Spring Training

“Ray, people will come, Ray.” Those marvelous words uttered by James Earl Jones to begin his monologue on what baseball means to him. It’s a hell of a speech, and you can check it out at this LINK. I think of this speech often, especially at the start of the season. When all is fresh and everyone has a clean slate. Things can turn quickly, as any baseball fan will tell you, but there’s no need to dwell on that in the spring. There are still 162 games to play, plus, if stars align, the post season.

But when James Earl Jones speaks of the great game in Field of Dreams he’s not worried about the post season or the regular season. He’s not even worried about Spring Training. The game he cares about can be played with barely any organization at all. You’re not even required to have 9 players. All you must possess is passion. A yearning to play at all costs no matter skill level or age. It’s a game for everyone. It’s a game for all times.

Those who believe in tall tales, myself included, would tell you that baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday in a field in Cooperstown, New York in 1839. Turns out Doubleday was in New York in 1839, just likely not in Cooperstown. Instead he was at West Point. And 22 years later he was at Fort Sumter. Two years after that—Gettysburg. Abner Doubleday is famous for many things, some true, some debatable—but for a sport shrouded in superstition and speculation, why not believe.

No matter the origins—no matter if you think the game is too slow, too boring, or too out of date—it’s hard to deny the special role baseball plays in our zeitgeist. It’s been with the country through thick and thin. As James Earl Jones stated so eloquently.

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.

America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.

This field, this game -- it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.”