Popcorn, Peanuts, Cracker Jacks!

Awsumb, Kenneth and Wendy

August 2003 Safeco Field

Baseball season is finally here!  You know you have been season ticket holders too long when you have favorite ushers and you know the vendors at the stadium and all their little silly rhymes... When Awsumb was in preschool the teacher reported he loved to play with the toy cash register and yell, "Beer, here!" 

I don't know what it is about baseball, but I just love it!  I always have... though Kenneth will beg to differ because his memories of me as a teenager watching baseball were more about me reading a fashion magazine and not paying attention to the game at all.  Kenneth and I often argue about what our first "date" was because we didn't "date" so much as become friends and decide to get married.  But one of our earliest memories of each other is when on family vacation our parents planned for us all to meet up at a Dodgers-Cubs game in the 80's. I still have my ticket stub!

But that's just the thing... Baseball isn't just baseball, it's being out in the open air on a warm summer evening.  Even if you don't like sports, how can you not love an evening at the ballpark?

To some people baseball might seem slow or even boring...  which honestly might be some of the reasons I like it - there is plenty of time for me to talk AND figure out what's going on!  Actually, it's really a game of strategy and I think that's why I love it so much!  It's all about the figures, numbers and stats!

Baseball is like a good novel...  introduce characters, set up a basic plot, add a twist and hope for a happy ending!

The game of baseball is not unlike a lifelong, well-worn, comfortable love affair: After a time, you know what to expect, but you can never predict what will happen. You also learn how to forgive," writes Anna Holmes on Why Smart Women Love Baseball

As Kenneth and I come up on 16 years of marriage we are like a baseball game, well worn and comfortable.  And although we know what we can expect from each other, we can never predict what will happen next - and yes, we both have learned how to forgive!

From little league to major league I rather be at the ballpark than just about anywhere else on a summer evening!  I'm not alone, baseball is often referred to as The Great American Pastime and just maybe it really does have magical powers to heal broken hearts as it did after 9/11 as seen in Nine Innings From Ground Zero.

I do have one pet peeve regarding baseball...If you know what's good for you - you'd better remove that sticker from your cap!