Spring peeked its head through the frozen clouds for a bit and gave us just enough warmth to get outside!  I had a brief moment of sheer joy and reflection when Ry-guy asked me if we could “go outside and play ball.”  I’m feeling my age these days and as the whole world prepares for the Big Game tomorrow, my heart can’t help but yearn for the days when Opening Day or Game 1 of the World Series would attract the kinds of audiences we’ll see tomorrow.  Baseball has a certain history; a certain nostalgia; a certain element that no other sport has.  I think, more than any sport, it embodies life.  In football, for example, you can train hard and study hard and practice hard and push through the pain to succeed.  You’d think that’s a good life’s lesson right?  You put the time in and you succeed.  The team who tries the hardest will do things like “dominate the line” and “pressure the quarterback” and “be more physical.”  In baseball, you can do all of those things and still fail.  In fact, like life, you can work and train really hard and you’re guaranteed to fail.  The best that ever played failed 6 out of every 10 times!  I think former New York Governor Mario Cuomo (who himself was a minor league ballplayer) may have said it best:  

“The idea of community, the idea of coming together. We’re still not good at that in this country. We talk about it a lot. In moments of crisis we’re magnificent at it — the Depression; Franklin Roosevelt lifting himself from his wheelchair to lift this nation from its knees. At those moments we understand community, helping one another. In baseball you do that all the time; you can’t win it alone. You can be the best pitcher in baseball but somebody has to get you a run to win the game. It is a community activity. You need all nine people helping one another. I love bunt plays. I love the idea of the bunt. I love the idea of the sacrifice. Even the word is good; giving yourself up for the good of the whole. That’s Jeremiah. That’s thousands of years of wisdom. You find your own good in the good of the whole. You find your own individual fulfillment in the success of the community. The Bible tried to do that and didn’t teach you. Baseball did.” 

 So, as we prepare to cheer on the Seahawks and the Broncos, I’m left with this nagging feeling that America is letting its pastime slip away but these Austin boys will do everything they can to stop it.