Baseball In Spring Revives the Senses

One of the beautiful things about baseball is how it can be experience through all the senses. Maybe that is why spring is such a great time for baseball fans. Our senses are reawakened, revived, and are used in their full capacities this time of year. We aren't completely numb during the months of December and January but we're close to it. It's not until times like now, February and March, when all of our senses work together to baseball. Why I am writing about this today? Well, today is the day that real-life baseball appeared back on my XM radio. The Giants are playing the Diamondbacks as my fingers tap the keys and Jon Miller's voice is streaming throughout the house. Tomorrow, five games will be broadcast over the XM ether, a virtual baseball orgy. Those regular BCB readers (if there are any left after my hiatus) know that I love baseball on the radio. It's really it best way to experience baseball without actually being there. Allow me to describe what I mean by experiencing baseball through our senses.

The Sounds of Baseball: The crack of the bat; the muted punch of a ball into a catcher's mitt; the abrasive scraping sounds of a slide into home or cleats going from clay to concrete. The grunt of a tired pticher releasing a put-out fastball; and that of a slugger after missing it. The sighs of 40,000 people when the threat of a rally turns into just that, a threat. The hopefull gasp as the ball climbs and the cheers and it goes over the plane of the wall. An old-time organ at pressbox level. Vin Scully reminds us that Brad Ausmus went to Dartmouth; Marty exclaiming, "This one belongs to the Reds!"

The Smells of Baseball: The scent of a new leather ball or an old mitt. The stained wool hat that you've been wearing superstitiously all season. The smell of grass and a freshly watered infield; and who could forget the stadium hot dogs. The charcoal smoke of tailgaters in the Kauffman Stadium parking lot.

The Tastes of Baseball: The salty taste of a pitcher's fingertips before he steps to the mound; the gritty texture of dirt after stealing third. The hot dogs with mustard; the watery beer; and the ice-cold Coke. The earthy taste of yellow-painted cedar as the score-keeping fan clinches his teeth with a runner in scoring position with two outs in the ninth.

The Touch of Baseball: A ball rubbed with Delaware River mud; the raised seams. The feel of a wooden bat, without batting gloves; the vibrations that flow up your forearms when you don't exactly connect with the sweet spot. The young fan with clammy hands hoping his favorite player knocks in that run; the hands of a rookie in his first major league at bat. The burn of the scratches on your outstretched hands when you get caught stealing and the fact that those don't burn so badly when you're called safe. The heat on the back of your neck just before the sun goes down; the sunburn. The condensation on that plastic souvenir cup; you'll take it home and drink out of it all season long, your eyes will cross as you stare at the schedule on it while you sip; darn it if the dishwasher didn't wipe out April.

The Sights of Baseball: The way your heart flutters when you step into a major league stadium and see the playing field, even at age 30. Seeing the runner break for second in the corner of your eye just before the pitcher releases the ball; trying to watch both movements at once. The way a baseball field looks so different from the upper deck, lower deck, and field level. The beautiful ballet that occurs when a base-clearing double goes to the wall. The shadows on the field as the sun marches from afternoon to dusk.

The Sixth Sense of Baseball - Imagination: The reasons why baseball on the radio is so valuable to me is, it's the only media and appeals to baseball's sixth sense, imagination. Writer, Roger Angell, writes of this notion in his essay "The Interior Stadium." Baseball is a mythic, imagined game that makes real-life occurrences into legends, Babe Ruth's called shot for example. As a fan listens to baseball on the radio he or she not only engages to the game through their sense of hearing but recreates the other sensory experiences in their interior stadium. This is lost in the television broadcast which gives us a tunnel vision view and the impression that the game is merely a duel between pitcher and batter. The fullness of the game, the ballet of movements and combination of textures, tastes and smells, can only be experienced vicariously through radio. Welcome back to baseball on the radio!


Links:

• A link to Thomas Boswell's list of 99 reasons why baseball is so much better than football.
• A new blog on my favorite's list, Toolz of Ignorance.
• A spring training story from Diamond Hoggers about witnessing the end of Rob Dibble.
• Not quite the crack of the bat but "Ping! Part 2" from Church of Baseball.
• In case you haven't heard, Bud Selig has hired Joe Torre as MLB executive VP of baseball operations.
• Just a mention for those of you that haven't read Morgan Ensberg's Baseball IQ.
• And for those of you that like baseball literature, poetry, etc., think about subscribing to Spitball magazine.