Lew Rockwell posts some great quotes about the game. Baseball also gives us an option for the joy of scorekeeping, a great hobby that has almost disappeared. But on the negative side, there's the designated hitter and too many "specialized" relief pitchers.......

It's interesting to note that although professional team sports has evolved to a time and place where drunken, thirty-somethings like Joe Six-Pack are ruining everything by showing up at the games with their juvenile drinking buddies in tow, baseball seems to have avoided most of this nonsense, and it remains mostly a pleasant, family activity at the ballpark. The game is too slow and too deliberate for the high-time preference, gimme-another-Bud types, I suppose.

Baseball season is great because it means spring is here -- time to mow the lawn, open the windows, and grill the hot dogs and buffalo burgers. My favorite thing is heading to the batting cages. The first time out leaves one's rib cage and torso in massive pain by the next day, along with the assorted blisters breaking open baby-like skin that hasn't held a baseball bat in six months. But it's a pain that gives great smiles.

As much as I hate the Cardinals for beating my Tigers in the Series, if there ever was a poster boy for traditional baseball, it is David Eckstein. I love to watch this guy play.

Unfortunately, too many recent shoulder surgeries have me turning down a softball opportunity for this spring, but I still take every opportunity to snatch zinging grounders or shag fly balls on a muddy outfield. What fun.

Mostly, the sound of a game on the radio always makes me reflect on my deceased godfather Joe, the most passionate fan of the game that I have ever known. I still miss the great Ernie Harwell doing the games -- it's hard to listen to anyone else. And I love the gloriously stinky smell of my leather mitts when they have been detained in the dark closet all winter long. I also like the look of a new softball or hardball -- all clean and unblemished. My cleats still have the mud stuck all over them from last year - a reminded of what is to come. Baseball is a great and joyous sport, and especially when many at The Sporting News are picking the Tigers to win it all. Go Tigers, boo Yankees.