It’s Just the Crack of the Bat

Last week I let myself close my eyes for a few seconds at a Detroit Tigers game. It was only a moment really. I stopped thinking about life, I stopped thinking about problems, bills, my responsibilities, and I listened to the game and let myself get swept away by it.

I could hear the crowd collectively inhale as the pitcher went through his delivery, and I could clearly hear the crisp smack of the ball hitting the leather of the catchers glove. I could smell hot dogs and beer, and I noticed the sweltering breeze coming through the city skyline and into Comerica Park.

In all actuality, I’m not even a baseball fan, but at each of the games I’ve been to this year, I’ve found myself doing the same thing. Sitting in the stands, forgetting about the day, closing my eyes for a few minutes, taking in the experience, and letting my goofy smile spread across my face. It could be just the crack of the bat, or overhearing a dad explaining the game to his kids, or it could be the thundering jeers and cheers of the 40,000 people that surround you.

Sport is powerful. It can have a rejuvenating effect on people. It can unite communities, it can calm individuals, it can serve as an escape, or as a true passion that keeps people looking forward. It’s important to look forward to things, even if for many lost souls, that something is a Maple Leafs playoff berth.

Baseball, as I said, has never been my sport. I don’t understand sitting for 3 hours to watch 5 minutes of action. I do however, understand the social qualities of the game, and the connection fans feel to their team. I understand the tradition that goes along with the seventh inning stretch, throwing out the first pitch, rally caps, and praying for baseball in October. I understand moms and dads taking their kids out of the house, away from a television, away from a computer, and talking to their kids for hours, with sport happening in the background. And I understand how that positive family feeling, gets associated with and attached to a simple game.

In a city like Detroit, where things have gone so poorly for so many in recent years, sport can also serve as a sense of pride in what could otherwise be a city filled with emptiness and embarrassment. It gives people something to talk about, and something to celebrate, even when there is nothing else in your life worth celebrating. When a team is winning, people feel like they are a part of it. When a team loses, people are angry. They’re angry because they feel personally invested in and connected to a team, and as if by sitting in the stands each season, they are a part of the winning and losing process. It becomes more than a game.

Many of you reading this can clearly remember Bill Buckner’s 1986 World Series mishap for the Boston Red Sox. I can’t, but I’ve watched that moment on repeat, and listened to the post game interviews, read books and stories about Buckner and the Sox. People in Boston hated him. Not because the Sox lost necessarily, but because they felt he personally let them down as individuals. They felt like he tore away their community pride, and they felt like he owed them something…because the power of sport transcends statistics and boxscores.

Buckner wasn’t to blame. He was a batting champion, an all-star, and has more hits than Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle. But people let the power of sport take over negatively at that moment, just like when we slow down, and appreciate the smaller moments of it that lead up to the great successes and sometimes greater falls, sport can have an incredibly positive impact on our lives.

Most little kids don’t grow up dreaming to be accountants or teachers, but they do grow up throwing a baseball in their backyard with their parents or siblings, dreaming of being pro athletes. People get excited to go to a Red Wings game, or watch football on a Sunday, or play a round of golf with friends. And there is always the promise of another season even after a disappointment.

People can close their eyes at a ball park anywhere in the world, listen to the crack of the bat, or the smack of a ball crashing into a leather catchers mitt, or simply be away from their problems and responsibilities for a few minutes. If they’re lucky, when they open their eyes they’ll have a goofy grin written across their face and the other stresses won’t feel so bad; at least for a few minutes, or a few innings.

You don’t need to spend mass amounts of money, just take a walk down to a neighbourhood park and watch a little league baseball or soccer game. Close your eyes, listen to the game, just for a minute, and see what happens.

Let the games begin.