Baseball Lives

Jim Kaat pitching for Phillies, 1978

It is greater than the players, the owners, steroids or whatever.

Cal Ripken, Jr. at Co. Stadium in Milwaukee, 1995

It has outlasted many ups and downs.

But the game is the game. If it survived Ty Cobb's meanness and racism, the "Black Sox scandal," sign-stealing by the Giants against the Dodgers, and a gazillion imperfect people, it will survive Barry Bonds and steroids. It survived the greed of the strike and grew by leaps and bounds.

At the end of the second episode last night I heard the late Harry Kalas announce the Phillies World Series win two years ago, and saw the future of the game as Joe Mauer headed toward first.

The players of today are as committed to the game as any in the past. Different? Sure. But they are here to play.

Target Field, Minneapolis, 2010

Sunday I will be at Target Field watching them for the 5th time this season- and then again in a week for the post-season. Maybe more this year; maybe not. But it is still The Game.

Baseball. There will be those who disagree but as someone said in the first episode on Tuesday, it is the greatest game ever invented.