An Ode to Spring Training

[ftwspursfan]

An Ode to Spring Training

I hear the pop of a ball hitting a glove.
I hear the crack of the bat.
I smell the new leather gloves and the oil used to soften them up.
I close my eyes and see the lush, green grass and feel it beneath my feet as I run through the outfield on drills.
I smell the chalk that is put down to show the foul lines and taste it in my mouth as it is stirred up by someone running the bases.
I hear sunflower seeds crack beneath my spikes as I walk around the field.
I hear my spikes making a 'scritch-scritch' sound as I walk from the field house to the park.
I feel the raised stitches of the ball on my fingertips as I wrap my hand around it to send it hurtling through the air to another player.
I hear the players chattering and the coaches giving instructions and encouragement.
I see the white pants and blue jerseys, the blue caps with the bills curled just so...
I feel the warmth of the sun through my uniform as I stretch and run
I am alive and awake to the sounds and sensations of the Arizona desert
I am a baseball player and it’s the best time of year.
It is SPRING TRAINING

Lets Go Rangers!!:yay We need a clappin' smiley

[endtimeman]

An Ode to Spring Training

I hear the pop of a ball hitting a glove.
I hear the crack of the bat.
I smell the new leather gloves and the oil used to soften them up.
I close my eyes and see the lush, green grass and feel it beneath my feet as I run through the outfield on drills.
I smell the chalk that is put down to show the foul lines and taste it in my mouth as it is stirred up by someone running the bases.
I hear sunflower seeds crack beneath my spikes as I walk around the field.
I hear my spikes making a 'scritch-scritch' sound as I walk from the field house to the park.
I feel the raised stitches of the ball on my fingertips as I wrap my hand around it to send it hurtling through the air to another player.
I hear the players chattering and the coaches giving instructions and encouragement.
I see the white pants and blue jerseys, the blue caps with the bills curled just so...
I feel the warmth of the sun through my uniform as I stretch and run
I am alive and awake to the sounds and sensations of the Arizona desert
I am a baseball player and it’s the best time of year.
It is SPRING TRAINING

Lets Go Rangers!!:yay We need a clappin' smiley

Lets go Astros!!!!!!

[ftwspursfan]

Lets go Astros!!!!!!

I'm w/ya, ETM, the 'stros are my NL team!:thumb

[endtimeman]

I'm w/ya, ETM, the 'stros are my NL team!:thumb

The only difference in my teams and yours is I like the rockets. Maybe because I only live 30 miles away. But I am and always have been a Cowboys fan. Just cant get into the Texans, especialy when they black out dallas to put on the texans.

[JG86]

I can't wait for the Sox to repeat! :)

[JSZ]

Here's something I posted to another board a few years ago. I'll bet your experiences are similar. Play Ball!

Baseball Memories.
In 1963 my dad brought my brother and me to our first baseball game at Fenway Park. We made our way down Lansdowne Street and entered beneath the bleachers. Two dollars apiece and we were in. Fenway park was enormous to a ten year old. Though far from full (these were lean years for the Red Sox) the place was bustling with activity. Vendors loudly hawked their wares. It smelled of popcorn, cigars, stale beer and sulfurous cleaning solution. You would understand the cleaning solution smell if you had seen the restrooms. Most of everybody's business ended up on the floor!

Up the stairs we went into the bleachers, just to the right of center field. What a field it was! The greenest grass I ever saw stretched out for what seemed like miles. Everything in Fenway Park was green except the better seats which were blue. The bleacher seats were backless wooded benches. You could sit anywhere you wanted out there.

The Red Sox take the field!

There was Dick Stuart at first base and Carl Yazstremski in left. Yazstremski was starting his third year, still practically a rookie. He has been retired now for 24 years! I've long since forgotten the other players names. The Detroit Tigers were playing. There was Al Kaline and Norm Cash. Cash! What a funny name. My brother and I got quite the chuckle over that. I don't remember who won. It doesn't matter.

