| As we emerge from the long, dark, cold, damp | | | | of the encyclopedia "Total Baseball". Actor |
| tunnel that is winter, we also face the | | | | Billy Crystal fulfilled a life-long dream |
| culmination of the long, cold, damp hockey | | | | this year in spring training by having at-bat |
| season in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Watching | | | | as a bonafide, contracted New York Yankee in |
| an ice-based activity while temperature is | | | | a live game. Sadly, he struck out. But he |
| high and the sun up doesn't strike me as | | | | went down swinging. |
| natural. It puts the hockey fan at odds with | | | | |
| his environment. I would just as soon | | | | There is Cast of Thousands in meta-Baseball. |
| forget about snow and ice until I absolutely | | | | There are Good guys and Bad guys, just think |
| HAVE to in November or December. That's one | | | | of Stan Musial and Gary Carter, then think of |
| reason why I'm a baseball fan. | | | | Ty Cobb and Barry Bonds. Towering Legends |
| | | | such as Babe Ruth and Cy Young and Tragic |
| Spring brings with it the prospect of warmth | | | | figures like Lou Gehrig and Roberto Clemente. |
| and long days outside in the sunshine, of | | | | |
| lounging idly and watching the kids play. | | | | Baseball has seen Heroic Figures like Jackie |
| That is what the Baseball season fosters. | | | | Robinson and the Warm Personalities of Buck |
| Hope springs eternal as the ritual of Opening | | | | O'Neal. There were "If-Only" players . What |
| Day is enacted across the continent and | | | | if Mickey Mantle wasn't injured most of his |
| ushers in another season. | | | | career? |
| | | | |
| What makes Baseball so special is that it is | | | | We've seen Funny Guys like Casey Stengel and |
| MORE than just the visible game in front of | | | | Yogi Berra, and Oddballs like Rube Waddell, a |
| you; it is meta-Baseball which every true | | | | pitcher who would bolt from the game to |
| fan sees just as clearly. | | | | follow fire trucks to a fire, and Mark "the |
| | | | Bird" Fidrych, a pitcher who stood on the |
| Computer geeks are familiar with this prefix. | | | | mound and talked to the ball. Novel Players |
| "Meta", from the Greek means "after", | | | | like Eddie Gaedel, standing 3ft 7 inches, who |
| "beyond", "with" expands Baseball from the | | | | had a single at-bat in a real game. |
| strict confines of what the rulebook governs | | | | |
| between the foul lines. Meta-Baseball | | | | Then there is the game itself. There were |
| embraces the activities that occur BETWEEN | | | | Dramatic Seasons such in 1941 when Joltin' |
| the bursts of action, as well as BEFORE and | | | | Joe DiMaggio's streak of hitting in 56 |
| AFTER. | | | | straight games. In 1961 Roger Maris and |
| | | | Mickey Mantle chased and Maris beat, Babe |
| It embraces the History of the game, over 150 | | | | Ruth's 60-homer record and 1998 when Sammy |
| years of it, but most fans can only recall | | | | Sosa and Mark McGwire chased Roger's home run |
| details going back to about 1900. Today's | | | | record. |
| game can be compared to previous games that | | | | |
| have been played over the last 120 years. | | | | And Magical Moments, Willy Mays' "the catch" |
| | | | in the 1954 World Series. Ted Williams' |
| Baseball Lore allows for truth and myth, but | | | | final at-bat home run. Henry Aaron's 715th |
| that is all part of its charm. Proof being | | | | home run. Joe Carter's 1993 World |
| in the location of the Hall of Fame at | | | | Series-winning home run for the Toronto Blue |
| Cooperstown, New York, the counterfeit "home" | | | | Jays. |
| of the game. The debates are endless. Did | | | | |
| Babe Ruth really make the "called shot" home | | | | While the Major Leagues provide most of our |
| run in the 1932 World Series? Could Ted | | | | memory fodder, Minor League baseball at all |
| Williams hit .400 in today's game? | | | | levels makes its own contributions. In a |
| | | | 2007 Ottawa Lynx game, as a batter |
| There were Criminal Misfortunes, such as the | | | | successfully hit a single and arrived at |
| (villainous in my books) exclusion of | | | | first base we turned back to home plate to |
| non-whites for so long, denying us a good | | | | find the umpire spread-eagled across the |
| look at top-notch players such as Josh Gibson | | | | plate, unconscious after being hit by the |
| and Satchel Paige and so many others. The | | | | bat's back-swing. |
| 1919 "Black Sox" scandal ended the careers of | | | | |
| some players and changed the way the game is | | | | It's all part of meta-Baseball and it only |
| overseen. Pete Rose got himself banned for | | | | grows with time. |
| life in 1989 for gambling-related activities. | | | | |
| | | | And let's not forget that you can enjoy the |
| Meta-baseball incorporates that fact that | | | | game on a warm summer's evening with a cold |
| Non-Athletic Types make a contribution. When | | | | glass of beer and hot dog while carrying on |
| Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould died | | | | an animated discussion with your companions |
| he left a behind a book about baseball, | | | | without missing a beat of the game. And you |
| published posthumously as "Triumph and | | | | might catch a ball! |
| Tragedy in Mudville". When astrophysicist | | | | |
| Stephen Hawking recanted a previously | | | | So as the hockey season winds down, cheer up. |
| published theory he paid off a bet with | | | | Baseball is here for another season! |
| another astrophysicist by sending him a copy | | | | |