Baseball: An Extraordinary Game

Growing up in my house, sports were around like Sunday church services and family dinners. From the time that I can remember, baseball was the most prevalent of the sports focused on by my family. Games were always on the TV. My father, a Dodger's fan, would always catch the L.A. games when they were on. When my dad told me bedtime stories, I heard about Duke Snyder and Willie Mays, Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium instead of fairy tales. He taught me how to throw, catch, and bat, but he also imparted to me the history of the game. All through my youth I was a never- ending fountain of questions about baseball, and Dad always seemed to have the answers.

Given the way I grew up, it isn't surprising that my and my dad's family tradition is going to a major league baseball park each year. We go in August, the dog days of summer when the boys of summer are racing for the pennant and baseball is at its classic point. The trip lasts a weekend, Friday through Sunday, so we can catch a weekend three game series. In the spring of each year, Dad and I decide on where we should go. The only requirement is that the park we visit is one filled with tradition and that represents the soul of baseball. Our first trip, two years ago, was to Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. This year's trip was to Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland.

The idea for our tradition came from a trip that my brother and father took to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Our family was on vacation in north Georgia when we got news that the Seminoles had made it to Omaha. Two days later, my mom and I were dropping my father and brother, Keith, off at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia so that they could catch their fl...

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...to me than I could have ever imagined. From now on, when people ask about Dad and I, I'll always picture us, hotdogs in hand, sitting in the bleachers of a ballpark.

Works Cited

Adomites, Paul and Saul Wisnia. Best of Baseball. Lincolnwood, Illinois:

Publications International, Ltd., 1997.

Cottrell, C. Raymond. Personal interview via telephone. 10 Oct 200 1.

Neyer, Rob and Eddie Epstein. Baseball Dynasties. New York: W. W. Norton &

Company, 2000.

Ross, Alan. The Yankees Century. Nashville: Cumberland House Publishing,

2001.

Smith, Curt. Storied Stadiums: Baseball's History Through its Ballparks.

New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 200 1.

Unknown author. Tripod home page. July 1999. 9 Oct 200 1.

<http://www/redsoxbaseball.com>

Yastrzemski, Carl. Baseball, the Wall, and Me. New York: Doubleday

Publishing, 1990.