Opening Day of the 2025 Major League Baseball season kicks off today, a sure sign of spring and a highly anticipated milestone for fans of the game.
Professional baseball in America dates to 1871, though the sport as we know it today can be traced to the early 20th century. So ubiquitous was the game’s influence beginning in the 1920s, that even someone who didn’t follow the sport knew the name Babe Ruth. When the Yankees’ Joe DiMaggio was in the midst of his historic 56-game hitting streak in 1941, strangers were known to ask one another, “Did he get one today?”
One reason baseball gained such popularity was because it isn’t just a spectator sport. It’d relatable. It’s easy to play. The equipment is simple – a ball, a bat, and a glove. Whether playing in a backyard, schoolyard, on a formal diamond, or even a city street, kids played and played.
Said James Earl Jones in the beloved movie, Field of Dreams,
The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and what could be again.
Baseball is also a family sport. Most of us are introduced to the game when we’re young, when our whole world revolves around our mother, father, brothers and sisters.
Whether playing with siblings and friends, having a catch in the backyard, or competing in front of parents on the local Little League fields, the camaraderie can help shape and form lifelong friendships and forge memories we’ll never forget.
Baseball is also full of metaphors. Just as in life, if you want to succeed in the game, you need to step up to the plate. You can’t hit if you don’t swing. You might swing for the fences and still strike out. Pitchers throw curveballs, unexpected things come out of left field.
For many of us, though, baseball’s greatest charm revolves around those we’ve played or watched the game with over the years, beginning with our parents.
My father was a Yankees fan, so I became a Yankees fan. In my office here at Focus on the Family, I have his baseball glove. It’s an ANDIA 7803 and still has dust in it from our Long Island yard. Nothing gave me greater joy as a little boy than to throw with my dad in the backyard, under the shade of our towering Sycamore trees. He was legally blind in one eye and always asked me to throw to his good side.
Now, as a father, I love playing ball with our boys.
As a boy, I’d watch games on television in the living room or listen on the radio with my dad. My parents refused to pay for cable, so half of the Yankees games were inaccessible to us. I enjoyed the pace of radio play-by-play, especially on a summer evening out on our side porch.
Going to Yankee Stadium was a rare treat, but we averaged one trip a year to the Bronx. Bob Sheppard, our neighbor, was the team’s legendary public address announcer. We’d visit him in the press box. He always had a big book next to his microphone to read between innings. I remember seeing a huge baseball glove chair in owner George Steinbrenner’s office.
Shortly before my father died, I had the opportunity to invite him, along with our oldest son and father-in-law, to a Yankees game up at Coors Field in Denver. It was a sun-splashed day. My dad used to put me on his shoulders, but now I was pushing him in a wheelchair. We ate hot dogs, talked, laughed, and enjoyed the game.
I can’t remember who won, but it didn’t matter. There we were, three generations together watching baseball. It’s now a golden memory.
The old Yankees’ manager Bob Lemon once said, “The two most important things in life are good friends and a strong bullpen.” He’s missing faith in Jesus Christ, but was right about the importance of friends.
The return of baseball will provide families with an opportunity to enjoy a wholesome outing together and build memories that might well last a lifetime.
Farewell to winter.
Play ball!
Image credit: Paul Batura (L-R, Rev. Jennings Hamilton, Riley Batura, Jim Batura, Paul Batura)
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