Day 172: On Solstice & Baseball

"Strikeouts are boring - besides that, they're fascist.  Throw some ground balls.  More democratic."  ~From the movie Bull Durham

As hard as it is for me to believe, today marks the first "official" day of summer, aka the Summer Solstice. It is also known as the longest day of the year because it has the greatest number of daylight hours than any other day (brilliant I know).

Lest I digress too much (like usual) and start getting all scientific, the point of this post is that it is summer and I really, really like summer. I know that this isn't unusual, most people do. It's just that as I have gotten older, I seem to have forgotten how to just have fun and enjoy the season like I used to.

I know that it isn't possible to just do nothing all summer like I did when I was a kid. Even when I was in college, I may have had summer off from school, but, that just meant working full time. However, even then I managed to have more play time than work time.

I even wrote this week's Care 2 post about celebrating the summer so that I could remind myself to do the same. In it, one of the things I suggested was to have your own "Summer Film Festival," and I wrote that mine would consist of baseball movies, especially Bull Durham and Field of Dreams. Because to me baseball is summer.

This got me to thinking (of course it did) about how much I used to watch baseball and how much I love the game, and how much I missed watching it. It is just one of many things I stopped doing or enjoying for many years, and that I have rediscovered this past year thanks to my friends who always remind me that life is short, and that there is more to it than working and volunteering.

So, in that spirit, I decided to take it a little further than just watching baseball movies by going to some games as well. I thought it was especially fitting to start this on my actual 50th birthday and so when we went to San Francisco, I went to see my Giants play (among other things I did in the city).

And, on Monday I had a rare chance to see my Giants play the Angels at Angel Stadium for an inter-league game. Unlike last night, my Giants won.

Giants warming up at Angel Stadium

I have to say that going to the stadium and watching the game live, with all the sights, sounds, and aromas, was just as great as I remember. And, I will definitely be going to more games.

"A hot dog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz." ~Humphrey Bogart

Giants won 5-3, was surprised that there were so many Giants' fans there chanting with me, "Let's go Giants!"