BASEBALL

Growing up in small town Vermont, one of the few things for boys and girls to do in the spring and summer was play baseball. I tried little league, but was never any good. My brothers on the other hand, played like they were born to it. You could always tell when the seasons were changing from winter to spring because they would be playing catch in the street in front of our house because the snow hadn’t fully melted yet. Locals would know that this was happening, so would be on the look out and the niys would also be paying attention and would get off the road when cars would come. As this was the only road between Vermont and New York in this area, there wasn’t much traffic.

They continued playing all through high school and Noah even played in college. They still love the game and until today, when I saw Field of Dreams in theaters i had forgotten how much I also enjoyed the game.

I have only been to one professional game, but have been to many little league, middle league, high school, college and minor league games. I’m not a sports person in the sense that i have a favorite team for any sport, but I know the major teams in baseball, basketball and football simply because it is everywhere and when you are a cheerleader in high school and your crush plays both football and basketball, you quickly learn the names of the teams and whether they are any good. I know that the major baseball rivalries are Yankees and Red Sox and that the subway series is a series of games that people in NYC can get to using the subway. I have lived in Brooklyn for 6 years and haven’t been to a game, mostly because it takes forever to get to either Yankee Stadium or Mets stadium.

I had forgotten just how good and moving of a movie Field of Dreams was until Ben Mankowitz of TCM movies gave commentary about how he immediately called his father in Washington after seeing the movie to tell him about it. The theater was quite empty, but those there were happy to be there and enjoyed the movie. Some of the classic lines such as “If you build it, he will come” or “Go the Distance” or “Ease his pain” are generally forgotten until one sees the movie again. Despite not having seen this movie in close to 20 years, I know many of the lines, like when Shoeless Joe Jackson, played by Ray Liotta asks Ray Kinsella if this is heaven and Ray answers, “no, it’s Iowa.” A sentiment that is played again at the end of the movie when John Kinsella, Ray’s father makes an appearance and again asks if this was heaven. The difference is that Ray asks John if there is one and John answers yes.

Next week I see Forreat Gump for the first time in theaters and I’m very much looking forward to it. Movies when I was a kid were a treat because taking 4 kids to the movies would just be too expensive, so we would buy movies on VHS and later on DVD. I grew up watching the classics and popular movies and to this day, as a 40 year old adult, movies, books and music are still a very, very important and big part of my daily life.