There Was Baseball

My friend Kameron is in a band called Minus Six. My favorite song of theirs is called, "Good Days" because of the following verse:

I sure hope sometime we'll reminisce
And we'll laugh and we'll talk
And remember way back when
When we would sit back and never worry bout a thing
We just prayed that that grass came up thick and green
So we could lay down at night and wish on the stars up above us
That's what we liked to do when we were young
And now all we want to do is you-know-what
I guess that's part; I guess that's part of growing up

I couldn't find the song on Youtube, but I recommend you spend the $.99 on i-Tunes and check it out. What I like about that lyric is the playful "all we want to do is you-know-what." It's not often people lament the fact they are now you-know-whating. The song also talks about baseball and the Fourth of July and all those memories from childhood we like so much.

Cover Art to Minus Six's "Hidden Deep in the Green." Buy this album. Kameron's wife is pregnant. He needs money.

The song reminds me of part of my recent adventure to sunny Los Angeles. To me, the highlight of our trip was a Dodgers game. I know a lot of people think they hate baseball, but I think there is something ingrained in our Americana that appreciates live baseball. There is really nothing like it. There's just something about sitting outside on a warm afternoon or night and watching a game unravel. The hot dogs, the diet soda beverages, and, in my case, the excessive spending on t-shirts.

After the game, there were to be fireworks. We knew the fireworks were coming, and we spent most of the game pretending to be excited for them. When the game ended and people were leaving, we'd ask people with faux enthusiasm, "Why aren't you staring for fireworks?" We were jaded, but really, they're just fireworks...

Yippee...woo hoo!

....or so we thought. Prior to them turning off the lights, they opened up the gates and let people walk out onto the field. The field! A real baseball field! Where real baseball players play real baseball!

Dan: Sorry ladies, he's married. He's just teasing you with his "I'm sexy" look.

Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was the unexpected surprise of being on the field, but the six of us started to act like giddy, carefree children.

Jeff: Giving one last tip of the cap to the fans after a stellar performance.

We kicked off our flip-flops and squished the grass between our toes. We jumped up and down. If memory serves, we even put our arms around each other and swayed back and forth for a bit.

Steve: I don't know what he's going for here. Seduction? Indifference? Foolish?

For that moment, we weren't jaded adults. Our jobs didn't matter. It was just fireworks, loud music, and friends.

Jesus, I mean Jon: The most jaded guy I know...just as giddy as the rest of us.

That something about baseball I alluded to...I think it's because the simplicity of the game brings us back to our childhood. Like the Minus Six song, baseball helps us remember way back when we would sit back and never worry about a thing.

Joe: Stand up Joe. That's bad posture. You'll hurt your neck.

Before responsibilities, before pressure, before fertility struggles and mortgage payments, there was baseball. And there still is.