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