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Home > Archive > Oct 19, 2006

Home Again
By D. Gary Webb
Sports Editor
Oh, Baby! How about those Dee-troit Tigers, huh?

For years I’ve had to endure the slings and arrows of sports fans who push me to say what sport I enjoy the most, and for the most part whatever sport is in season is what I find most exciting.

All sports have inherent pluses and minuses, but from the time I was tiny, baseball has been my favorite, year-in and year-out.

Why? Well, many reasons, not the least of which may be that I understand it better than other sports.

Admittedly, my understanding of baseball may be limited compared to some people, and, perhaps because I played it longer and coached a bit more baseball than other sports gave me a greater appreciation of the game.

But there are other reasons why baseball has long been my favorite sport. Here are some of them.

The long season. I’ll admit – sort of – that the 164-game Major League Baseball regular season can become a bit long, and I’ll even agree that – sort of – for people who need to be constantly entertained basketball or football may fit the need a little neater.

Having a team do what the Tigers have done, however, and get into the World Series after beating the dirty, rotten Yankees and ego maniacal Oakland A’s – on a walk off homer by a relatively unknown player, no less – requires a season that is long.

It enables the cream to rise to the top only after it goes through the ups and downs that may take a football team a couple of years to go through.

Traditions. Baseball has been around for much longer than any other sport but it has changed much less, so it has a continuity that endures through generations.

Baseball has seen far fewer teams change cities, fewer changes in rules, less player turnover, more older players and it is played with a greater similarity at age nine and age 39 than other sports.

One can win with a variety of philosophies in baseball – either by buying a great team, aka the Yankees, or by building one, like the Tigers – and individual ability isn’t as limited to size and shape as much as it is in other sports. A short, skinny player has a role in baseball as much as a tall, muscular one does.

Personality. The individual qualities that go into the making of a team are more available in baseball. Everything from the ballpark and its quirks to the kind of player a team selects to what can be found in the refreshment stands is different depending on the team.

Some teams allow long hair and beards, and others don’t. Some teams have white shoes and some have stripped socks. Some have had the same uniforms for decades, while others change seemingly every other year.

Each component that goes into the team makeup is part of a larger view that either attracts or shuns potential fans. Of course, winning is a common denominator regardless of everything else.

Longevity. For whatever reason – not the least of which may be that baseball may be the least demand, physically, of the major sports – baseball players tend to have longer careers than other athletes.

Why is this good? Because, it gives fat old bald dudes like me a connection to the game. In this year’s playoffs, the old dudes included Randy Johnson, Tom Glavine, Kenny Rogers – all pitchers and all over age 40 – as well as graybeard Julio Franco from the Mets. Franco is just a few months younger than I am, but I remember when he was a rookie and it doesn’t seem that long ago. The guy is a physical specimen, even in his wheelchair state.

The thing I find interesting is that the old guys, which includes anyone 35 or over, are really the keys to success this year. Rogers has been phenomenal for Detroit, and Glavine’s performances have been terrific.

Yes, I’m a baseball freak. I love the pace, the tension and the excitement that accompany the sport, as well as the sights, sounds and smells that are the same whether one is at a Little League game or the big leagues.

How long until spring training?

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