What can I say about baseball?

For his last day in New Jersey, my son requested that we pay a visit to see the new Yankee Stadium which was completed in 2009. At Rich's suggestion, I looked into guided tours, and sure enough, they were offered. I booked a noon tour for Tai and myself.

I am perhaps the last person in the world to be writing about sports. As a child, I could barely catch or throw a ball of any shape or size. Softballs would hit me in the head, volleyballs would sprain my fingers. I was always the last one picked for teams, and even then, reluctantly. I was small and skinny and wore glasses, and just didn't have that aggressive edge or hand-eye coordination necessary to score points, runs, goals, baskets, whatever. Gym was the bane of my existence.

Not much has changed since those grade school days, except now, my participation in sports is on my own terms. I'm not as self conscious, I don't care who's looking, and no one is grading me on my performance. In other words, I'm having more fun with it.

Admittedly, I used to find baseball to be enormously slow and boring compared to other team sports, such as soccer and basketball. But now, with Richard providing me instant play-by-play analyses of every Mariner's game we watch together, I have a much better understanding, and thus, greater appreciation of baseball and its nuances. I've come to know many of the players by name, and because of that, the game is demystified, and more humanized for me.

Today, it was fun seeing Babe Ruth's and Lou Gehrig's old jerseys, all the World Series trophies, a wall full of autographed baseballs, and sitting in the Yankee dugout. It was a hot, sweltering day in the Bronx and the Yankees beat the Rangers in the very stadium we had toured. Meanwhile, back home in Seattle, the M's are behind 9-2 against the Pirates, but that's OK, because with baseball, tomorrow is another game.

Go M's!

To the Bronx and back.