"God, I Love Baseball"

Sometimes it's helpful to remember why we love baseball. For me, it's the little stuff. Yes, the playoffs are fun. Yes, the action of the game can be riveting. But better than those things are the relatively inconsequential things that happen during your typical, relatively inconsequential weeknight game. A foul ball that wakes up everyone in the visitor's dugout. A fan shouting an obscenity so loud the TV microphones pick it up. An ump taking a few extra seconds cleaning the plate because the catcher just caught a nasty foul tip. The sorts of things that never make the highlight packages or box scores, but which cause both the viewers and the participants to laugh, sigh, or simply reflect in ways that are totally foreign to, say, a football field.

I know I'm not alone in this, because you guys often tell me you feel the same way. For example, longtime ShysterBall reader Osmodious was just kicking back on Tuesday night, watching his Yankees take on the White Sox, and has this to share:

You just never know when you might see something you have never seen before. That is the single best reason to watch baseball, though there are scores of good reasons to as well. Here's the ESPN recap of last night's game. What you will not read in there are two things that happened that you only know about if you watched it.

During the 8th inning, a black cat jumped out from behind the screen behind home plate and ran into the Yankee's dugout. Really. Where did it come from? Who knows, though David Cone theorized that it was a Red Sox fan who brought it into the stadium for the expressed purpose of jinxing the Yankees.

The other occurred a couple of innings prior to that. Let me preface this by saying that neither Wang nor Contreras had their best stuff, making the first two hours of the game seem like an eternity (and that was only 3.2 innings!). Anyway, Nick Swisher, a pretty good hitter, was up and he was fouling off a bunch of pitches. Finally, two strikes and I don't know how many balls, he started to swing at a pitch . . . and his bat broke. Without touching the ball. He loaded up his hands (pulled them back) and started to swing and the bat broke at the handle . . . he was left holding 10 inches of bat handle as the rest of it flew off at a 90 degree angle toward the on-deck circle. He was called out on strikes, but not for swinging, as the box score lists it as a called third strike! I have never seen a bat break from the sheer strength of the batter's swing. It was kind of impressive.

It was also classic baseball comedy. Swisher stood there at the plate, still in his stance, looking at his hands, trying to figure out what had just transpired. Hopefully, somebody took a picture of his face, 'cause it was classic. Meanwhile, both Jorge and the ump are looking directly to the left at the remains of the bat, also trying to figure out what had happened. While not the most amazing thing I have ever seen on a baseball field, it was definitely a highlight. And I would have missed it if I had turned off the game because it was a little boring.

You just never know what you might see. God, I love baseball.

UPDATE: video of the bat breaking can be found here (special thanks to the commenter below for sending it in).

That's what I'm talking about. The little stuff. Things that aren't important enough for the beat writers to cover the next day but that are notable and add flavor all the same. I'm enamoured of this stuff, and my only regret is that I don't get to watch enough games to see them as often as I'd like. I'm sure many of you feel the same way. Which is why I want to start a new occasional feature around here which, using Osmodious' words, I will entitle "God, I love Baseball."

Here's how we're going to do this: You guys watch games (no big trick, because you're doing it already). You guys make a quick note of something enjoyable but inconsequential that you saw, and either write it up in an email to me (it's in the upper left hand corner of this page) or post it in the comments to the daily "And That Happened" post. I'll share it with everyone, giving proper attribution to the submitter, of course (let me know if you want anonymity).

No need to write it up as long as Osmodious did. No need for flowery prose. And certainly no need to be funny or to top one another because the whole point of this is to catalog those little, ephemeral moments that make baseball so damn enjoyable. Those sorts of things aren't always funny, and by definition they aren't spectacular. We're just going for flavor here, and a simple "hey, I was watching the Nats-Padres and the camera caught Cristian Guzman and Ron Belliard playing paper-scissors-rock in the dugout," or "yo, you shoulda seen the guys in the Cubs bullpen jawing at the drunk dudes in the left field bleachers" will suffice. All I ask is that you let me know what game it happened in and, if applicable, the players involved.

Like most things on the Internet, it will either work or it won't, and if you don't see any items in the next few weeks it means that no one cares about this stuff all that much. Which is fine too. We're not shooting for award nominations with this bit, and it certainly won't be a regular feature (if it gets really popular maybe I'll do a weekly compilation of them).

So keep watching, and let me know what happens.