Why I like baseball

Baseball Digest, Nov, 2002 by Joe Falls

* Peanuts, five cents a bag, in the streets outside Ebbets Field.

* Maris and Mantle, batting back to back, and two balls landing in the lower deck of Yankee Stadium, back to back.

* Dwight Evans, looking straight into the sun, making another great catch in right field of Fenway Park.

* French fries with vinegar in old Comiskey Park.

* The overhang in Detroit.

* A hot August Sunday afternoon in Cooperstown, the leafy home of the Hall of Fame, men in white shirts, ladies with parasols and Reggie Jackson grinning at everyone.

* John F. Kennedy throwing out the first pitch in Washington.

* Willie Mays making the catch at his belt buckle.

* Al Kaline getting up after getting knocked down at the plate, digging in and sending a double crashing against the wall in left-center; nobody ever did it better than this man.

* The Citgo sign beyond the left-field wall in Fenway Park--Joe Carter saying it was his favorite sign in baseball: "C-it-go!"

* Nellie Fox with tobacco juice on his mouth and the front of his shirt, and spitting into his glove.

* Bill Mazeroski's home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, setting off the biggest celebration I'd ever seen.

* The sign reading 296 feet on the right-field wall in Yankee Stadium and measuring from home plate three times with a steel ruler and finding Babe Ruth had to hit it only 292 feet.

* Minnie Minoso, then Jim Rivera, sliding head-first into third base, keeping the White Sox rally going.

* The ride over to Winter Haven, Florida, to see Ted Williams one more time, watching him twitch, moving this way, then that way, as he tells what it was like hitting against Bob Feller.

* Seeing Don Larsen pitch his perfect game in the 1956 World Series and hearing a New York writer ask Casey Stengel if he ever saw Larsen pitch a better game.

* The orange piping on the St. Louis Browns' uniforms.

* Feeling the stands tremble and Candlestick Park shake in the 1989 earthquake and racing down the ramp with a dozen other people to get out of there ... and all of us stopping at the gate to have our hands stamped so we could get back in.

* Stan Hack and Billy Herman leading off for the Cubs.

* Pitcher Red Ruffing pinch-hitting for the Yankees and getting a hit.

* Al Schacht, the Clown Prince of Baseball, taking infield practice with an invisible ball at Yankee Stadium.

* The technicolor sheep grazing on the embankment of Charlie Finley's Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, tended by a shepherd with a staff.

* Our airplane, caught in a hail storm taking off from Kansas City, turning sideways and Hank Aguirre's shirt turning from white to gray because he was sweating so much.

* Snapping off a leaf from the vines on the left-field wall at Chicago's Wrigley Field and a policeman wanting to arrest me for destruction of public property before Cubs manager Don Zimmer stopped him.

* Satchel Paige, such a spindly man, coming around with his delivery, hesitating for just a moment, then unleashing a fastball on the outside corner, strike one.

* Roger Clemens taking his stretch, sneaking a peek over to first base, and booming one through there so the batter could barely see, much less hit.

* The anxiety of Wade Boggs coming to the plate because we were likely to see a line-drive single to left or a sizzler through the middle.

* Denny McLain, with his cap tilted forward and a stiff leg kick, throwing his high, hard one and getting one more pop-up to the second baseman.

* Mark Fidrych, leaning over and talking to the ball: "Come on, ball. Stay low. Stay low."

* The 237 dim lights at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, and fireballer Ryne Duren, who couldn't see too well, cutting loose those fastballs that took off and hit the screen behind the plate.

* As a kid in New York, getting off the train at the North Philadelphia Street Station and seeing Shibe Park only a few blocks away, knowing it was going to be another great Sunday of baseball.

* Norm Cash lugging the leg of a table to the plate to hit against Nolan Ryan, who is working on a no-hitter.

* Rocky Colavito twitching those shoulders as he gets set in the box.

* Alan Trammell's throw to first, always accurate, always on time.

* Billy Bruton's smile when asked how old he was.

* A quiet night at home, with the weight of the Baseball Encyclopedia on my lap, looking up Nap Lajoie's batting record, Walter Johnson's pitching record and Walt Alston's managerial record.

* Sparky Anderson, leaning over his desk and taking forever to eat his postgame sandwich when he didn't want to answer any questions from reporters.

* Anything hit over the left-field wall in Boston--or off the Green Monster.

* The Redbird perched on a bat on the front of the St. Louis Cardinals' uniforms; Marty Marion wore it in the 1940s. And, so did Ozzie Smith.

* Jackie Robinson at the plate, pumping the bat back and forth, while rubbing his right hand on the back of his pants; the intensity never let up with this man.

* Watching a Cubs game from the rooftop on Waveland Avenue.

* Watching the Blue Jays and Tigers from a hotel room inside the SkyDome.