Baseball and Holidays

What else is there?

Is it any wonder between the last out of the World Series and the first pitch of Opening Day we celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, the entire Christmas season, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Hanukkah, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, Saint Patrick's Day, and sometimes Passover and Easter? That's most of our major holidays. Ever wonder why that is?

It takes all those festivities to try to fill the void left when there is no baseball.

Think about it. What else in life can you get almost every day, for free, that's not fattening or illegal, that offers you drama and comedy, skill and dumb luck, heroes and goats, adventure and boredom, teamwork and individual excellence? My husband would complain it doesn't have women, but he's not counting television commercials if you're at home or between inning entertainment if you're at the ballpark. No, I'll concede, there are no cheerleaders. Why would you need them? It's baseball.

A baseball fan counts each and every day between the end of October and the beginning of April every single year. Spring Training helps pass the time a little, but it's kind of like kissing your sister. How excited can anybody really expect you to get? When I was younger, I thought the only thing more boring than going to a baseball game was baseball on television. But, like I said, I was young.

You learn things as you go along in life.

Dave Kindred of The Sporting News was right. Football has drives. Baseball has moments. I mean, who could forget Don Larsen's perfect game on October 13, 1960? It was Game Five of that World Series, the first no-hitter in Baseball History.

Or October 15, 1988, Kirk Gibson limping the bases in the ninth inning to win Game One. Or the Earthquake Series the following year?

Or October 21, 1975? Carlton Fisk's tie-breaking home run off the Fenway Park foul pole winning that World Series Game Six off the Reds.

Or a game I was actually at on April 8, 1974? Hank Aaron. Need I say more?

Truth be told, what really got me hooked on baseball was none of those historic moments. It was going to a game at the old Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta shortly after our family moved back to the States in 1983 from our first overseas assignment with the Army. I'd just lived in Germany for three years with no U.S. TV, no movies in English, no iceberg lettuce, no hamburgers. The thing that struck me so hard that day was that it was just - so - American. It was a hot Sunday afternoon. We ate hot dogs. We booed. We beat the Dodgers. I felt like I was really back home. Been a die-hard ever since. A Braves fan. Did you know they are the only existing Major League Baseball franchise to have played every season since professional baseball came into existence in 1876?

You can look it up.

Now, you have to understand a simple truth. Being a Braves fan is different than being a fan of other major league teams. You have to be a real meat and potatoes fan. You know better. You discipline yourself to just enjoy the regular season and not let yourself think too much about a post season.

There was that fourteen-year stretch of division titles 1991 -2005. (One of the most remarkable runs in U.S. sports.) There was the championship in 1914, then not another one for 43 years, then not another one for 38 years, then not another one for 26 years.

But as good as they are, the memories will only get you through so many disappointments. And there have been more than a few. Better to enjoy the 162 square meals we get between April and September and consider anything more like cake, maybe with icing.

Many perfectly respectable sports fans will move right on to football, basketball, hockey, and soccer after the last out of the World Series. But for some of us, all we can say is, bring on all those holidays.

We're gonna need 'em.

World Series Won By The Braves:

Years	Winning Team	Manager	Results	Opponent Team	Manager
1914	Boston Braves	George Stallings	4-0	Philadelphia Athletics	Connie Mack
1957	Milwaukee Braves	Fred Haney	4-3	New York Yankees	Casey Stengel
1995	Atlanta Braves	Bobby Cox	4-2	Cleveland Indians	Mike Hargrove
2021	Atlanta Braves	Brian Snitker	4-2	Houston Astros	Dusty Baker