Take Me Out to the Ballgame

One of the biggest gripes I hear when talking to people about the love of baseball is that it is such a LONG season. But you have to understand:

Baseball is more than 162 games played in a year.

It is more than a three-game series.

It is more than nine innings in a game.

It is more than three outs in an inning.

It is more than four balls or three strikes in an up at bat.

Baseball is each pitch of the ball; each swing of the bat. For with each pitch, with each swing, an entire game can change. The needed momentum to pull a struggling team up from the bottom to the top can take place with that single strike out, or that single hit of the ball.

According to Gerrit Maus of UC Berkeley, a fastball takes .4 seconds to reach home plate after it leaves a pitcher's hand, but a hitter needs a full .25 seconds to see the ball and react. “Light hits our eye and the information needs to get to our brain. That takes a tenth of a second.”

Baseball is where everything hinges on that moment when the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand and what the batter does or doesn’t do with it when it reaches him.

Is a baseball season long? My God yes. My only wish is that the season could be even longer.

© Emittravel 2017