My love affair with baseball began on July 26, 1970, and unfortunately it had nothing to do with the Columbus Clippers. I was nine years old and living in Hilliard with my mom, dad, three sisters and a younger brother. And our loveable dog Nat. We rode our bikes and played kick-the-can.
My best friend David Caspole lived right across the street. He was my age but much smarter. He had three older brothers who were into sports. I was developing my love of sports despite our family not having a TV. David got me mailing baseball cards of my favorite players and addressing them in care of the team they played for. I would send a note with my age and ask for their autograph. It worked!
Anyway, his oldest brother Sandy had gotten tickets to see the Cincinnati Reds play on July 26, 1970, in brand new Riverfront Stadium. The stadium was literally twenty six days old. David couldn’t go. My dad, who was my idol, allowed me to go to the game. I was deliriously excited! We had great seats in the blue box seats behind first base. That day 22-year-old Johnny Bench hit three home runs off St Louis Hall of Famer Steve Carlton and had seven RBIs as the Reds trounced the Cardinals 12-5 before a large crowd. Bench would win his first of two MVPs that year after winning Rookie of the Year in 1968.
My heart went pitter patter.
The Reds dominated the 1970s, my formative baseball years. (Columbus meanwhile didn’t have a team from 1970 to 1976). The Big Red Machine was easy to love. They went 108-54 in 1975 with Joe Morgan batting .327, drawing 132 BBs and stealing 67 bases. MVP! MVP! The Reds beat the Red Sox in the World Series 4-3. In 1976 Cincinnati went 102-60. Pete Rose played 162 games again and had at least 210 hits again. George Foster had 121 RBIs and the Reds had seven pitchers win at least eleven games. They would sweep the vaunted New York Yankees in the World Series. That dynasty created a whole generation of baseball fans.
Fast forward to June 7, 2023. My wife Theresa & I had bought tickets to see the Columbus Clippers play the Reds AAA farm team the Louisville Bats in Huntington Park. Our main motivation was to see Louisville and future Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz play. Unfortunately, on June 6 – the day before – the Reds called De La Cruz up to the major league team. We did get to see Reds legend Joey Votto – who was on a rehab assignment with Louisville – play first base at Huntington Park.
The Reds – not coincidentally – went on a 12-game tear when De la Cruz arrived which included a 3-game sweep of the defending world champion Astros in Houston. The winning streak ended at twelve games with a ridiculous 11-10 Friday night win over Atlanta before a rare sell out in Cincinnati in which De La Cruz hit for the cycle – a home run, triple, double and single. Only the second time a Cincinnati Red player has done that (1989 – Eric Davis) in my lifetime.
The lure of baseball, to me, is unlike any other sport. The baseball season ushers in the return of the sun and spring. Players endure the heat and dog days of summer. And the fall brings the crisper weather with the legends of the game emerging in the World Series.
Baseball grew up with America. It was our first love. Early in the twentieth century greatness was popping up everywhere – the Gershwins, Babe Ruth, the skyscraper, Henry Ford and the automobile. And defeating the Germans in WWI.
America became a country. Though baseball may no longer be America’s pastime, it is undeniably weaved into the soul of our country.
Greatness in baseball requires not only talent and endurance but luck.
As Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) said to ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) in the great baseball movie Bull Durham (1988) “you know what the difference between a .300 hitter and one hitting .250 is? One more dying quail a week. One more ‘seeing eye’ ground ball a week. And the next thing you know you’re playing in Yankee Stadium.”
Maybe that’s the lure of baseball. The great ones can be humbled. And the ‘lucky’ ones can be great. Even if it’s just for one season. Or even one critical at bat.
NOTE: The first professional baseball team in Columbus, Ohio was the Columbus Buckeyes who played in 1876 at the Union Station grounds. Columbus has had professional baseball ever since, despite a six year hiatus in the early 1970s and Covid that canceled the 2020 season.
NOTE2: Columbus loves baseball, consistently ranking top five in minor league attendance every year. And baseball has loved Columbus back, having won eleven minor league baseball championships, more than any other city.
NOTE3: Baseball lost the ‘Hit King’ last year when Pete Rose passed away on September 30 at the age of 83. Pete holds the MLB record for hits with 4256, surpassing the great Ty Cobb by 67 hits. We lost the great Joe Morgan in 2020, so only six of the ‘Great Eight’ remain.
Sources: Mlb.com; baseball-reference.com; espn.com; baseballhall.org; ‘This Day in Reds History’, July 26, 2010, redlegnation.com; Baseball in Columbus by James R Tootle, 2003.