you don’t often get. The memories of standing, waving towels and losing voices trying to will your team to a playoff win don’t go away.
And that’s what I thought of on Sunday as the Dodgers completed their comeback in Game 7 to win the NLCS. Sure, the Dodgers have been to more World Series than I can ever imagine in the last five years, but they hadn’t done it like that, coming back in Game 7 after being down 3-1 in the series.
I couldn’t help but think of the brother and sister that experienced that moment of euphoria together. The uncle and nephew that sported ear-to-ear smiles as the Dodgers celebrated on the field. Baseball is a sport of memories that are passed down from generation to generation. It’s a sport where you remember sitting in lawn chairs and chasing down home runs. It’s a sport where you remember spitting sunflower seeds in the dugout of your Little League like the big leaguers do. It’s a sport where you remember as a little kid asking your mom or dad or grandma or grandpa or aunt or uncle why the shortstop threw the ball to second instead of first and what did shortstop even mean. With each memory passed from generation to generation, your bond to the game grows stronger.
How can you not be romantic about baseball?
What I’m watching
Take The Ball, Pass The Ball - Any soccer fan should be cueing this up on Netflix tonight. A documentary on Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona teams that is brilliant.
Zodiac - To start to get into the spooky, creepy, horror genre, I watched Zodiac, which was unsurprisingly great given the case.
Nightcrawler - I didn’t expect to go on a Jake Gyllenhal kick this week. Technically, it was a re-watch but Nightcrawler is one of the most underrated movies.
John Wick 2 - Not as good as the original but sometimes you just want to watch Keanu Reeves beat the hell out of bad guys.
What I’m listening to
Another podcast suggestion this week as the only music I listened to was largely a Lo-Fi Beats playlist while writing. One of my favorite podcasts is The Dollop, which is a comedy podcast centered on a person or event in history hosted by two comedians. I can’t recommend it enough.
What I’m reading
The Athletic - ‘That woman raised all of us’: Tragic loss has given me new perspective, by Will Guillory
CNN - WNBA superstar Sue Bird: 'Women's soccer players generally are cute little White girls'
Quote of the Week
“When your enemy's making mistakes, don't interrupt them.” - Billy Beane.