By divine decree, the year is divided into two parts: the good old summertime and the offseason. Happily, we in the Northern Hemisphere are now entering the golden months when our world can narrow its focus to the diamond.
There's no doubt it would take considerable legal acumen to explain the infield fly rule as a case study of Anglo-American jurisprudence in studied action or the absence thereof.
I saw my first major league game at the old original
No wonder the late great
A mind is a terrible thing to waste on a brutish alternative like football to baseball as the national pastime. And it is not a good indication of what the future holds for this country when football usurps the place of baseball when it comes to thinking about our national destiny. It's a sure sign not of progress but decadence.
Just as
Beware the man who has no room for recreation in his thoughts.
Recreation, lest we forget, is a word stemming from the concept of re-creation, and that is just what the ardent fan of this most beautiful of games does when he is fully engaged in watching it. Nothing else matters at the time, or should. The rosters of the opposing sides have long since been forgotten by all but statisticians, yet that particular game stays alive and vibrant in never-fading memory, as if it were being played right now. Right down to the hard feel of the bleachers, the roar of the crowd and its indelible memory.
So, yes, let's play ball, though baseball is scarcely child's play but as serious a preoccupation as grownups can get when they are truly blessed.
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Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer-winning editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.