It’s Baseball- Have Fun!

For the last two weeks I have been watching the College World Series. I never really got into it too much, because to be honest with you I just didn’t care. But this year I am into it, I am into it like a fat kid is into Krispy Kremes.

I went to Arizona State and after seeing them finally beat Cal-State Fullerton after losing to them 3 out of 4 times in the past few years, just made me that much more excited about the CWS. But the real reason why I now love the CWS is because it is an escape from the scandalized and tainted Major League Baseball.

Now I love the MLB and I love my New York Mets, but this year has just been disastrous for both. With the steroids scandal that started before the season and the Mets that just got swept by the POWERFUL (No sarcasm there, nooooo not at all) Seattle Mariners I just needed something better. I needed a distraction.

I needed something pure and fun, two things baseball started out as. Take ASU for example: They have the high socks, baggy pants, and youthful exuberance that could only compare to Archie “Moonlight” Graham. You have to love this. They play for the thrill and fun of winning a championship. They don’t play for contract extensions, big statistics, or endorsements. They simply play because they love it. Now I know these kids all want to play pro-ball someday, but there is no place else they would rather be on a warm June day than Omaha Nebraska.

Its no coincidence that the College World Series is in Nebraska. Its America’s heart. Pure and untainted from the pollution and corruption of big cities and the ruthlessness that comes along with capitalism in sports. Ordinary people with big dreams, whether it be baseball or raising their families in America’s heartland.

You hear the announcers often say during games, “You don’t see these things happen in professional baseball.” Things like wheel plays during every pitch with a man on second, and unconventional plays like stealing in situations when managers in the Pro’s are reluctant to do so. But that’s why we love it, or at least that is why I love it.

I just miss it, I miss seeing players have fun. Look at the Yankees for example. Yes, they are a great team. Yes, they have 5 first ballot hall of famer’s on their team. But the team run like a business. Besides Jeter, can you honestly tell me it looks like those guys are having fun playing a GAME? That’s what was so great about the Red Sox winning the World Series last year. Manny, Pedro, Johnny Damon, and David Ortiz were always smiling and laughing during games. They joked around and people (Mainly themselves) called them idiots, but in reality they realized they were playing a game and not curing cancer.

Like I said I love professional baseball. I just wish I could put a little of these college players in every professional baseball player. Actually it is inside them just lost in millions of dollars and the “business” of professional baseball.

Just to make something clear, I know that this is how these guys make a living. They should be proud of all their success and accomplishments. They should remember that the fans pay their salaries and they are in a way entertainers. The most important thing they should remember every time they take a field that you and I would play on for free, is that they are paid to play a game.  

The difference between players in the pro’s and college players is that in the Pro’s there is only one Derek Jeter who will dive into the stands to save a run, on a college team every player would do it. Not for the highlight reel, not for the money, but because it is part of playing a game they love.