Trying to Find Chinatown

"Good food, Soul Food." ~Joe Jackson, Chinatown

They say, or used to, that Sports mirrors life. Baseball, for so many years, was considered the sport that always came closest to the realities of the common man...mmm, person. Right around the time that Players salaries became even more outrageous than the common folk could stomach (which, of course, nobody really marked it down), writers began to stray from their common romancings of the sports of their amusements. Writers began unleashing books about the Business of sport and how some bosses got it and others did not. Some owners/General Managers/Coaches understood that sports was now a cut throat business and long be gone the poetic romancings of those who would dare state anyone would play this game for free.....for the love of it. The romancings of sport are now left to the reminicings. The past is placed upon a pedestal because back then, money wasn't all there was and loyalty was something that didn't need to come at a price. As a fan of the Cincinatti Reds and someone who longs for the days of loyalties between Fan, Player and Ownership, I still romanticize the days of not long ago, of when Barry Larkin started and finished his career with the same team. That was a partnership that meant something. Barry busted 'A', the fans rarely wavered in their support for Barry (a little during the injury years) and Ownership reaped rewards of the glory years while living with what the table scraps of his later years would deliver.

Things have changed. Business took over. Cut throat business took over. Sports must have always been a business to owners but never one they felt such need to extract so much profit from. The team was their hobby away from their real business.....like their plane, their boats, etc etc.....But Business took over Sports in much the same way it has taken over each one of our lives. We live amongst disparity in livelihoods now more than ever. The Salary reports for each privately owned trading company, released begrudgingly, all back this up. CEOs from top companies are making millions per year. The gap between the top earners and the bottom earners continues to grow.. The top earners make enough to own their own little islands. The gap between rich and poor is widening. Sports is mirroring life but this time it is reflecting the ugly aspects back to us and the romance is long past.

Still, romance and sport remain amongst the willing, or maybe the disillusioned. Fans have split up in many groups as the years have passed. Fantasy pools have made even the most connected fans uncaring of their own hometown results. They care not for the colours or the wins of a certain team. They are fans of the individuals who happen to make up their fantasy teams. Just so long as Joey on his fantasy team had a big night then everything is just fine. The playoffs of each sport hold some sacred grounds still. The reasoning is that fantasy pools, serious monetary fantasy pools, tend to focus only on the regular season. Elimination of half the teams only two weeks into the second seasons means more of a crapshoot type pool with low monetary entrance. The willing, however, are the throwbacks of society who still bleed the colours of their teams. They exist but almost as a group of miscasts. The modern day impression almost seems to shout out..."Grow up". In fact, the impression stands so embedded in our society of today that the sight of an adult wearing a uniform of their favourite Baseball team seems isolated to only the park his favourite team plays in. In any other arena of life, the uniform seems to not belong anymore.

So I call up my preacher
I say, "Give me strength for Round 5."
He said , "You don't need no strength, you need to grow up son."
I said, "Growing up leads to growing old and then to dying "And dying to me don't sound like all that much fun." ~~~~ John Mellancamp, The Authority Song

Now I can certainly understand that teams/cities like Colorado may have had or are still having a particular Love-in with their team and the Uniform might be worn in many different settings and be quite accepted. The window of acceptance has rules even for that. Rules that even the ripped T-shirt might supersede. The end point of all this is quite simple.....It's tough/weird to be just a fan these days. To just love your team..with blind everlasting adherence to whatever they may bring. This is your team and that is that. Such easy standards for love just don't make for sensibility amongst our jaded society. There has to be criticism. There has to be accountability for even the most minor mistakes. Society has trouble taking the blame for their own mistakes but that GM best know he is going to take some almost on a daily basis because somebody has to...and he makes good money........and he gets to watch the games from a real nice suite....

I remember promising myself that I would visit every single Ballpark in North America before my time is up. It was a romantic and maybe a somewhat unrealistic promise to make myself. I confidently told my friends and family at the time that this would come true. They all doubted. The rare few mentioned that they would love to come along for a few of the trips. I ventured to many a different city/ballpark in those early years. It was easy and wonderful. Cincinatti, Detroit, Montreal, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland. They were simple road trips, I was young, I was single...it was easy. I got married young, had kids, got settled, bought house and lost my dream.

During my time of freedom and free spending, I found out what Baseball was really like. It is about the stats and it is about the fantasy pools but if you allow yourself to be a kid again (or have never left that state) then it is also about the sheer enjoyment of a sunny day, peanuts and popcorn, the crack of the bat, the smack of the mitt in the bullpen, the sun worshipers in the bleachers, cheap seats, great seats, and chicks loving the long ball. The soul refreshed, the road trip, the motels, the hotels, the outdoor pools at the motels, hamburgers and hot dogs, ten strikeouts, 3 home runs, the ballpark that opens itself to the city and allows it in, the people, the baseball chatter amongst each section, the wave, Beer, scalping the scalpers and the 7th inning stretch. Baseball is the sport of the soul. Feed yourself.

Years later now I still look to reach my goal. Some work trips have taken me to San Francisco and back to Chicago a few times. Wrigley is just everything you could imagine or want. I will leave the visit(s) to Wrigley for another article. Pac Bell, or AT&T Park as it is currently titled, is the best looking modern day ballpark I have been to. They need only add a Baseball team to the equation and everything will work there. But those trips are done and they carry their memories with me forever. I am always appreciative of those and all the trips I took.

There is one trip I have not taken that is now on the clock. Yankee Stadium, NYC. I have been to NYC three times but never with the company required to make my way to the Bronx for a game at the Shrine of Baseball. The ticker ends this year. Yankee Stadium closes at the end of this year and my calling is getting fainter by the day. I still hear that shrine a' callin' but I need to answer soon. No Baseball purist, wannabe or otherwise, can truly make claim to such without a visit to Yankee Stadium. It's the soul that is so wanting. My Baseball soul is screaming out. I must answer thy call before it is too late. I will document the results later this summer.

Yankee Stadium, here I come.

B