Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Swing batta batta swing!

We went to a Silverhawks game last night and I ate 3 hot dogs and had 2 Mountain Dews. I had a great time (we left before the end of the game- the Hawks were losing 3-1) and I'm trying to narrow down why. At first I though it was because it was Dollar Monday and I was all swept up in Dollar madness- but then I realized that a can of pop and a hot dog should really NOT cost a dollar a piece.

I'm not even a baseball fan- I can't watch it on TV, I can't tell you who had what stats in whatever year. But there's something so . . . tranquil? peaceful? watching a game move so slow with spurts of action. Almost like reading a sentence with an exclamation point at the end of it.

As I sat on the bleachers I was overwhelmed by everything really. The people, the grayblue clouds rolling in silently over us, the noise, the heat and the breeze, the falcon gliding over the old Studebaker buildings, the crack of the bat.

Serenity.

I even allowed myself to enjoy those things I would have found annoying and intrusive like the cheesy games between innings (racing vegetables, dancing chickens), I may have even stood up for the Chicken Dance and the YMCA, but I'm not telling.

Something about last night reminded me about church- standing and sitting, collective simultaneous responses as if on cue (a hit! a steal!). Everyone communing under one roof (or sky).

Maybe I've found a new house of worship.

3 comments:

Charmi said...

I remember vividly to this day every detail of one weekday evening, my son six years old, watching him play softball out at Madison Elementary School. There was a beautiful tree, parents, cheering, a sense of serenity... This wasn't like those little league things you have nightmares about. My father-in-law was a great Tigers fan, lived in the U.P. A tourist, tired of the cold, I suppose, once asked him, what do you do in the summer here. My father-in-law answered, on that day we play baseball.

Talia Reed said...

They had running vegetables? That must've been worth it all. I haven't been to a Silverhawks game since they were the South Bend White Sox.

Jesus Moya said...

Only a dollar to get in on Monday!!!