It's Here!

It's finally here! Opening Day for the St. Louis Cardinals is tomorrow against the Rockies. Like I say every year, it's been a long winter and baseball couldn't get here fast enough. So, this blog will be all things baseball.

You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all.-- Earl Weaver

This week WGN has been playing baseball movies at night leading up to Opening Day. For those of you who don't know, WGN is the Cubs t.v. station. The movies they selected weren't my favorites but it gave me something to watch so I didn't have to watch basketball.

My top 5 favorite baseball movies of all time are...

5. The Rookie
4. Benchwarmers
3. Sandlot
2. League of Their Own

And my favorite baseball movie is...

1. Eight Men Out

I come from a long line of baseball players. My grandfather was asked by the St. Louis Cardinals to come try-out but my grandmother told him no because, "You just returned from the war and you are not leaving me here with our baby." To hear the stories about my grandfather and the way he batted. My brother actually has my grandfathers bat and I have no idea how we ever got the bat through the strike zone because it is so heavy. Once, my great grandmother come to Memphis to see my grandfather play ball. My grandfather hit a tripple and my great grandmother leans over to my grandmother and says, "John ought not hit the ball so far and make those poor men run after it like he does."

My dad was a catcher and I've heard stories about how great a catcher he was. I was home visiting a couple years ago and ran into one of the coaches that dad played AGAINST. The coach asked me if I knew how good my dad was and I just said, "I've heard stories." He points his finger at me and with his hand on my shoulder tells me, "I've coached against your dad and let me tell you how good he was." The coach proceeds to tell me that on his team batting 1 and 2 were 2 members of the Germantown track team who won the State Championship in the relays the previous year (and who would win it again this particular year). Dad was a catcher. The first batter gets on base and tries to steal 2nd - naturally dad threw him out. The next batter got on base and tried to steal 2nd base as well. Dad threw him out. The coach's wife yells at him, "Stop sending runners. Martin is going to throw them all out." The coach called time out, walked over to my dad's coach and said, "Tell Martin I'm not going to send any more runners the rest of the game." The coach kept his word.

The baseball coach at my high school was asked "In your 20 plus years of coaching baseball who is the best shortshop you've seen." His response was "Kevin Woods." I've always said that but i'm also a bit biased. Kevin had incredible hands and incredible range and an incredible arm. When he batted, he had the best eye which sometimes worked against him. Kevin went to school on a baseball scholarship but came home after one year and began coaching at our high school.

I love going to baseball games especially with my dad. He still teaches me so much about the game. Dad and I can talk baseball for hours and I love it. Mom has always told us that if the house were to ever catch on fire that we had to grab all the photo albums and videos that we could. Dad always told us that if the house were to catch on fire to carry out all the autographed baseballs we could. You see, at our house we have a Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Lou Brock, Ted Williams, Ozzie Smith, Pujols and many many more autographed baseballs and probably close to 60,000 baseball cards.

Baseball is in my blood.

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come. - Field of Dreams

Play Ball!

For me, the 2008 baseball season couldn't get here fast enough. I'm traveling this week to Jupiter, FL this week for work. As luck would have it the St. Louis Cardinals hold their spring training in Jupiter at Roger Dean Stadium. I love baseball and anyone that really knows me knows that I get to the stadium early enough to see batting practice (bp) and infield.

So, since this is my first spring training game i have no idea what time the stadium opens and what time bp and infield are. To make sure i didn't miss anything, I arrived at the stadium at 9:00 a.m. I arrived so early that the parking lot attendant wasn't even there yet so free parking for me!! I finally found out that the stadium didn't open till 11:00. What in the world was i going to do for 2 hours? I walked around the stadium and ran into the practice fields. I got to see all the players in the Cardinals farm system practice.

One of, if not the best catcher in the MLB - Yadier Molina

Albert (nothing else needs to be said)

This made me laugh so i had to take a picture. The lady on the phone owns her own business and is apparently in the process via the phone writing up one of her employees for telling one of their loyal customers that he smelled, needed to take a bath and change clothes as well as brush his teeth. At the end of her phone conversation she tells her husband who also owns the business that she is going to fire the employee on Monday. Apparently the employee wanted her tickets to today's game and she wouldn't give them to him. I guess he thought insulting the customer would get back at the owner. What an idiot.

Albert

The game was sold out and my seat was awesome (5th row)! Even though the Cardinals lost, it was great to finally hear the crack of the bat, smell the hotdogs and popcorn, and the sound of the ball hitting the glove. It's been a long cold winter and baseball is finally here! Play Ball!!