Why I love baseball

Editor’s note: Bob Austin submitted this story into the Grant County Public Utility District’s first annual sports essay contest in 1999. Austin won first prize for his submission. With the 2009 Babe Ruth World Series underway in Moses Lake, the Columbia Basin Herald would like to share his words with you, our readers.

My love of baseball started early. I used to watch my big brother Ted play Little League in Ephrata. He had polio at the age of three so he had to hit the ball harder and farther than anyone else in order to get to first base. One he was there, another kid could run the rest of the way for him. His desire and determination were a great inspiration to me.

We grew up in the 1950s down in Swanson’s Addition. Playing ball kept the entire neighborhood of kids busy during the summers. Not only was it the only thing to do, it was all we wanted to do. If we couldn’t get enough kids together for a game, we’d throw balls off the roof tops. Better yet, Ted would pull the stuffing and cork out of an old baseball and stuff it with rags and sew it back up. We’d play home run derby. The stuffed ball would fly farther than a woofle ball without breaking any of the neighbors windows.

During my own Little League days, I can remember laying in bed with my brother listening to Vin Scully call the Los Angeles Dodgers games on our Admiral radio. To this day, I can still recite the Dodger lineup.

We were enthusiastic baseball card collectors. My brother had most of the 1957 Yankees and Brooklyn Dodger cards. He put them on the spokes of his bike because it was the cool thing to do. We didn’t realize they’d be valuable some day.

In the 1960’s, the Grant County Journal ran complete box game scores and KULE radio featured a Little League game of the week. It was exciting to see our names in the paper and have our games on the radio.

The 70’s were a time when I tuned in, turned on and dropped out. But even though I lived in the woods with no electricity or running water and was thirty-five miles from the nearest town, I still had the radio on listening to Niehaus and Wilson call the Mariner games and I never stopped playing softball.

A serious recession hit our part of the country in 1984. I worked six weeks of construction with no other job prospects. My wife was pregnant with twins. Every day, our highlight was watching the Cubs play. We probably saw 150 games that summer. Our daughters developed in utero to the sound of Harry Carey’s voice singing “Take Me Out to the ball game, or Cubs win!”

Last year a huge highlight was sitting in Wrigley Field watching Sammy Sosa go for his sixty-third homerun. If I won the lottery, I’d buy tickets to all the grand old ball parks. There’s nothing like a game on a hot summer evening.

If life were a movie, mine would have a baseball theme. I’ve played, coached, listened, and watched literally thousands of games. The sights, sounds, and strategies of the game are all encompassing.

Baseball is Life!!