After that my mom used to let us go to Fenway on our own! That was quite the trek for a nine and ten year old. We walked across the Charles River from Cambridge to Boston via the Boston University Bridge and then crossed Commonwealth Avenue. Commonwealth was a wide, divided boulevard with trolley tracks in the middle. There were considerably fewer traffic lights back in 1963/4 but we did alright. If we had extra money we would take the trolley as far as Blandford St. which was the last stop before entering the subway. It only cost a dime if you got off there. Almost everybody going to Fenway did. Most of the time we just walked the mile or so up Commonwealth to Kenmore Square, took the right to go over the railroad tracks, and we were there.

In April of 1964 my mom got us released from school early so we could go to the opening day game. The school was not amused. My mom was so cool! Tony Conigliaro, the 19 year old rookie right fielder from Lynn, Mass., was making his Fenway Park debut. On the very first pitch he smashed a homer into the left field screen. Wow! Tony C. had the makings of one of the greatest Red Sox players of all time until he was beaned in August of '67. After that he was never the same. Vision problems, I think. He hung on in the big leagues for a few more years and was finally released. He died at a very young age. Heart attack. It's one of Boston's biggest sports tragedies. That, Harry Agganis and Reggie Lewis.

The years 1964 through mid-season 1967 were the best years for poverty stricken Red Sox fans. The Sox were perpetual cellar dwellers. That meant any kid could go to Fenway Park on the day of the game and get in and you could get good seats too! We sat right behind the plate many times. . One time we did have extra money and my brother suggested we buy roof box seats. I think they cost us 7 whole dollars apiece. A princely sum! Now it will cost you over $250.00 to sit in the same place. At that time there were only a couple of hundred seats up there not a whole upper deck like now. Here were a couple of kids being personally ushered to our seats and having them wiped off for us by an adult who asked if there was anything he could do, "for you gentlemen." That still tickles me.

By mid-season, 1967, the Sox actually started playing well. It was the year of the Impossible Dream. What that meant was it was impossible to get tickets any more. It has been that way ever since. To see a Red Sox game now involves lots of pre-planning and lots of cash. I'm lucky to see one game per year in person. That's OK. I remember! Those really were the best years of my life.

[mbtcforJesus]

Let's Go Mets!!!

[ftwspursfan]

Let's Go Mets!!!
Wow, MB, a Mets fan in WA state. :thinking. Great story, JSZ. JG, you might get a BoSox 3-peat, but we'll see. Are you still in SB mourning?? :lol2

[Chula]

JSZ,

Your post makes me realize why Baseball is still the great American sport. I remember playing baseball as a kid and when I wasn't actually playing, I was throwing a ball up against a wall and fielding the ground balls or pretending to be my favorite player.
I appreciate your stories about Fenway park and how easy it was back then to get tickets and be part of the enviornment.
The sad thing today is that the sport we all loved as kids has turned into a corporate, millionaire money machine. the fans don't matter so much anymore. I'll bet the sport could survive without the fans in the seats with the large payouts that tv and profit sharing produce.
While its still possible for a father to take his son or daughter to a ball game, you're right, it takes planning and some fairly big bucks to do so. Such is life.
Today, as I write this, it's Sunny, not a cloud in the sky in Florida. The pitchers and catchers are in town oiling up their gloves and rubbing down the baseballs.
The fields are being mowed and manicured. In a few days, the spring training ballparks will be full of fans sitting in the sun, skin turning red,drinking a cold coke, eating some popcorn and chewing on a ballpark hotdog. Oops, I just spilled my drink trying to catch that foul ball. Oh well, it's only $3.50, I'll get a refill after this inning.
Wow, you can see how you mind does turn to thoughts of baseball in the spring.
Now, excuse me while I turn on CNN to catch the latest on the Roger Clemments scandal.
Take, me out to the ballgame.............

[mbtcforJesus]

Wow, MB, a Mets fan in WA state. :thinking. Great story, JSZ. JG, you might get a BoSox 3-peat, but we'll see. Are you still in SB mourning?? :lol2

ftwspursfan, I was born and raised in NY. I lived there for 35 years. My wife and I moved to Washington state 14 years ago this June hence the allegiance to the NY Mets. :)