Thursday, March 31, 2011

OPENING DAY- re-run from last year



There's nothing like it in all the world.
Fresh cut grass. Oiled gloves. The smack of a ball on a wooden bat. The sound of cleats padding over a base.

Opening Day for Baseball. Every team is in it. The sights. The sounds. The smells. It's a uniquely American experience.

Baseball is the only major team sport not played with a time clock. It has a rhythm all its own. It moves to its own time. 9 innings.

There's a line in the John Fogerty song Centerfield:

"Just to hit the ball, and touch em all,
a moment in the sun,
its gone and you can tell that one goodbye."

It sums up a lifetime of hope and desire- just to hit the ball and touch em all- a home run. Little boys dream of it- and old men remember warm summer days when they moved with a grace long since gone.


And then finally- the one movie that always makes u cry: A Field Of Dreams. We'll leave it to others to discern just what in that movie touches us so much, but this speech- by James Earl Jones as Terrance Mann to Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella- sums up what Baseball is, and always will be to millions of fans:

Mann: 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, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Ohhhhhhhh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.






16 comments:

  1. In the meantime, Miami-Dade County is dissipating our taxpayer money building a stadium for Jeffrey Loria where definitely nobody will come (as is the norm with the Marlins).

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  2. Except for the Nationals.

    Who does not cry during the scene when Ray and his dad are playing catch. That scene is up there with Swazye and Moore in Ghost and O'Neal and MacGraw in Love Story.

    Cap Out .....

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  3. Are you crying?

    THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!

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  4. At the end of the Centerfield Video, you see a number 9 wearing a Pirates uniform- that's Maz- Bill Mazeroski hitting the first ever walk off game winning
    7th game world series home run - as the Pirates beat the NY Yankees in Forbes Field in Pittsburgh in 1960. And as Maz crosses home plate you can see in the mob of players a number 21 jumping up and down. That's the Great One- Roberto Clemente- the greatest baseball player I ever saw.

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  5. Clemente did it all without steriods. As did Aaron, Mays and many other great players from the 60s and early 70s. When you look at the photos and film of Clemente it is somewhat amazing how slight he looks in the Pirate uniform. He was awesome! Clemente and Sanguien (? sic) barely took pitches and often hit on the first pitch. Both were heard to say "You can't get off the island (Puerto Rico) by walking."

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  6. A tutti voi miserabili idioti:

    Io sono il padrino di elezioni giudiziaria, e sei stato irrispettoso. Come un uomo superstiious, Se perde Manny, รจ pagheremo tutti.

    Ho incaricato il mio capo, Robert P, di prendere i nomi di quei parassiti che mi mancanza di rispetto e che osano sfidare il mio potere. Io sono il padrino e il burattinaio.

    Parla il mio nome, la paura il mio nome, inginocchiarsi al suono del mio nome!

    For you low lifes, who have no education, here is the translation:::

    To all you miserable fools:

    I am the godfather of judicial elections, and you have been disrespectful. As a superstiious man, If Manny looses, you will all pay.

    I have instructed my capo, Robert P, to take names of those pests who disrespect me and who dare challenge my power. I am the godfather and the puppet master.

    Speak my name, fear my name, kneel at the sound of my name!

    The man, the legend, the H!

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  7. Wishing Phil R. a Happy Brithday today...great lawyer and great person!

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  8. Hey "Rump,"
    A little off-topic, but if you were ever to quit your practice and, say, become a judge, would you continue the blog?

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  9. And the MLB is ruining opening day, by having Opening Night. Opening Week. There is only opening day. Nothing more. keep it simple. its basbeall. Also FU to the Marlins for keeping an eye on 2012. We gonna get a shit product this year?

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  10. MIAMI-DADE COURT CLOSE IN JUNE?

    The legislature is contemplating this as a solution to the budget, according to Florida Court Reporters Association.

    Suggestions? Comments? Criticisms?

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  11. I still remember vividly my very first baseball game, I was about six and I was with my late father. The first time I walked through the tunnel it was down low on the third base side, the players were so close and the grass was so green, I felt like I could reach right out and touch the field. The smell of the "Fenway Franks"was so strong, I can still smell them to this day. I have played that scene over in my head thousands of times and it never gets old and it never fades because in that memory my father was right there by my side, standing 10 feet tall. The field was Fenway Park and yes, I do tear up when I watch Field of Dreams.What a great sport for fathers and sons!

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  12. 11:32,
    I think you're gonna be surprised how many people show up in the new stadium.
    I can't make the drive to JoeRobbie landshark sunlife dolphin stadium for a 7:05 game, but new stadium is on way home from office.
    I'll be there.

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  13. Representative in MOntana arguing against DUI laws

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vl_QNa-bCKc

    ReplyDelete