According to a survey by Statisticsanddata.org, our National Pastime now ranks third behind football and basketball in popularity in the United States.
Hopefully with the recent rules changes to speed up the game, baseball will pass basketball for the No. 2 position, though it may never again top football.
In a recent article, CNN analyst Harry Enten wrote about the declining viewership of the World Series over the last few decades. He wrote in part:
“The World Series viewership this year will not greatly exceed 10 million, or half of what it was 30 years ago and it certainly won’t come anywhere close to the approximately 30 to 40 million that watched the Fall Classic during the late 1970’s and into the 1980s.”
Yet according to the Society for Baseball Research (SABR) and from my own experience, there are more books about baseball than any other sport.
Perhaps that’s because baseball’s history has been celebrated more extensively, and is full of many interesting stories and figures from the game.
So, why do so many of us still love the game?
Well, as a follow up to his bestselling 2021 book The Baseball 100 that won the Casey Award for the Best Baseball Book of the Year, author Joe Posnanski may provide at least part of the answer with his latest effort, Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments.
I found the book highly entertaining, and one that fans might particularly enjoy reading in the dead of winter waiting for spring training to arrive.
Don’t assume that the moments he lists are just about famous defensive plays, home runs, and celebrated blunders.
Posnanski sets forth 108 moments and memories, many of which even the most expert baseball fan will not recall.
He writes that “108 is magical in that “there are 108 stitches on a baseball, the Cubs’ drought lasted 108 years, the 1975 Cincinnati World Champions won 108 games (he thinks that team is the greatest of all-time) and Nolan Ryan threw the fastest pitch ever recorded at 108 mph.
Here are a few of Posnanski’s favorite moments that aren’t so famous:
- The time in 1987 when a minor league catcher who was the great nephew of Hall of Famer Roger Bresnahan used a potato to fake out a runner.
- “The Colavito Carom in 1958” when outfielder Rocky Colavito’s wild throw to home plate sailed six feet over the catcher’s head and ricocheted into the glove of the pitcher, backing up the throw who quickly flipped it to the catcher (who tagged out a shocked Mickey Mantle).
- After Joe Niekro taught a young girl how to throw a knuckleball, she threw a perfect game, striking out 16 batters. Renowned batting coach Charley Lau once said, “There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball. Unfortunately, none of them work.”
Without giving too much away, Posnanski does pay homage to Kirk Gibson’s famous walk off home run as a cripple to win game 1 of the 1988 World Series won by his Dodgers.
Posnanski writes about the time when Norm Cash as the last batter for Nolan Ryan’s no hitter at Tiger Stadium in 1973 came to the plate with a table leg and when Jack Morris In a performance for the ages at 36-year-old threw 10 innings of shutout baseball in game seven against the Braves to win the 1991 World Series and the Fall Classic’s MVP award.
Here are some of my favorite moments experienced with the game that I love:
- Walking into Tiger Stadium for the first time at age eight on July 7, 1962, and seeing that lush green grass, green seats, and Norm Cash blast two homers, including one in the upper deck bleachers.
- Seeing Al Kaline make a perfect throw from deep right field to catcher Bill Freehan that stopped Baltimore’s Paul Blair from tagging from third base, and brought the fans to their feet while giving No. 6 a standing ovation.
- Watching from the right field stands as Kirk Gibson hit his famous home run off Goose Gossage that sealed the World Championship for the ‘84Tigers.
- Attending any game at Tiger Stadium, a wonderful and historic ballpark.
- Seeing in person Justin Verlander throwing his first no-hitter in a game against the Brewers.
- Attending the Detroit Tigers Fantasy Camp in 1998 on the 30th anniversary of the 1968 champions, and on the last day playing center field at Marchant Stadium when my hero Al Kaline came to bat.
- Catching a foul ball at Comerica Park after it bounced out of the hands of a fan two rows back and giving it to my daughter, who before the game asked if I had ever caught a ball at a game.
What are your favorite baseball moments?
