My sister, Elyse, and I have this game we like to play. Made only possible by the fact that our family is strange and records everything under the sun on VHS. Or used to, anyway. Before dvd's came along and made it impossible to figure out how to record on VHS again.
But I digress. The game is to take un-labeled video tapes, pop them in the VCR, and find out what's on them. You never know what you'll find. Last time we did this, we found our video from Christmas morning of 1998, a Biography special on Judy Garland, several random Monty Python skits that A & E aired, and of course the episodes of Herc and Xena that I have scattered around for no apparent reason whatsoever. Except that I can't afford to get the dvd's.
I had decided to play this particular game alone at my own house one Saturday and so absconded with about 4 VHS tapes from my parents' home. Popping one in while I went about fixing myself from lunch, I was surprised (pleasantly so) to find that my mother had recorded THE game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs (1998). If you are a baseball fan, you might possibly remember this period of time. The season home-run record was being chased by both Mark McGwire (Cardinals) and Sammy Sosa (Cubs). McGwire had already tied the record held by Roger Maris since 1961. It was during this game that he hit his 62nd home run, breaking a record many thought was untouchable.
And I began thinking. Usually a bad sign. But in this case, I don't think it was.
I remembered watching this. Me. The girl who will usually only watch a sport if it involves someone twirling around on a pair of ice skates or sailing through the air on the uneven bars. Much to my mother's chagrin, I have never been a baseball fanatic. Not to the point where she is. I like it. It's one of the few team sports that I DO like. I get bored easily while watching it, though.
But as I watched this tape (which held only the moments when McGwire or Sosa came up to bat), I could remember sitting in my parents' living room. Watching as the Homerun Race reached its climax. Thinking it was so cool that it would reach this point when both of the competitors were playing the game together. Laughing when, after McGwire hit his record-breaking homer, Sosa hit a single and wound up hanging out with McGwire at first, joking around and chatting. There was no animosity between the two of them.
I remembered Mom crying when they showed the Maris family in the stands. And I started to cry myself. Heck, everyone on the screen was crying, too.
Today, when I look back on that day, a small voice calls out to take into consideration the steroid scandal of the last couple of years that have rocked baseball to it's core. But I don't want to consider that. As far as I'm concerned, it puts no blemish on the emotions of that day. The pride and excitement felt by every baseball fan, casual or fanatical. It was a day of pure joy, capping a season that had brought America back to baseball after the disastrous 1994 strike.
Thinking of all these things inevitably led me to my one of my mom's all-time favorite movies, 'Field of Dreams'. We all roll our eyes whenever she comes across it while surfing channels and lets out the 'Ooo! Ooo!' before hitting the 'Select' button and clutching the remote like it's the One Ring of Power and woe betide anyone who dares try to remove it from her grip. But the thing is....I don't ever leave the room anymore, like my brother and sister sometimes still do. There was a time when I would've. As a teenager, I got sick of the film. As an adult, I find there's more to appreciate in it. Kind of a weird parallel to the storyline of the movie itself.
See, it's not JUST the baseball. I probably sound like an idiot, parading things out that are pretty much BLARINGLY obvious if you watch the movie or are a baseball fan. But I'm gonna continue anyway. Where was I? Oh, yeah. It's not just the baseball. It's the memories made by the game. The simple act of catching a ball in a leather glove. A nation that pulls together during wartime and has women playing baseball to fill the void left by the men that have signed up to fight overseas. Has there ever been a sport other than baseball that has had this kind of impact on the American culture? I'll make that question really simple for you. No.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying football/basketball/hockey/soccer/insert random sport here are rotten sports. They're not. But they're not baseball, either.
Now, with the steroid scandal still looming large over baseball, I'm reminded of the speech from 'Field of Dreams'. And, seriously, could they have gotten a better actor than James Earl Jones to give it? I think not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qXkcPQUfJM
I think that pretty much says it all.
~Mel
McGwire and Sosa brought the audiences back to baseball after the 1994 strike.
