On Sept. 14, baseball owners and players told me to grow up, to act my age and to get on with my life. They severed that major link that tied me to my youth.
In my childhood, there was always baseball. Sure there were other games-football, basketball and hockey-but they weren’t the same as baseball. The anticipation in winter grew into the hope of spring which started the roller-coaster season that lasted all summer long until one team won and one team lost in the fall classic and you started again, anticipating what lay ahead next year.
But the game became a business and businessmen in three-piece suits and skyboxes took the place of short-sleeved baseball men in the bleachers. Baseball players who played for the love of the game and the respect of the fans gave way to individual entities working for the almighty dollar and a corporate logo.
Therefore, to the owners and the players: Take your bats and balls, your artificial turf, your skyboxes, your corporate logos and the greed moat you built around you to keep the true fans at a distance and go far, far away.
We need new baseball owners, new baseball players and a new genuine appreciation for the game and for the fans who are more important to the livelihood of this game and the future it holds in the web of that brand new sweet “sure sign of spring” smell that only a baseball glove can provide.
