This is my first baseball fandom post. I did one for the start of the NBA season and next up is baseball. I’ve been an Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox fan since the 70s. I don’t remember the specifics of how that came about. Boston was one of the best teams in the 70s and were on TV and in the news on a regular basis though they only made the playoffs once. The Braves started being broadcast nationally in 1977. Sometime soon after that I started seeing those telecasts. It seemed like they were on every night, and my baseball fandom really took off. Not a big surprise, but many of my favorite players of all-time come from those teams. In 1995, I finally got to enjoy a championship when Atlanta won it all. What a feeling it was to get one after watching them fall short in the seasons before that. The 2004 Red Sox Championship my was first with Boston and it felt just as good. The following championships for both teams (Atl 2021 Bos 2007, 2013, 2018) have a special place with me but those first hit a bit differently. So many memories are specific to players and games.
The teams I don’t like are the Yankees, Mets and Cardinals. I can live with most others but those three… Yankees and Mets are fairly obvious as rivals to the Red Sox and Braves, but also beat my teams in the World Series. I still remember the Cardinals beating the Braves in the playoffs in 1982, the first season I got to see them play in the postseason. I haven’t forgiven St. Louis since.
My dad took me to my first baseball game. It was in the late 80s in St. Louis. Braves-Cardinals. Atlanta lost on a suicide squeeze. When the reliever came into the game I knew we’d lose and sure enough. Still it is a great memory for me. I’ve been to games over the years, from more in St. Louis, one in Colorado for their initial season, minor league games and a game in Seoul, South Korea which was fun. It’s been a few years since I’ve been to a baseball game. I’m close to St. Louis but the hassle of going to the “big city”, cost and effort have taken away some of the luster as I’ve gotten older. I do want to go back but I’ll do when it makes sense for me. Maybe even this year.
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| Bob Horner |
My favorite player of all-time is Bob Horner. A slugging corner infielder, he once hit 4 home runs in a game, but he struggled with injuries throughout his career. Still, he was my guy. He went straight from college to the majors (Braves) and won Rookie of the Year. I saw the infamous game between San Diego and Atlanta where a huge brawl broke out. Horner had a cast on his arm due to injury and was watching the game from a booth but ended up on the field to join in on the “fun”. He had a career .277 batting average and belted 218 home runs across 10 seasons. Unfortunately, he played one season with the Cardinals, but I don’t hold that against him. He also played one season in Japan hitting .327 with 31 homers in 93 games. I can’t say what specifically drew me to him, but I liked him from the start. I even had a custom McFarlane action figure made of him.
Carl Yastrzemski is my second all-time favorite player. A Hall of Famer with 3,419 hits, Yaz played 23 seasons (all in Boston) ending his career with a .285 average and 452 home runs after taking over for Ted Willaims in left field. He also played first and DH as he aged out of the outfield. He won an MVP, a Triple Crown, 3 batting titles, 7 Gold Gloves and was an All-Star 18 times. By the time I first saw him in the 70s he was already in his mid-30s. Baseball probably only had one nationally televised game back then so who knows when I first saw him play. I do remember seeing him on This Week in Baseball. I can’t lie, I think I was drawn to the last name at first, but the player and person drew me in over time. He was such an amazing player. I wish he could have won a championship. He so deserved it. He made it to two World Series (’67 and ’75) hitting .369 in 17 games with 3 home runs and 9 runs batted in. I’ve always enjoyed knowing he starred on the big stage.
My favorite current players are: Mike Trout, Jose Altuve, Craig Kimbrel, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogarts, Shohei Ohtani, Bobby Witt Jr., Bo Bichette, Fernando Tatis Jr., Ronald Acuna Jr., Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Chris Sale, Andrew McCutchen.
I started collecting baseball cards in the ‘70s. I really enjoyed making competing all-star teams with the cards I had and do my own game simulations. I’d even do box scores for them sometimes. Like most kids of the time, I didn’t care for my cards properly. They were separated by teams with a rubber band around them and old cards would be discarded over time. There have been multiple breaks in my card collecting over the years and I may be coming to another of those. Too many things competing for space, money, and time. I’m still working out details but hope to have that plan come to fruition soon. I may still collect on a smaller scale, but I just don’t know yet.
Video games and fantasy baseball have always been part of my fandom. On Nintendo I played Baseball Stars a lot. I think I also played some RBI baseball. On Sega I played the Hardball games with Hardball III being my favorite. I played that a ton. Over time though I got away from console games. I’ve played the simulation game, Baseball Mogul, on the PC for some years now. I still enjoy and play it. It has all the players from the history of MLB, and you can start your franchise in any era. Back in 1992 or 1993, me and my work buddies did a fantasy league where we’d use stats from USA today to determine our weekly winners. It was fun. Now Yahoo fantasy has been my go-to for decades. I did a subscription to Baseball Digest for a few years as well.
I did purchase the MLB TV package last season. It was good but I didn’t find myself watching enough games to find it worth it. I don’t think I’ll do it again this year unless a good deal comes along. It is fun, but it just seemed there were too many competing interests to really sit down and watch as many Atlanta and Boston games that I thought I would. Online my go to sites are Baseball Reference for stats and MLB Trade Rumors.
Wow that’s a lot of yapping. I’ll try to do a fandom post every year. Next year I’ll cut down on the words. Happy Opening Day!
