So I went to see my Atlanta Braves play the Washington Nationals yesterday and it was awesome. The Braves murder the Nats 11-2. Great game for me as a Braves fan. But even had the Braves lost, it would have been awesome. Because I was at a baseball game.
I tweeted yesterday that the combo of beer and hotdogs was the smell of baseball. It's funny but not untrue. Is there anything better then a hotdog at a baseball game? They smell and taste so much better then any hotdog I make at home. It's a great childhood memory, eating hotdogs at baseball games. Or as my dad would call them, Cal Dogs.
I guess I should explain that reference. The price of hotdogs being $4.50 or whatever they cost back when I was 7 made my father frustrated. Expensive ballpark food. Since the food went towards paying the players my dad would eat his hotdog for Cal Ripken and called it a Cal dog.
I didn't get a hotdog yesterday. I was hungry and didn't feel like wandering the ballpark or standing in a long line so I hot an Italian Sausage.
I love baseball. Not as much as hockey but probably more then football. I played baseball as a kid, although not for very long. I was a pretty awful baseball player. My dreams of playing left field in the MLB were crushed pretty early on. I tried. I played spring baseball, which was fun. I had one good hit that would have been a home run but I was so shocked that I had hit the ball that hard and far that I stood for too long watching the ball instead of running the bases. I tried out for a summer travel all-star type league but didn't make the cut. I played fall ball but it got too cold and when I got sick I quit.
I'm a much better fielder in my older age but I still can't hit. I played softball for two years and was a solid fielder but my batting is just awful. A painful reminder that I suck at baseball.
I collected baseball cards as a kid. I still have most of them. It's not a huge collection (unless my grandparents still have the trunk of cards I was given). Kids don't collect ball cards anymore do they? Their used to be specialty shops for kids like me. I'm pretty sure those don't exist either.
Another funny side story. I used to throw the baseball with my grandma when I was little. She used to tell me that she taught Cal Ripken how to pitch. I knew it was ridiculous back then, because Cal was obviously not a pitcher.
I loved going to games. Going with my dad to Camden Yards to see the Baltimore Orioles play. Going to Frederick to see their minor league team the Keys play (as it was said to me yesterday, before we knew better).
The question I get most asked is how I, being from Maryland, became a Braves fan. The story is simple. My dad didn't like the owner of the Baltimore Orioles. When Peter Angelos fired Johnny Oates after the 1994 season my dad wasn't happy and disowned the O's. SO at the age of 10 I also decided to jump ship.
The Braves' games used to be on TBS everyday. I watched their opening day game in 1995 and was a fan from that day on. It didn't hurt that the team won the World Series that year (it must have been because I was now a fan). A pretty simple story. When the Nationals came to DC in 2005 I had already had 10 years of being a Braves fan under my belt and wasn't going to jump ship for the team in DC.
And thus my completely random baseball blog.
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