To blog or not to blog...

I guess the pervading question is, "Why now?"
It's a fair question...one to which I don't even really know the answer.

Why now, at age 24...having never had a myspace or a facebook or anyother weird thing like that. I don't tweet. I don't even have textmessaging on my phone. All of those things, I think, facilitate somesort of a virtual conversation.
I guess I'm not much on virtual conversations. I'm not even really huge on real life conversations...with a couple of exceptions.
I suppose those exceptions are what have brought me here to my computer at 2:30 AM on the morning of July 21st, 2009.

Actually, I know why I'm starting this blog...and it's because of baseball.
I just finished watching the 6th disc (inning) of Ken Burn's baseball documentary and it made me wistful (Wistful! I said wistful!)
In any case, what do baseball and blogging have to do with each other?

Nothing, it would seem...unless you refer to my previous comment about conversations.
I think I just need to talk and think about baseball some more...and that's what's pulled me to the computer.

So I'll say a few words about that...that I'm sure only a few people will ever read, but that's okay. This is only for a few people...and it's for myself, really.

I've really fallen in love with baseball in the past 6 months or so. I'm not sure how or why, but it's just grabbed me. I think it was like that when I fell in love with my wife, and when I really fell in love with God...baseball belongs in that kind of company. I had always loved God. And I had loved Senia for a long time. But there is a moment in time, a season if you will, when you really just fall in love with something and it becomes a little different...a little better. I've always loved baseball, but 2009 has been that season for me to really just fall in love with it.

Eric told me a while ago that he and Andy Blanks, once a day, set aside a little time to talk about baseball. I'm always talking or thinking about it...but I long for that. A few minutes a day when baseball is all that matters. I love pretty much all sports, but nothing will ever be able to touch my love for baseball again...not after how hard I've fallen for it this year. Baseball is a unifier. For instance, I don't know Andy Blanks. I know who he is and a little bit about him because he's friends with my brother and with Eric and because he's a Student Life guy. I've played a softball game with him. And I know he loves baseball. That's enough, I guess. The last one is all I really needed to know. I feel like if I couldn't get in touch with Shane or Eric, and I had Andy's number, I could call him and ask him if he thinks batting average or slugging percentage was a more important stat (He'd probably say OPS). No other sport is like that.

My head is exploding with thoughts about things right now...and Senia has long been asleep....so I type. One of those thoughts is this: I wonder how many potentially amazing baseball players never played the game or cared about it. I wonder how many kids growing up in this country had eyes as good as Ted Williams and big hands like Tony Gwynn and a sharp mind like Albert Pujols...but their parents loved music, so that kid is a 3rd rate piano player at the Rainforest Cafe in Disney World. I'm sure those same parents are saying, "I wonder how many potentially world-class musicians have wasted their time in sports. I wonder how many kids had the ears of Wagner and the mind of Mozart and their stupid parents liked sports, so they played in the NBA D-League or in AA baseball until they were 40 and then went to work in an office."
But those parents are stupid, probably.

Anyway, I think that most tall kids try their hand at basketball...and most muscular kids at football because those are games of strength and of heigth...but baseball takes a certain kind of mind...it requires a certain amount of intangibles and discipline that you may never see in a kid until he picks up a bat.

Maybe I'm also a little wistful because All In is broke up and it's not particularly easy to leave behind something that's made you 20 or so good friends, 5 best friends, taken you to 38 states, let you see the country that you love...Niagra Falls to L.A. to the Grand Canyon to the Rocky Mountains to Independence Hall to New York City...and fulfilled mostof the dreams you had for yourself on your 17th birthday. All In is essentially the reason that I've ever been anywhere. Whatever...

Anyway, I'm starting this blog because, as much as I'm opposed to electronic conversations, if it brings me one more thought or one more conversation or one more memory about baseball...it's worth it.
I'm certainly not saying every post will be about baseball...this might be the only one, in fact...but it's what's brought me here.

I love my country, and I love it's sport.