Recollections
Baseball and universal truths
I
Talent will only get you to first base
n the corner of my home office stands an aluminum baseball bat.
It’s propped up with the bulbous, pockmarked handle up top. It bears the scars of a thousand at-bats, plus a slash from an errant footstep. It holds more stories than I can share. Memories of games past flow freely as the days grow longer outside. I don’t dare calculate the math, figuring out when I last played the game. But as clearly as I can see that black and gold baseball bat, I can recall the details of games in summer twilight played upon grassy fields that now lay under asphalt. Baseball is best consumed in small bites. It is the one sport that perhaps takes up the most
We were the visiting team, and by the rules of the game, were gifted the opportunity to real estate, yet demands you pay attention to what’s happening to bat first in each inning. It’s what the smallest of balls. The gift is remains of the sport’s Victorian in the nuance that lies heaviest Age origins, where men were before a player throws the ball. refined and hospitable to their guests. The opposing One of my favorite pitcher was anything memories from playby but kind to our first ing the game of three batters. He baseball wasn’t from served nothing hitting a home run, upon which they pitching a onecould feast, and hitter, or striking each drew outs to out a tough hitter close out our half to — though I certainly start the game. As I aphave those moments to proached the plate for my first recall. No, instead, it was from at-bat, the game remained with a play — if you’re one to keep score — captured by an innocu- no score.
Michael Hallisey
ous, shaded diamond in the top half of the second inning; long before the outcome of the game was to be determined.
Opposing fielders give up the ghost about their pitcher. If the first and third basemen play far enough from the line,
the guy on the hill throws pretty hard. They’re watching to see where I’m going to stand. As a right-handed batter, they may even drift closer to the right half of the field. Before each pitch, they’re all likely to make subtle changes to where they stand. If the shortstop stands closer to second base, I just might see a curveball. If I see the pitcher’s glove shaking in front of him, he’s likely adjusting his grip on the ball to throw that curveball. It was like the first half-hour of a high school dance; each side of the dance floor was sizing each other up, trying to learn what opportunities await by just the smallest of gestures. My opportunity came from a high fastball the opposing pitcher dared me to hit. That’s the
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