The Magic Of Baseball and What it means to you.

[Armor and Sword]

Hello my fellow brethren of Operation Sports.

I love baseball. It is a huge part of my life and my family. A few years back I did a similar thread and read some incredible stories and picked one out and the one I found that touched me the most and I sent a standard copy of the game.

I am doing it again. Tell me what baseball means to you. It is my pleasure to give a copy of the game away to someone.

If an admin needs to PM me please do so. You know I am good for it.

This Show Forum needs some positive vibes. I love this game and I love how SDS replicates it.

So post away. I will pick a winner (and everyone is a winner for sharing their story but there can be only one copy given away) before release and you will receive the game by the second week of April at the latest. I am heading out on March 24th for a family vacation. But will send the game out by April 2nd or 3rd at the latest via USPS Priority Mail.


Deadline for your story is no later than March 22nd and I will announce the winner and PM the OS member to get their mailing info.

[Skyboxer]

Don't need the game but figured I'd post.
For me Baseball is about new beginnings as well as remembering the past.
It certainly has put some marks in my life growing up.
From LL to High School then adult league with my father as coach.
Baseball will always have a strong presence in my life.

As James Earl Jones said in Field of Dreams
"America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time."

[KBLover]

Baseball was the way I could open up and be social to kids when I was one myself.

I wasn't shy, per se, but I rarely shared many common interests. Back then, avid video gamers weren't the norm, even for kids (they were into starting ****** or other "going out" activities).

So when I started exploring baseball and baseball cards and going to card shows, I got more connected to the game and exposed to some of the history. I remember buying a Rickey Henderson rookie card because he was my favorite player at the time (I always seemed to gravitate to funky/finesse pitches and slash-and-speed type hitters).

Then I started collecting avidly. I started learning players by organizing cards into teams, learning basic stats, what the players were good at. As fate would have it, I started getting a lot of Red Sox cards and managed to collect a team set just from buying random packs. So I started being a Red Sox fan. Of course, that was 1986. Of course, we know what happened to the Red Sox in 1986...Welcome to baseball, kid.

Anyway, becoming a card collector started letting me talk to other kids about baseball and baseball cards. I would do some trading, make some baseball friends, talk the game and teams, etc. And when we played, we talked about our own play. I remember one friend telling me to try to bat right handed (I'm a lefty), and, for whatever reason, that let me hit and was natural like I was a right-handed hitter. So I became a LHP and a right-handed hitter.

Baseball was like a whole new world for me. I really got totally absorbed both so I could keep up with my newfound friends and talk baseball on and off the diamond, but also to learn about this quirky game I've taken a liking to and enjoyed playing. I would try teach myself a delivery and batting stance by trying to copy the deliveries and stances in Bases Loaded 2. I would try to emulate funky pitches like the knuckleball, palmball, screwball (I used to have a good one for my age) and forkball. I watched every game with Hough, Glavine or Key on the mound, three of my favorite pitchers because they were like me - they didn't throw 95 MPH like Clemens. They wanted to make the ball bend and locate and change speeds. I could do that in my own small way.

Baseball was my gateway into sports and into the "real world". I still adored my video games (now including baseball games - hence the special place in my heart for Baseball Stars, Tony LaRussa baseball, and the Front Page Sports games, the latter two starting to expose me into the stats and "guts" of things like roster building and how lineups were made).

But baseball introduced me to something else I could do and "show the world". Baseball got me into football and hockey as now I found I loved sports. Baseball let me make friends easier, either from talking about play or about stats and arguing about which of our favorite players was better.

As such, it's just one reason why I will always love the game. Even now, I can talk on here about baseball and baseball games and sabermetrics, letting me make more friends still. As I keep learning more about the innards of the play on the field, the tactics, the data/analytics, the scouting and player evaluation - it just makes me respect and love this game more and more.

All because I started collecting a handful of baseball cards. Who would have guessed.

