Why I like baseball

Baseball Digest, Nov, 2002 by Joe Falls

* The grace of the fountain in Kansas City.

* Traveling secretary Vince Desmond getting so angry over an argument with Billy Martin that he stormed off the team bus in Chicago and walked back to the hotel.

* Opening Day in our press box at Tiger Stadium, seeing faces I've never seen before, knowing I might never see them again, wondering who they all are.

* Asking President Richard Nixon to sign a baseball at a White House reception before the 1969 All-Star Game--"Just below Denny McLain's name"--and Nixon saying, "Of course. Nobody is above Denny McLain."

* A single to right by George Brett.

* "Ladies and gentlemen, will you please rise for the national anthem."

* An afternoon with Bill Veeck in his garden in Chicago.

* Getting two Mickey Mantle rookie cards in the mail from the Topps Bubble Gum Company and losing both of them.

* Lightning striking the shortstop area during a rainstorm at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, sending up a huge puff of smoke, and Willie Tasby, center fielder for the Orioles, refusing to come back out and finish the game.

* Barry Bonds' short swing--whack!--and watching him watch the ball as it heads out over the right-center-field fence.

* Nolan Ryan pulling the ball close to his chest as he turns to go into his windup.

* Visiting Lou Brock at his florist shop in Clayton, Missouri, and saying, "What the heck do you know about flowers?" Brock saying, "I know a lot about flowers. Those are red, those are yellow, and the ones over there are purple and green."

* Getting thrown out of the umpire's dressing room during spring training after asking them how come Tigers manager Bob Scheffing stayed in the dugout after getting ejected from the game.

* The day manager Jack Tighe tried to throw me off the Tigers' train while it was moving through North Carolina because he didn't like what I wrote about him.

* A perfect relay getting the runner at third.

* Hilda Chester and her cow bell at Ebbets Field.

* Jackie Robinson bouncing up and down at third base when the pitcher tried to pick him off.

* That spread-eagle stance of Joe D. and the ball rocketing down the left-field line for a bases-clearing double off Hal Newhouser.

* 1:30 in the afternoon. The best time of all.

By JOE FALLS
The Detroit News

Joe Falls has been a Detroit News columnist since 1978 and a major journalistic presence in Detroit since 1953. He was elected to the writers' wing of the Hall of Fame in 2002.