Why I Like Baseball

AN ONLINE JOURNAL OF BASEBALL ENTHUSIASM, by CECILIA TAN

Category: Baseball Musings

  • Mar 13 2000: At Last, At Last – Spring Training Day One

    I don’t even know where to start. It’s Monday, March 13th today, and I’m in denial about the fact that I am in my office in Boston, it’s 39 degrees outside, and I’m not going to see another baseball game until April 13th. More specifically, I’m finding it hard to believe that today I’m not…

  • Feb 29 2000: Offseason Blues: Part 2

    So my brother Julian calls today, and we’re talking about our trip to Tampa next week. “I’m thinking about bringing some baseballs,” he says. For a moment I’m thinking, will we need gloves and bats, too? Then I realize, oh, for autographs… “But there’s a problem,” he tells me. “If we want these to be…

  • Feb 27 2000: Spring Dreams

    I know I don’t leave for Tampa for another seven days, but you know what I did last night instead of my taxes? I packed for my trip. Unbelievable, I know. But there’s a fully packed suitcase sitting in my room right now, full of shorts and tank tops and other hot weather clothing that…

  • Feb 26 2000: Why I Never Played Ball

    You know what has never made sense to me? Baseball is for boys and softball is for girls. This doesn’t make sense because boys have much, much bigger hands than girls. I have such tiny hands that I have trouble keeping a softball in my hand. A baseball, on the other hand, fits alright. I…

  • Feb 25 2000: The Strawberry Rocker Soap Opera

    The news is fairly well-plastered these days with two types of negative articles about baseball. Those about Darryl Strawberry’s relapse into cocaine use, and those on John Rocker’s December Sports Illustrated interview, where he offended just about everyone with his racist, homophobic, and generally ass-headed comments. It has been interesting to see how few people…

  • Feb 20 2000: Waiting For Spring Training…

    I’ve said before how I “can’t wait” for the season to start. (Or even for Spring training to start!) But now I know I have it bad. Well, not that I didn’t know before, but yesterday I went to new extremes for my baseball fix. I knew that Mariano Rivera, Yankees closer, had his arbitration…

  • Feb 19 2000: I Need A Scorecard

    I always liked going to Yankees games as a kid, even if I didn’t really understand what was going on all the time. Being with my Dad, the excitement of the crowd, having a picnic lunch in the stands or getting to stay out late, those were plenty of reasons to like going to the…

  • Feb 18 2000: On Rehab, Injury, and Work

    So, today spring training gets underway in earnest. So many of the articles I’ve been reading have been about the players who have rehabbed from injury or surgery during the winter. Even Cal Ripken! Pitchers galore. And more. I’ve been “recovering” from a back injury since 1996, so I can say something about strength, or…

  • Feb 15 2000: Why I Like The 1999 Red Sox (No Really!)

    OK, OK, I’ve talked before about being a Yankee fan in Red Sox Land. It’s tough, let me tell you. I go into the copy shop where I do thousands of dollars in business a year wearing my Yankees cap, and they give me s**t about it. The give me the evil eye in the…

  • February 14, 2000: Why Baseball Is Better Than Movies

    There are a lot of reasons why I like baseball. I’ve already talked about formative experiences of youth, bonding with my father, and so on. But I think there’s more to it than that, and this has to do with sports in general. Because in recent years I’ve found my interest in all sports becoming…