I can still remember the day I stopped being a baseball fan. It was the day Tony Tarasco’s career was snatched away by a boy named Jeffrey Maier. It was the day that my beloved Orioles led the AL East wire to wire only to fall to the Yankees. The Yankees became a dynasty of champions. The Orioles became a dynasty of losers. Baseball was never the same for me. Innocence lost around the time I turned 11. I’ll tune in for a couple playoff games if the teams are interesting or the game is close in the late innings but the love is lost. I guess it wasn’t meant to be.
Somehow ten years later I find myself watching a Boston Red Sox spring training game. Flipping channels I saw that Daisuke Matsuzaka was pitching. Apparently hype does work. The hundred million dollar myth from Japan had piqued my interest.