Baseball is Back, Sort Of

I have been an unregenerate Yankee fan since the days Joe D floated in the outfield at the old stadium. Like millions of others, I have been desperate for the return of baseball. I have watched every inning of the preseason and expect my upcoming nights to be spent in front of the television during the truncated regular schedule. As always, my moods will swing with the fortunes of my team, my days will be spent reading  about the niceties of last night’s game. But it won’t be the same.

As Baseball’s anthem implores, “take me out to the ballgame, take me out to the crowd”. The crowd is the soul of baseball and without the roars of approval, the boos of disapproval, the buzz of anticipation and the anguished cries of defeat, that soul will be stilled.

Like the Potamkin figures in the stands at Citi Field, baseball will be little more than a cardboard cutout. There will be no joy in Mudville.