Part one
I was fifteen and had been reading historical books about baseball on and off for a few years, spending months between each book fantasizing about an era(s) so far removed from the baseball I grew up watching. My preference was the Dead Ball Era, my great grandfather’s baseball, but my brothers and friends, the ones who didn’t know much about baseball before Mike Schmidt, Eddie Murray, and Hank Aaron, liked the long ball. Actually, they loved the home run, especially when they were the ones pounding them over fences in neighborhood parks, backyards and in high school games. Me, I’d take Ty Cobb any day, especially with his penchant of hitting for stats. Give me Walter Johnson, who registered 3,508 strikeouts and two straight 30 win seasons in 1912 (33) and 1913 (36), a time when his fastball was legendary. Cobb once said a Johnson fastball “hissed with danger,” and he had “the most powerful arm ever turned loose in a ball park.”
Reading daily box scores became a habit I could never break. In fact, growing up, the Sunday paper had two full pages of stats – every player on every team regardless of how many at bats or pitching starts they had—and I would spend hours pouring over the numbers. My team was the Detroit Tigers, and I was proud to see the likes of Lou Whitaker, Enos Cabell, Alan Trammell, Kirk Gibson, Chet Lemon and Jack Morris listed. The rest of the week I was forced to read the daily box scores, and top ten stat leaders in each league.
During the 1984 season, the year the Tigers beat the Padres 4 games to 1 in the World Series, Detroit went wire-to-wire with a 104-58 record. In contrast to my theory that batting averages meant more than home runs, the Tigers belted 187 homers (31 more than ’83) and had a team batting average of .271 (three points lower than ’83). Moreover, the ’84 Tigers won more games than the ’83 squad (12) and had the same number of players who hit above .300 (3). The Tigers finished the ’83 season in 2nd place behind the Orioles in the AL East and missed the playoffs.
What did this mean to me? Like the other kids my age, I started swinging for the fence.
In October of ’84, I came to the conclusion whether it’s hitting for the cycle, jacking the ball 450’, sharpening your cleats to maim the second baseman, tipping pitches, scuffing the ball, throwing the World Series, playing fair and honest, etc., baseball is baseball... and it’s the greatest game in the world.
It’s 2009 and there isn’t anything I can do about the great players, eras and stadiums I dreamed of in my youth. Long gone are: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter “The Train” Johnson, Tris Speaker, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, 1919 Black Sox, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Ted Williams, Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio, Roger Maris, Wee Willie Keeler, Murderers Row, Jackie Robinson, The Dead Ball Era, the Spit Ball, Ebbets Field, Old Comiskey Park, Crosley Field, The Polo Grounds, Shibe Park, Sportsman’s Park, and Yankee Stadium.
While I may have personally missed some of yesterday’s more memorable moments, I’ll get to see some of todays.
Over the course of the next month I’ll be traveling to 20 baseball stadiums for a book I’m writing. The book isn’t strictly baseball…it’s also about the cities I visit, people I meet, regional cuisine, and anything interesting.
The first stop is Dodger Stadium, June 6, 2009, where I’ll catch the game with, Mark, one of my best friends from high school. Mark and I hadn’t spoken to one another in close to 20 years; in a wicked twist of fate, we reconnected through Facebook.com. Ironically, I joined Facebook on the recommendation of a friend, who thought the site might help my efforts promoting my trip… In the meantime, and, most important, I've found a few characters from yesterday I've often thought about, too.
Photos from my trip will be updated regularly on Facebook and my website (nextstop09.com) -- if I can figure out how to make it functional -- and updates from each ballpark will be added to this site.
NEXT STOP: Dodger Stadium (June 6, 2009)
Reading daily box scores became a habit I could never break. In fact, growing up, the Sunday paper had two full pages of stats – every player on every team regardless of how many at bats or pitching starts they had—and I would spend hours pouring over the numbers. My team was the Detroit Tigers, and I was proud to see the likes of Lou Whitaker, Enos Cabell, Alan Trammell, Kirk Gibson, Chet Lemon and Jack Morris listed. The rest of the week I was forced to read the daily box scores, and top ten stat leaders in each league.
During the 1984 season, the year the Tigers beat the Padres 4 games to 1 in the World Series, Detroit went wire-to-wire with a 104-58 record. In contrast to my theory that batting averages meant more than home runs, the Tigers belted 187 homers (31 more than ’83) and had a team batting average of .271 (three points lower than ’83). Moreover, the ’84 Tigers won more games than the ’83 squad (12) and had the same number of players who hit above .300 (3). The Tigers finished the ’83 season in 2nd place behind the Orioles in the AL East and missed the playoffs.
What did this mean to me? Like the other kids my age, I started swinging for the fence.
In October of ’84, I came to the conclusion whether it’s hitting for the cycle, jacking the ball 450’, sharpening your cleats to maim the second baseman, tipping pitches, scuffing the ball, throwing the World Series, playing fair and honest, etc., baseball is baseball... and it’s the greatest game in the world.
It’s 2009 and there isn’t anything I can do about the great players, eras and stadiums I dreamed of in my youth. Long gone are: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter “The Train” Johnson, Tris Speaker, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, 1919 Black Sox, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Ted Williams, Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio, Roger Maris, Wee Willie Keeler, Murderers Row, Jackie Robinson, The Dead Ball Era, the Spit Ball, Ebbets Field, Old Comiskey Park, Crosley Field, The Polo Grounds, Shibe Park, Sportsman’s Park, and Yankee Stadium.
While I may have personally missed some of yesterday’s more memorable moments, I’ll get to see some of todays.
Over the course of the next month I’ll be traveling to 20 baseball stadiums for a book I’m writing. The book isn’t strictly baseball…it’s also about the cities I visit, people I meet, regional cuisine, and anything interesting.
The first stop is Dodger Stadium, June 6, 2009, where I’ll catch the game with, Mark, one of my best friends from high school. Mark and I hadn’t spoken to one another in close to 20 years; in a wicked twist of fate, we reconnected through Facebook.com. Ironically, I joined Facebook on the recommendation of a friend, who thought the site might help my efforts promoting my trip… In the meantime, and, most important, I've found a few characters from yesterday I've often thought about, too.
Photos from my trip will be updated regularly on Facebook and my website (nextstop09.com) -- if I can figure out how to make it functional -- and updates from each ballpark will be added to this site.
NEXT STOP: Dodger Stadium (June 6, 2009)
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