Don't Let An Accident Take the Magic Away!

There is something magical about catching a baseball at a ballgame, something so magical that grown men crave it just as much as children.  People will sacrifice $10 beers; catch balls with babies in their arms, and fight over the ball as if it was a gold bar worth millions of dollars.  When one gets a ball, they hold it up in triumph as if it were a trophy; the crowd applauds and sometimes cheers.  The pursuit and catching a ball inside a stadium is noble and awe-inspiring.

Which makes what happened last week at a Texas Rangers game just awful.  I’m sure many of you know the horrific details so I won’t get into them but in a nutshell, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers threw up a foul ball to a fan by the name of Shannon Stone.  He was trying to get the ball for his 6 year old son and leaned over too far and fell about 20 feet and died from his injuries of the fall.  It wasn’t Hamilton’s fault, it wasn’t Stone’s fault, and it simply was a horrible horrible mistake.  Player’s do this all the time, its part of the charm of baseball, and fans love it.  It’s taking a piece of tradition home with you from the stadium.

I’m sure in the moments before the fall, this man was indescribably happy.  He was going to catch a baseball from one of the best players in the game and hand it to his son who would have a great story to tell all his friends for the rest of his life.  Unfortunately the ball came up short and to no one’s fault an accident occurred.  It’s a shame too because now, a six year old has to grow up without a father and Josh Hamilton, who’s been through a lot himself, has to have this on his conscience for the rest of his life.  It’s unfair really, to all those involved but again we have to see this how it is, a horrible awful accident.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve stressed how this was an accident pretty hardcore in this blog entry.  My point to it all is that we can’t change something that is so great about the game of baseball because of a horrible accident.  Maybe it’s me but we can’t let this accident stop players from interacting with fans and take away the magic that makes baseball one of the best sports and entertainment out there.

This type of thing hardly ever happens in stadiums and if it does, it’s usually a fan’s drunken stupor that leads to it.  Kind of like the incident at Coors Field earlier this year when a drunken idiot tried to slide down an escalator and fell to his death.  Even those incidents are far and in between.  Should we stop fan interaction and getting a ball from your favorite because of one senseless accident?  Absolutely not!

I’ve never been lucky enough to get a foul ball at a stadium or even have a player toss one up to me.  Do you think that this incident will stop me from trying?  Heck no, in fact, I’ll keep trying to get a souvenir for my son just like Mr. Stone I’m sure would have kept trying had he lived through this accident.  Perhaps stadiums should look into railings around the ballpark and re-access how tall they are but at the same time, let’s not go overboard here.  It’s not like we’re talking about hundreds of people falling out of the stands.  Let’s call it what it was, an accident and just pray and hope it never happens again.

Next time you attend a baseball game, look around you.  See how many people have gloves at the game.  Not just kids either, they’ll be tons of adults with glove.  Let’s not take that away, let’s keep the magic of getting a baseball at the stadium intact!

The 4th Of July

Well the fourth of July came, what did you do?  I’m sure everyone attended a cook-out or two over the weekend as I but on the 4^th before my 3^rd (yes 3^rd) cookout of the weekend I was fortunate enough to have some free time in the morning.  Flipping through the TV I came across HBO which was showing the mini-series John Adams in its entirety.  I’ve wanted to watch it for years but just never have found the time, being the 4^th, I thought, how appropriate, let me catch some of this.  After the first hour, I was engulfed.  I taped the rest of the series and finished it up yesterday.  If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it as the historical accuracy is spot on and to truly appreciate what our founding fathers went through building this nation, it must be viewed.

This post isn’t intended to praise this wonderful series but instead to bring awareness to the historical significance of the holiday.  Many people don’t truly appreciate why we celebrate this wonderful day and instead see it as a day off work and a chance to goof off with friends at a barbeque.  I would label myself a historical buff and have read a lot of books on the founding fathers and watched many television programs on the our Revolutionary War, but it never truly hit me until I watched John Adams.  You see, John Adams isn’t the most celebrated Patriot of our revolution and he isn’t the one that you think of when you think about us fighting for our independence but yet he was an iatrical part of the events.  It made me wonder about all those other Patriots that may not have fought on battle fields but did risk everything including death to make our country free and independent.  John Adams and others that attended secret meetings of a pre-America Continental Congress faced death by hanging if captured and were away from families not days but months and years at a time.  The hardships and risks they took need to be appreciated and praised just as much as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.  For every Revolutionary War hero, think about all those unsung heroes that may have been omitted from our history text books.

Next year, instead of goofing off at a firework celebration or eating a heart attack waiting to happen amount of hot dogs, take some time to watch something on our founding fathers, maybe read a book, visit a landmark and appreciate those that fought hard and risked EVERYTHING to make our country free and independent.   Maybe sing the Star Spangled Banner and thank those brave young souls that you don’t have a British accent.

PS – Isn’t it amazing that our country just turned 235 years old?  That’s not a lot of time.  Just something to think about…