If your favorite sport is hockey or basketball, I shed a tear for you. Your top professional leagues are turkeys. Baseball fans have much for which to give thanks:
- God's blessing on 90 feet. Not one foot more or less.
- No clock to kill. A team can never win by quitting before the game ends.
- Ever fresh enlightenment. Thank you Bill James, Rob Neyer, Joe Sheehan, Keith Law, Jay Jaffe, Baseball Prospectus, Baseball Analysts, Baseball Think Factory, Baseball Reference and many others. Maybe most of all, the sweet swing of Joe Poz.
- Green waves of grass, dirt diamonds with a bump in the middle like a screw top, stirrup socks, giant scoreboards with real time scores, cityscapes beyond the outfield walls.
- The Designated Hitter. Anything that prevents pitching changes is a good thing.
- St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, NY Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox, (St. Louis Cardinals) Chicago White Sox, (Boston Red Sox), Florida Marlins, Anaheim Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks. Nine teams have won the last 11 World Series.
- Albert Pujols, this generation's Stan Musial.
- The Hot Stove League. It keeps us warm through the long, cold winter.
- The Green Monster; the Monuments; Eutaw Street, Boog's BBQ and the warehouse; the rightfield pool; ivy; retractable roofs; and other distinct elements that make each stadium unique.
- A three-two count with the bases loaded and two outs in a one-run game.
- The people who bring the games to life for us. Especially Vin Scully, John Sciambi, Jon Miller, Dave Campbell, Bob Uecker, Gary Cohen, Charlie Steiner, Sean McDonough.
- The sounds: of bat on ball, of ball in mitt. "Whomp!" Of vendors. "Hat dawg!" Of the crowd.
- We're never more than 150 days from big league games.
- Best of all: sitting in the ballpark, watching the game, with my dad.
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