Scribbling

Last Friday evening we attended our first baseball game in Greensboro’s new First Horizon Park when the Greensboro Grasshoppers defeated the Kannapolis Intimidators 4 to 1. The impressiveness of the ballpark was nearly overshadowed by the start of the game; the first pitch from the Hoppers’ pitcher was jumped on by the lead off batter and in a matter of seconds the score was 1 – 0. As the afternoon sun settled in the west with the stadium’s shadows creeping across the perfectly mowed grass and the manicured red clay infield, the Hopper’s hurler settled down as well, found his rhythm allowing only 4 hits and pitching a complete game; the Hoppers’ bats came alive and were soon intimidating the Intimidators! It’s difficult not to be carried away with the noisy undercurrent rustling inside the stadium, to feel the same energy of the last out that builds to a crescendo in The Natural, the feeling of absolution in the Field of Dreams after the misdirection provided by Shoeless Joe Jackson, or the sense of pathos in the Pride of the Yankees –it doesn’t matter if Robert Redford altered the ending of Bernard Malamud’s novel to have Roy Hobbs turn down the Judge’s bribe; or if Kevin Costner’s voice tends to whine rather than to express the inescapable guilt he feels for the way he treated his now-deceased father; or that neither The Natural or the Field of Dreams captured the personal struggle of a real hero, the Iron Horse, Larupping Lou Gehrig, portrayed by the gaunt and always heroic Gary Cooper. Paul Gallico’s, Lou Gehrig: Pride of the “Yankees” was one of my favorite books as a young boy; the original hardback published in 1942 was passed on to me by my Uncle Joe and remains on my bookshelf today. I guess the only thing better would be another relic of my youth, a double header; or, barring that, fireworks after the game!