Confessions of a Baseball Fan

One thing I may not have mentioned is that I am an avid baseball fan. Specifically, I am a born and bred Phillies fan. I bleed Phillies red. I am congenitally allergic to the Mets. Needless to say, I was delighted with the outcome of game 4 with the Colorado Rockies.

But I don’t just want to gloat on the Phillies success. I’d like to pay a small tribute to the fans of the Colorado Rockies. I saw a lot of Philliness in those fans. They are diehard, rabid fans who were willing to show up for game 3 on the coldest night ever in major league post season history. I love their chant for Troy Tulowitzki. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap “TULO”!

As I watched the exciting 9th inning on the edge of my seat and even as I celebrated the outcome, I thought about those Rockies fans silently filing out of the stadium, heads hung low. I’ve been there many times as a Phillies fan . . . though all too often it is in September at the end of the regular season rather then in Mid-October in the playoffs. As fans, we are sad partly because our favorite team is no longer in contention for a championship but also because baseball season is over. For us baseball-inflicted types, we probably started following our team in February beginning with that exciting day when pitchers and catchers report to spring training. That little news tidbit at the end of the sports report on the news harkens the end of the long, cold baseball-less winter. We perk up a little wondering who is on the roster this year. Perhaps we check the teams website for the first time in months. Who is that guy? Where did they get him? What happened to my favorite player? How did the off-season surgeries go?

Before we know it spring training is in high gear. Players field ground balls, take batting practice and play grapefruit league games all the while signing autographs and taking pictures with those of us loyal enough to show up in various small ballparks around the warmer climates of the country.

Then April rolls around and the season starts. We spend a couple weeks checking out the new players in real game situations. We watch as rookies succeed and fail. Players are called up and sent down and rosters and line-ups are juggled as managers work out the alchemy that becomes the most successful team they can field.

By May we start to have an idea how our team is and who our stars this year are going to be. This may fluctuate in the weeks and months to follow, but the players we listen to and watch every day become like family. We follow them on the field, in post game interviews, on player blogs, and in the news. We watch statistics and even though we hope our team wins we also want to see our favorite players do well. We vote like mad to get them into the All-Star game.

Mid-summer brings lazy, warm nights. There is no finer time to be at a baseball game. We eat hotdogs and funnel cake and enjoy the evening breezes in shorts and t-shirts. Perhaps there are great fireworks and maybe even a foul ball as a souvenir. With any luck, the home team wins and we go home satisfied and happy.

After the All-Star break, the pennant races begin to take shape, and teams become either buyers or sellers in the race to the trading deadline. The managers and fans of potential contenders cajole their owners and GMs into going after the talent they need to make a playoff run. Managers of losers try to keep talent even though they aren’t a contender this year. In the eternal optimism of baseball there is always next year!

As the September pennant runs really heat up, our players and teams have become our extended family. We live for the evening ball game when we can put on the television or radio and spend a couple hours following the trials and travails of our boys. As September winds down we feel as though our very breath depends on every pitch and every swing of the bat. It is pure excitement. We soak it in while we can because we know somewhere in the back of our minds it is almost over. The feeling is reminiscent of the last days of summer as a child when you try to squeeze everything in and regret the days you spent doing nothing. Now you wish you watched every inning of every game.

If we are lucky, our team is one of the 8 to make it to the post-season. We get a few more days of cheering, hoping, and agonizing over the what-ifs. We want so bad to just win that next game and move on to the next opponent. Ultimately, the fans of only one team get to experience the high of a World Series Championship. This is truly a championship to be proud of. First, our team had to be one of the best in baseball after playing 162 games to hash out the contenders. Then we had to win 10 games in series to reach the pinnacle of the sport. There are no one game wonders in baseball.

For the first time in 28 years last year my Phillies gave me the honor of being able to celebrate that big World Series win. I screamed and jumped around like a school girl. This was something that for so many years seemed unachievable. It has been a privilege to say World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies for the last year. I originally thought one would be enough to keep me happy for a while, but I find as the Phils progress through the playoff I want once again to watch that last pitch and see that last feeble swing by the opposition batter and feel once again that amazing feeling that my boys won the World Series. I want to talk to everyone I know about how incredible it is that our team won the World Series. I want to boast with pride for another year that my favorite team is the best there is.

Sadly, for too many fans, the season or playoffs will end without a World Series champhionship. Suddenly, our nightly obsession will be over. We will wonder what to do in the evening when there is no game to tune into or to go see in person. How will we get by? It doesn’t seem possible that 162 games have gone by and it is now over. It will be along winter before the season cranks up again. It is okay to be sad but it is also okay to say “Wait ‘til next year”!