Baseball’s magic proves too powerful to resist
By the Heckler
BaseballBigMouth.com baseball blog
The dogs days of August are upon us, baseball fans, and as an admitted lifelong Detroit Tigers fan, the Heckler has to come clean with his feelings of the current state of my beloved team: I’m nervous as hell – yet loving every minute of it. As I sit here tonight with the game on beside me (the Tigers once again taking it to the World Series champion Chicago White Sox) I am filled with a flood of emotion for the boys in the old English ‘D’ as they close in on their first division title since 1987. Overwhelmingly, without a doubt, the most prevalent is sheer bliss. Cautious bliss, after all – it’s ain’t over ‘til it’s over – but bliss nonetheless. Beyond a shadow of a doubt (as WWE wrestler Ernie Ladd used to say incessantly on TV while butchering the color commentary position) life is better with baseball.
For a few years, in a true moment of confession, even the Heckler was silenced by the ineptitude of play exhibited by the guys who were wearing the Detroit uniform. I should refer to them as major leaguers, I guess, and technically would be correct in doing so, but c’mon – did Brad Havens ever really belong in the big leagues? For years, his 5.56 ERA posted for the Bengals in 1989 was looked upon by my inner circle of baseball fans as the true nadir of Tigers’ pitching ineptitude. Little did I know then that the real lows were only just beginning. On and on it went, as up and in they came – either from Detroit’s minor leagues or the baseball scrap heap (was there even a difference?) - as the parade of buffoons jogged on to the field at glorious Tiger Stadium: Torey Luvello. Dan Gakeler. Joe Boever. Masao Kida. It seemed to never end, and began to wear me down, frankly. Then, they even cancelled the World Series. That sure didn’t help. Then the Tigers got . . . worse. Eventually, I completely tuned out to baseball, and – in a moment of true shock for fellow Baseball Big Mouth writer Punch N. Judy – the Heckler had never even heard of Paul Konerko when catching a few innings of an All-Star game in the early 2000s. Baseball and me were strangers now, and the game seemed like a memory from another time, fading more each day as I counted the days until hockey season would begin (as the Red Wings marched through the league each year in their quest for Lord Stanley’s Cup).
But the baseball gods eventually decided it was time to welcome back an old friend – and no, it was hardly the bandwagon that is currently making the rounds in the Motor City. See, each year I would pay for the NHL Centre Ice package on my local cable system. When the playoffs rolled around, all the games would be on other, existing channels elsewhere on the dial, removing the need for the Centre Ice package. There was no hockey to be picked up from other markets. Now, here’s where someone wanted me to come back to the game I always found to the most-magical of any sport. See, my cable system shares a signal with the Toronto-based Rogers TV. And Rogers TV had the MLB Extra Innings package – even though my local provider didn’t offer it. Well, in a true moment of, “remember how much you used to love this game” moment (or, for the Field of Dreams’ fans out there: “if you show it, he will come”) I discovered by accident that the baseball games were being broadcast on the former NHL Centre Ice channels – for free – and stayed that way for half the year. I don’t know why, and I didn’t care. I had baseball access like I had never had before – and was loving it all over again. It didn’t matter that the Tigers still stank (believe me, I watched a lot of bad baseball including the 2003 year of the Tigers celebrating like champs when they narrowly avoided all-time infamy with their 49-113 record). Baseball was wooing me again, and like a lonely girl waiting to be picked to dance in a dark high school gym, I was more than willing to give it a go – even with a team as pitiful as the Tigers were in those days.
But all that is in the past. The Tigers are still beatin’ up on the Sox as I finish this post, and if they hang on to this 4-0 lead, will stay in first place tonight by at least 7 games with only 36 to go. Now, the Heckler isn’t that long in the tooth to realize that anything can still happen (ask the 1987 Toronto Blue Jays) but playoffs – especially with the Wild Card – look as sure of a bet for the Tigers this year as there is in sports today. It’s getting near magic number time, gang. And for the baseball fan in me that never really left, but was instead simply beaten into an apathetic coma, I thank the ghosts of Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson and whoever else visited my cable system a few years back for awakening me from my slumber. It took a few more years than I had hoped, but the Tigers are truly back where they belong – at the top – and I will never again doubt its sheer beauty. Thanks boys. Life truly is better with baseball.
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clip art image appears courtesy of www.iband.com
August 23rd, 2006 at 8:51 am
Hey I heard Boever’s old vulture is currently on display at the “Baseball as America” exhibit in Greenwich Village. Like I always used to say as the man recovered from coughing up a three run lead-then somehow garnering a W in extras- you can always leave it to Boever….Ahhhhh, ahhhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
August 23rd, 2006 at 11:44 am
Indeed, Chip. “Happy Days” are here again for the Tigers. It’s “Good Times” all over Motown right now. Let’s just hope they don’t start blowing that lead and we have to spend a nervous last few weeks asking, “What’s Happening?” I’d much rather end the season with “Cheers” to the Tigers, after they “MASH” their way through the playoffs, en route to another World Championship.
I’m all outta puns now . . . honest.