[eric7064]

It all started for me in the fall of 2003 (I am 22). I was 8 years old at the time, and all I cared about was Pokemon, Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I heard my mom and dad talking about some big sports game and I did not care at all. It was nightime, and my bedtime was approaching. Sadly, for my 8 year old self that was 8pm.

Some dumb baseball game was on, It was the Cubs and Marlins in some big series. I guess the Cubs were bad and hadn't won in a few years. I came up with a brilliant plan, everyone I knew seemed to be invested in this game. Maybe If I acted invested, I could watch it as well, and stay up late. Bingo! It worked. My mom had no problem with me watching history. This was the night of game 1.

Fast-Forward one week and its game 7. I am shattered. I feel like a Cubs fan. I fell in love with not only the game of baseball, but sports. Beforehand I had no idea what an RBI was, what a batting average meant. Now I want more.

The 2004 season came, and I never have looked back since. I watch almost every Cubs game possible. I traded those Pokemon cards in for every baseball card pack I could find. I began collecting like crazy. Memorizing the stats on the back of these cards. My dad soon called me Rain-man when it came to statistics. Whenever we would go to a game he would ask me exactly what a players #'s were and I would reel them off with ease.

I wanted to understand the game more. Thankfully, a game called MVP05 was out. I loved it. Again memorizing every player. Playing this helped me learn and understand the game. It was not just for baseball, I became an avid Bears & Irish fan as well. Madden & NCAA helped me understand and learn the sport.

I soon began to play baseball for the first time. The pop of the mitt, the smell of the mitt & dirt, The crack of the bat, the beautiful scene of the diamond. I loved playing. Opening day of little league was the best day. I remember "interviewing" myself each year pretending I was an MLB player, any year I was on a new team I pretended I was traded.

It is now 2018, I witnessed my team win the ever out of reach World Series. The best moment of my life.

Opening day is rolling around again. My absolute favorite day of the year. There is no other feeling like it. Just to think it all started one fall night in 2003. I remember it as if it was yesterday. And thats how the magic of baseball changed my life.

[countryboy]

As some here probably know from me saying, my Grandpa played catcher in the Cardinals organization back in the day. He never made it to the bigs, but his tales of playing the game while we were growing up help instill the passion I have for this sport.

Baseball was also just a family sport so to speak. My cousins and I played. We would have our own type of spring training before Little League where my Grandpa would put us through exercises to work on fundamentals of the game. From hitting practice, to pepper, to fielding fly balls, to have hard ground balls hit from about 20 feet away, we learned to play and excel at the game.

Besides my Grandpa, my Dad and Uncle were involved in my playing of the game. My Dad and Uncle coached me from T-Ball throughout my entire Little League career. I can remember my cousin and I riding in the back of my uncle's old pickup truck to practice. Dad would meet us there after work and practice would take place. After practice Dad and I would ride home together discussing the day of practice, school (when in session) and just life.

After Little League, I played High School ball and College ball. My dream was to make it to the majors, but that didn't happen. But that's ok. My time playing the game will always be cherished memories for me.

Now as my Grandpa has passed, my Dad and I are working with my little guy, instilling the game onto him. He won't be forced to love it, or like it, but I do hope he will at least try it.(He's 2 1/2 right now). But he has taken a liking to it. He loves to bat (don't we all) and he loves to play catch, although if he drops one with his glove, he throws it down and tells me it doesn't work. He enjoys watching the game with me and I try to keep things simplistic as I explain what is happening. This year, he will be old enough to attend games and have some understanding as to what is going on. But Daddy isn't foolish, he knows to bring plenty of money for concessions to keep him content while we watch the game.

I wish my Grandpa was alive to help instill the love of the game onto my son. He died several years prior to my son being born. But me and his Grandpa will be sure to fill him in on this great game. Whether he takes to it like his Daddy did remains to be seen, but he's showing the interest. I really look forward to coaching him with my Dad during his Little League career. And hopefully he'll have the passion and the ability to play it at the High School and College Level. And who knows, maybe short guys will be a new wave of the future of Major League Baseball and he can play professionally.

