Baseball: The Game and the Spirit

From Shutterstock.com

"There are only two seasons:

Winter and Baseball."

--Bill Veeck

In February, most places in this country are in the throes of winter.  The air is cold, the days are short, and for some reason, the most ferocious snowstorms usually start rolling in about then.  We are fed up with winter and wish it would just go away.  Then one day, we here on the television or on the radio we hear the first real hopeful words:  Spring Training.

Our minds start to drift to sun-splashed fields in Arizona and Florida where the sun shines warm on the shoulders of young men as they stretch winter-weary muscles and minds, living for what is many others, the dream.  Gradually across the rest of the country, winter begins its final retreat.  The days are getting longer, the air warmer.  In parks, back yards, and in streets people once again fall in love with the intoxicating smell of horsehide and cow leather.  You can begin to hear the crack of wood bats and the plink of aluminum.  The grass is turning green under the feet of players racing across its surface.  And as spring rescues hope from winter, the game of baseball brings joy to the soul.

It's hard to quantify or to articulate that feeling, the realization that baseball is not just a game, but a spiritual experience as well.  The days are long and warm, and a game only ends when somebody wins.  There are over a dozen games in history that have lasted over 20 innings and seven hours, and every season, there will be two teams who will lock up in such a marathon, neither side giving in.  The opposite is true of football, played in the time of year when days are growing shorter.  That game is controlled by a clock, and the tension of that passage of seconds is felt throughout the contest.  Football does have overtime, but only one quarter.  If things are not resolved by then, it goes into the books as a tie.

There are no ties in baseball.  It is an eternal contest.

The Word "Cute" As a Foreign Language

From JustFab.com

So, I Googled "Cute Shoes."  

This is what I got back.

Copyright © 2018

by Ralph F. Couey

It's always been apparent that men and women spoke different languages, even before the ground-breaking book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" by Dr. John Gray.  It's not just individual words, but entire sentences or paragraphs that can mean one thing to one party, and something completely different to the other.  Our brains are wired in completely different ways and the failure to understand that can result in some very uncomfortable situations.  

Every husband has been through this conversation:  

"Honey, are you okay?"

"Fine." (A word more spat than spoken)

"Okay, what did I do this time?"

"Nothing."  (Same delivery.)

What she has said is this:

"There is very definitely something very wrong here, and it's your fault.  That this situation has completely escaped your attention means you are in even deeper trouble."

What follows is a version of 20 questions (or more) until the evil deed has been uncovered.