Yesterday morning Jenny had a doctors appointment so I figured I'd watch the second part of the Ken Burns baseball 10th inning. This part focused on from 1999-2009. This series could have been made specifically for me. In its entirety it about 30 hours of baseball history. Most of the series deals with things before I was born. But one of the great things about baseball is it has such a long history. My interest in baseball history started when I was around 10 years old and started playing Strat baseball. I remember the first set I got was the old timers teams. So I became interested in teams and players starting with the 1905 Giants thought the present time(1974 at that time). After reading countless books the Ken Burns series put faces to names and told alot of great stories not found in stat lines. Also it told me about 19th century baseball something I knew very little about. Anyway baseball has been the constant throughout my life. Since I was six it was always in my life. I don't know of anything else like that. Well anyway the last installment was not only a great history of baseball the past ten years its was also a reminder of my life for the past 10 years. After about 30 minutes I heard someone go downstairs. There I saw Daniel on the couch. I asked him if he wanted to watch with me and he came right up. I can't pinpoint exactly when Daniel became a baseball fan. But at 13 he has been a fan for about 7 years. So he remembers alot of what happened in this episode. It was special watching with him. Each generation has an event where everyone remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing. For people a little older than me I think the event was when JFK was shot. For my generation the event is 9/11. On a much smaller scale I found myself remembering where I was during major events in the past 10 years in baseball history. And telling Daniel about everything. Telling him when Luis Gonzalez got the hit to end the 2001 WS how we were living at Centergate and I was so happy the Yankees lost I screamed and almost woke you up. How during the Steve Bartman game how we were on our first family vacation in Asheville. When they showed Endy Chavez's catch in game 7 of the NLCS how we looked at each other knowing how Yadier Molina was about to spoil a great season. And as I have my baseball childhood memories and my father is part of alot of them. I hope when Daniel is an adult I'll be part of his baseball memories. Like the night the Rays won the AL championship and we took Bonnie out for a walk after we had our own celebration. Both of us so happy happy they were going to the World Series. Also how his first regular season game was from a luxury box at the Trop. Or his first trip to Shea with me, Howie and Erik when he got a baseball during BP. He really enjoyed watching except seeing get Brad Lidge getting the last out against the Rays. But I think I got so much more enjoyment watching with him telling him of how our family history intersects with baseball.
On Saturday some lunatic in Arizona shot a member of the House while she was doing what she called congress on the corner. As of now Congresswoman Giffords probably will survive this attack but 6 people were killed. For the past three days this is all that's been on the news. The shooter is a young man who has a history of being mentally unstable. His facebook postings are irrational. For example saying how the government is using grammar to control all of us This attack was clearly carried out by a crazy person. What has been so despicable has been how the left is blaming the attack on conservative TV, talk radio and Sarah Palin. There insane logic is since the vitriolic discourse is getting worse and worse coming from Rush, Glenn Beck etc. it was enough to put this guy over the edge. He was a registered independent who did not even vote in the 2010 elections. Even the sheriff in Arizona is toting this liberal line. Even his friends describe the shooter as a dope smoking leftist. For the New York Times and members of congress to use this to try to pass the fairness doctrine comes under the Rahm Emmanuel strategy of never let a good crisis go to waste. At the end of the day is beyond disgusting.
No comments:
Post a Comment