Get Away at the Game

 

This is a baseball field.

It's also a stadium.

But it's a sanctuary as well.

It's a place of dreams.

Hopes. 

It means different things to different people.

It also means some find success at one baseball field but don't find it at another.

Thus hopes can die on this field. A stark but sad reality.

To those in the stands, it's fun and activities. It's games on the field and off.

Baseball happens on that turf. But the mental game -- pitcher/batter, manager/manager/ fielder/runner -- also takes place. 

But there are the activities. The food and the drinks and laughs at the trivia games and videos and mascots and more.

It's rooting hard for the game on the turf.

Oh yeah, the turf. I suppose to some that's a point of discussion.

Baseball, in theory, was made to be played on grass. But what good does that grass do if it doesn't absorb rain?

A turf field will drain but it's not natural to many.

To each their own. Turf works for this field.

It works for others as well.

The game plays quicker thanks to recent rules that have been put in place. Older folks might call foul but the truth is that the time investment is different.

The Yankees beat the Twins today 2-0. Gerrit Cole spun a two-hit complete shutout on 109 pitches with 10 strikeouts.

Time of game: 2:07.

Hudson Valley -- obviously, in the stadium pictured above -- lost to Aberdeen 5-4.

Time of game: 2:15.

In fact, of the five games played in the South Atlantic League of Minor League Baseball, not one game took more than two hours and fifty-one minutes. Make what you want of that.

Oh sure things have to be more expeditiously between innings and pitches, but the world still seems to be rotating.

There were plenty of smiles today. Kids laughed and enjoyed everything, even getting autographs from the public address announcer. 

No matter the issue -- on the field or off -- it's easy to forget any troubles at the old ballgame.

Go to a game soon and be reminded why baseball is still pretty great.