Baseball

Last week, I wrote about the NFL Films' show, 'America's Game', and said, "If you've never seen it, and you like football, you're missing out." Well, that goes double for Ken Burns' documentary, 'Baseball'. If you're a baseball fan, it's mandatory viewing. It's definitely the best documentary on baseball -- the history of record for the sport, really -- it might be the best documentary ever, period. Granted, it's 18 freakin' hours long (and about to get longer).

It airs on the MLB Network, one inning a week (the first covering the invention of the game and its history prior to 1900, each successive one covering a decade (2nd inning = 1900-1910, 3rd inning = 1910-1920, etc.). Tonight, I'm watching the 5th inning, about the 1940's, which might be the best one them all. Ted Williams and .406 (and the triple crown), Joe DiMaggio and the hit streak, World War II, Jackie Robinson and the color barrier, etc. The episode begins with a scene from a World War II movie where one group of soldiers overseas tests another with questions about what a "Texas Leaguer" is, and how the Brooklyn Dodgers did the previous season.

The next bit, just before the opening credits, which are always accompanied by a different rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner, really resonated with me. Baseball historian Robert Creamer describes a moment when in the army, he was listening to a World Series game, and a sargeant blew cigar smoke in his direction, and the smell took him back to Polo Grounds: "It smelled of cigar smoke, it smelled of urine, it smelled of stale popcorn. But it was my place." It's not often you hear an educated man of letters speak nostalgically about the smell of urine, but I could really relate to it. It's sort of like I feel about Candlestick Park -- it was windy, cold, ill-suited fro baseball, and the seats were too far from the field. But it was mine, and I miss it sometimes.

I think this might be representative of a larger truth about life: If you hate something hard enough, and long enough, you're bound to miss it once it's gone.