Baseball In January

So, I am fresh off watching *61, a movie that I had never previously had the opportunity to see--it's a masterwork really, a story that needed to be told--and one that Billy Crystal needed to tell. It was nice to go back in time--not only to 1961, but also to 2001 when Tiger Stadium had only been "freshly" vacated by the Tigers and was still in camera-ready condition. It's impending disappearance will be like a death that you expect to be prepared for--but ultimately are not. It is hallowed ground, the ground of Ty Cobb, and since it's abandonment it has been all but completely useless. Unfortunately even a heritage designation could not make the place useful again--and it has been a sickening decade watching the place slowly, surely, decay. Nonetheless--that view--whether it be from Michigan Avenue, or from I-75--or simply of it's aged lighting towers--will never be the same once the white siding and blue trim disappear. It's intamcy--it's wall of grandstands surrounding it's field...are irreplaceable.

But the spark, that inexplicable something that follows baseball, and the Tigers lives on. It lives on the minds and memories of thousands of fans--and yes, it lives on at Comerica Park.

So, in the dead of winter--the coldest spell we've had yet--my mind is one baseball. A few months back Men's Journal published a list of the reasons that we all still love sports. I will share what they had to say about baseball...

#61
Walking out of the tunnel into any stadium is a narcotic rush of obsessively manicured lawns. imported red clay and pristine chalk lines laid down in surgical precision. You know in that moment when the field opens before you that, despite all the agony and disappointment, this is why you'll always come back.