The Sports Harvest

We are well into October now. Although many of us feel the stress of being the college student, there are many more who consider this the best time of the year. Why do you ask? This is the time of the year which we can call sports harvest. We have college football in full swing, and more parody than the color wheel. The NFL, which is America’s new pastime, is also steaming along drawing most husbands’ attention away from the wives to the television. We have the NBA and college basketball flying under the radar. But the sport which is sometimes overlooked is America’s former pastime: Baseball. The baseball postseason, which is the only part of the baseball season that matters, is in full operation. This time of the year offers so much sports entertainment it could drive most people insane, or close to it. Although it has lost some of its luster over the years, the baseball playoffs still offer a genuine form of sports entertainment. It is truly the year of the “who are they” and the “team of unknowns.” The Colorado Rockies which clinched the NLCS after sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks consist of many first year players who didn’t even start for the team on opening day. The Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians are battling for the ALCS. The Cleveland Indians are the team with players so young they looked like they just left their junior proms. But a story raging on the outside of the series itself is the destruction of America’s most expensive team: the New York Yankees. Before the Indians beat the Yankees, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner gave manager Joe Torre the ultimatum of win or you are fired. Nice motivation. Now it appears the Yankees are without their manager, and many of the players who Torre pretty much raised will be leaving too. It is kind of sad to see the playoffs be smeared with stories about the Yankees who are not even playing anymore. I guess you can never have too many Yankee stories. For you true baseball fans you have to sometimes be in awe of the postseason. It is truly the best of the best. It sometimes amazes me to think that these grown men are playing just a game. But to many people it is more than that. Especially with the Red Sox fans who live and die by their precious Sox. It is always a treat to see a young Red Sox fan screaming profanity at the umps just like his dear old dad. Only in America. This is the game that America made. History has passed but baseball has been the constant. The World Series has produced “heroes” who become larger than life. The Rockies consist of players some of which are either the same age of younger than many of RWC’s students. The parody of sports this year keeps many of us glued to watching sportscenter in the morning. Even if we watch the same episode thirteen times. And for those who continue watching this series and can still stand hearing Dane Cook say “there is only one October,” I tilt my hat to you. But as I continue watching these young men play a game that I love so much I begin to wonder if I’m the only one. But then I look back at the television and see that same young Red Sox fan throwing a pop can onto the field and then I remember I’m not alone.