And with any luck, he'll have a son that he will instill the passion for the game just as his Dad, Grandpa, Great Grandpa did for him.

[Arod2k9]

Born in the Dominican Republic in 1980 all I heard was how to get to New York City. I heard it all that money comes from the sky as the rain does and so forth. But for us the quickest way to get to USA was through baseball, it was every kids dream to make it. I have vivid memories of 1986 Houston Astros and New York Mets highlights but not from actual video but from kids trying to imitate what they heard in the radio the night before.

Baseball is in my blood as my father won batting titles in the Southern region of DR from 1972 -1975 and has told me the story that LA Dodgers sent scouts to sign him. He declined as he felt MLB players didn’t make much and he took his talents to music. He did come to Long Island, NY by 1981 and always send my twin brother and I all the World Series champions T-shirts back to DR. I have pictures in 1982 of Philadelphia Phillies 1980 and 1986 Mets as my favorites.

I always played baseball on the streets even with a made up ball sock and rock inside but I never played it to make it. It was always fun times and never look at it as my savior in life. At best had I played organized ball in high school I would of never be the hitter and SS or 2B my father was. My favorite player of all time is Don Mattingly fittingly since I arrived to NYC in 1990. I imitated him everyday on my afternoon of baseball fun. But honestly I thank my father everyday for instilling baseball in me and I’m fine with it. Baseball is the only sport you can go and relax for conversations to with people you love.

Lastly, even after my fathers declined offer to join Dodgers organization my brother and I were destined to live in Los Angeles. Life is funny at times and baseball will always be part of me and my family. My first son is due at any moment and his first shirt is rookie of the year my wife got him as a tribute to Aaron Judge!


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[a bit outside]

My journey started back in Missouri in the 50’s. My great grandmother was a huge baseball fan and she never missed a Yankees game on the radio and later on the television. We would gather at her home on Sunday for fried chicken dinner in fear that if the Yankees started a game before she had dinner ready that dinner would not be finished or burn the house down as great grandma was going to leave the kitchen and sit in front of the radio/tv until the game was over. Thankfully, my grandma or my mom would pinch hit and finish dinner.

I grew up a baseball fan, but my loyalty was with the Cardinals. Which made for some really tense situations back in 1964 as the Cardinals and the Yankees squared off in the series.

She passed away shortly after that after battling a long illness and never got to see me play Little League. I continued to play the game I love and listen to the Cardinals and Harry Caray on KMOX radio.

I played through elementary, junior high and high school. I moved to Texas and played in some city leagues until I was 40, my body was starting to let me down and a career move helped me to quit playing.

I managed to pass my love for the game down to my wife and three children and we enjoy going to Arlington to watch the Rangers and we like going to Frisco to watch the AA Rough Riders. The wife is a Yankees fan, one daughter is all about the Rangers, the other is a Cardinals fan and by son bleeds Royals blue. They all have children and some of my grand babies are playing the game now.

Over the years I have been privileged to watch some of the greats. Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Bob Gibson etc. I have been fortunate to watch games at a wide variety of parks. Seen the A’s in Kansas City and Oakland, the Cardinals in three different parks.....all named Busch. The Rangers at old Arlington and Globe Life......hopefully I can watch them at the new park they are constructing now.

Baseball has a very long and rich history and I feel blessed to have been able to witness some of it.

[My993C2]

I did play some hardball when I was young, I even tried playing some rec hardball as an adult (that was a tad scary as the pitchers were some what wild, didn't know if I should be swinging or ducking) and of course I have played co-ed softball in the past which was also fun. But I was never really a big baseball person. Compared to some other sports, it is a rather slow, drawn out game. However with all that said, the MLB The Show game (which I have been playing every year since 2012) turned me into a baseball fan and it also taught me a lot about the game that I perhaps never really knew or caught on to in the past if I ever did try and watch a game on TV. Oh and I have also watched a dozen or so MLB games over the years live, but I was usually too busy drinking and socializing with the people I was with and not really watching the actual game. So yeah the MLB The Show game, complete with all it's warts turned me into a baseball fan.