Baseball. A long-time sign of spring as much as early crocus, sneezing, and if you live in the north, a snowstorm.
The crocuses will make way for other plants, the sneezing will wane, and the snow will melt. But baseball is just getting started and for the month of March, spring training is our tease of the promise our favorite teams might hold for the upcoming season.
I have just concluded my first year as a volunteer at the Surprise, Arizona ballpark, spring home of the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers, 2023 World Series champs. I worked the information table and loved greeting fans, both local and those who traveled to root for their favorite teams.
“Of all the ballparks we’ve visited here, this is my favorite stadium,” said the woman from Kansas City.
“We have 52 on our bus tour and we are so excited to watch our Reds.” The women from Cincinnati, Rosie’s Reds, were all smiles. Maybe it was the warm weather.
“We’ve been waiting to come to spring training all of our lives,” four buddies from Texas told me.
I loved this assignment and early in the month, I realized the nostalgia of this experience was more than the crack of the bat, the lush green field, and piped in organ music. It was an awareness that at every game, my father was right there with me. (He passed away in 1981.) He’d be disappointed that all the pregame batting and fielding practice took place out of view on the practice fields, and that he couldn’t smoke his cigar in the stands anymore. But he’d still have his spiral scorebook, and his pencil tucked behind his ear.
Then I remembered my Grandma Waid who sat hunched over the radio listening to every Ernie Bank’s homerun, and you dared not stop in for a visit when a Cub’s game was on. Priorities.
Grandma Sievers lived close enough to the stadium in Milwaukee, that when we listened in the backyard, we’d hear the roar of the crowd on a big play seconds after Earl Gillespie announced it on the radio.
Today, we can watch our teams on TV or by attending a game in person, but the radio brought the game to life for my parents and their parents. Vince Skully with the Dodgers, Jack Buck with the Cardinals, Cubs announcer Harry Caray and of course, Ernie Harwell, who kept the fans of the Detroit Tigers entertained.
I loved my visits to the ballpark during this past month for spring training. Multigenerational families. A kid in a hat and carrying a glove, both several sizes too large. Young parents introducing their children to the sport. And for me, remembering my own family roots tied to baseball.
For now, spring training is long gone. Thursday, March 28, is opening day for all 30 clubs. I’ll be remembering not only Dad and my two grandmothers, but both sisters, Barb and Judy, who love their Milwaukee Brewers. Baseball is in my family’s blood, and spring training was a transfusion for me. Tomorrow at 7:10, I’ll tune in to hear Greg Schulte call the games on the radio. For old-times’ sake. Go Diamondbacks!
Do you have a favorite team?
Thanks, Pam! Loved this blog!!😃
I’ve got some baseball roots. My dad loved baseball. Throughout his 20 year US Army Air Corp & Air Force career he played baseball. He instilled a love for the sport in me, and I played softball as a teenager. When I was a child he took me to Colt 45 games in Houston and later Houston Astros games. Yes, the ASTROS, that’s my TEAM!! Dad was the ultimate baseball fan. In his later years when attending a game was not possible, he’d be in his recliner watching a game on tv with his transistor radio plugged into his ear listening to another game! Two games at once! All for the love of baseball!
😃❤️⚾️
Thank you, Bev. So many of us have similar memories and baseball played a part of our upbringings through our dads.
Oh, yes…..our household is much happier now that baseball is back, We are devoted Tiger fans and had season tickets for a number of years. My husband has adopted them wholeheartedly except when they play the Red Sox. As a boy, he would take the MTA into Boston to Fenway with a sack lunch and head for the bleachers. Always visited the hotel to get autographs of players. We go into the doldrums when the World Series ends each year.
Thank you, Joanne. My father also like to hang out in the hotel lobbies looking for the visiting team members. What a great memory.
As always, I love your writing! Joy
What a pleasure to hear from you. Thank you.
Thank you so much Pam for bringing back the family memories. Your blog, plus my additional memories brought a smile and some tears. Bob always says he wished he and Dad could have had some good baseball talks – that would be never ending. I still have Dad’s old baseball glove and some old Braves items. Long gone are the Braves, so Go Brewers .
Thanks, Judy. It was fun to reminisce. Hang onto that glove.
Baseball wasn’t something my father listen to for our family was more in to hockey. But I do remember my grandpa listening to the Twins on his transistor radio sitting in his favorite chair.
Now my husband is a whole different story! I think baseball is his favorite and yes he keeps score at the games, why I don’t know but I help him out when needed. We had season spring training tickets for Sloan Park, aka Cubs park. I think this is the best field here in AZ. I grade the parks on how much shade is available and the food and drinks is top on my list🤣 Jake is a diehard Cubs fan and I’m a White Sox fan but we are now embracing the AZ Diamondbacks. We like to support the home team and we have a family member that pitches for the Diamondbacks. It’s a great sport with so many story’s attached to it. So happy you got to enjoy spring training, they couldn’t have asked a better person to be at the information booth!
What a fun read and you are so kind. Yes, it’s a sport that has long family traditions, doesnt it?