All we’ve heard about for the past decade is how steroids have ruined baseball. Don’t believe it! The game is still great. People try to tell you its boring, but it’s not — it’s a cerebral game that leaves room for discussion between each pitch. It leaves room for banter and appreciation of every single event. In this age of instant gratification, it’s a game that teaches us patience and rewards us with bursts of power and speed.
Here are 50 reasons why baseball is awesome – even if some are long behind us.
- Upside-down mini-helmets filled with ice cream
- The suicide squeeze
- Wooden bats
- Suddenly, left-handed people matter
- The seventh-inning stretch
- Managers running out onto the field to argue a call
- Fifty or so baseballs end up in the stands (fouls and homers) during every ballgame as souvenirs
- The 5-4-3 double-play
- Dents on the Green Monster
Roll call in the right-field bleachers at Yankee Stadium- Tommy John surgery
- 42
- Different dimensions in all stadiums
- Sausage races
- The physics of the curve ball
- 1971 Topps Thurman Munson
- Yogi
- Bob Costas
- Fathers/Mothers and sons/daughters enjoying a game together
- Its place in civil rights history
- Little League
If not for baseball, we’d have to watch tennis in the summer.- “Shipping Up to Boston”
- Catch against the wall
- Chin music
- Playing catch with your Dad/son
- Peanuts and hot dogs taste the best here.
- Ken Burns
- A triple
- Fitted caps
- The stories about Harry Caray, Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Bill Lee, Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth
- “Major League”
- 56
- Spring training
- T206 Honus Wagner
- Bloopers on “This Week in Baseball” with Mel Allen
- Sports’ greatest villain: The Yankees
Buck O’Neil- First baseman’s split.
- Pesky’s Pole
- The sacrifice bunt
- Old stadiums with trough urinals
- The walkoff home run
- Hard, flat pieces of crappy gum
- The ivy at Wrigley Field
- Mound ball
- Nicknames like The Splendid Splinter, The Say Hey Kid, Charlie Hustle, Pudge and Pronk
- Visiting team’s homers returning to the field in Chicago
- Rotisserie
- Head-first dives
Did I miss anything awesome?
David Gonos spent 5 years as a CBSSports.com Senior Fantasy Writer and three more years writing with SI.com. Over the past 17 years, his work has been published on NFL.com, MLB.com, FanDuel, FoxSports.com and USA Today. Since 2001, he has been tracking down the Top 50-plus Free Fantasy Football Draft Tools online. You can contact David Gonos here.
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