My Baseball Origins

As a sophomore at Rowan University majoring in physical education, I enrolled in an elective psychology course because it was a bullshit, money-grabbing requirement for graduation. The class met once a week for 2.5 hours over the duration of the semester, but despite spending nearly 40 hours in class that could have otherwise been spent playing Halo 3, there isn't much I remember learning in this course. I can't even fathom a guess as to what the professor's name was, and that's coming from a person who remembers the names of every player in the Baltimore Orioles starting lineup in World Series Baseball '95 for Sega Game Gear. However, I do remember three things from my time spent in that Wilson Hall lecture hall:

(1) I remember writing all three of my major papers on examples of psychological disorders found in movies I had recently downloaded on DC++, like Rounders (addiction), Memento (anterograde amnesia), and Fight Club (dissociative identity disorder.)

(2) I remember writing all three of these papers (and all papers for every other college class) in APA format after spending all of middle and high school failing to understand MLA citation.

(3) I remember learning that the earliest memories formed by most human beings can go back as far as 3 years old. More on that later.

Flash forward to yesterday, a Saturday night dinner spent at my parents' house in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. After indulging in some takeout from Texas Roadhouse, my father casually mentioned finding a box in his home office, filled with old ticket stubs from various baseball games we attended over the years.

Before I continue, let me explain what my father's "home office" consists of.  It's a room that's so tiny it starts to feel very warm if more than 2 people are inside at the same time. Inside this room is your standard office stuff - a desk, a computer with a home sized printer/copier, an office chair, etc. - but he also has his own little baseball museum of sorts that includes some common and some no-so-common memorabilia. This includes, but is not limited to:

-A one-of-a-kind, custom made replica of the scoreboard from Ebbets Field
-Two stadium seats from Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, home of the Atlanta Braves until 1996.
-A framed copy of the contract signed when Babe Ruth was traded to the New York Yankees in 1918.
-A baseball signed by Mickey Mantle
-Approximately 100,000 baseball cards (not exaggerating) ranging in value from being worthless monetarily to certain cards that at one point in time worth well over $1,000.

In this tiny room is an even tinier closet that contains things from my baseball career (1994-2008) such as a few rec league jerseys and hats, every baseball glove I've ever used aside from the one currently in the trunk of my car, and some pictures other things that my father never bothered to throw away. While going through some things out of quarantine related boredom, he found the aforementioned box of old ticket stubs. One of the tickets inside this box was dated July 17, 1993 - the first baseball game I ever attended.

I wish actual ticket stubs would become a thing again

The New York Yankees hosted the Oakland A's in a pitching matchup between Oakland's Bobby Witt (who received 0 votes on his Hall of Fame ballot) and New York's Jim Abbott (who was born with one hand.) The first batter I ever saw take the box in person was the legendary Rickey Henderson who in his first at bat of the day, proceeded to hit 1 of his MLB record 81 career leadoff home runs, and I was hooked to the sport immediately. Watching Rickey trot around the bases to give the A's a 1-0 lead is the earliest childhood memory I have, which echoes what I learned in psychology class about humans developing memories at 3 years old.

Ok, so the last sentence is just as much bullshit as the fact that my degree required 3 psychology credits. I just looked up the box score on Baseball Reference and my father says I watched very little of the game but was instead more concerned with eating my ice cream out of a mini plastic Yankees helmet. 

Fortunately my interest level would increase as I grew older and attended more and more games. While I don't remember a single thing from that particular game, my father unknowingly opened my world to a sport that has been a huge part of my life. I've since attended a few hundred more baseball games between MLB and minor/independent leagues and my vacation and getaways the last few years have revolved around what teams are in what cities at what time. 

Last summer, I was able to attend games at 12 different professional stadiums and had intended on adding at least 6 or 7 more this summer before COVID-19 put a damper on things. Everybody in the health industry has advised the public to be "safe at home", which means something a little different in life than in baseball. After 3 weeks of having bare minimum human contact, I've reached the blog stage of quarantine. I miss the game of baseball and feel like I need to talk extensively about it despite the current season being suspended indefinitely. The other day I got sucked into wormhole about Jamie Moyer 's career oddities and realized I need some form of therapy. Maybe this is it.

Jamie MoyerChris McGrath/Getty Images

I'm not sure what direction this blog will head in but some things I plan to write about include those 12 stadiums I went to (and more in the future), some crazy baseball facts and stats, and some other stories, memories, and thoughts that might pop up along the way. 

A few additional notes:

-Orioles starting lineup in World Series Baseball '95 by position... Chris Hoiles (C), Rafael Palmeiro (1B), Mark McLemore (2B), Leo Gomez (3B), Cal Ripken Jr. (SS), Brady Anderson (LF), Mike Devereaux (CF), Jack Voigt (RF), and Harold Baines (DH) with Mike Mussina on the mound.

-My dad bought those 1993 tickets to Yankees/A's because he wanted to watch one of his favorite players, Mark McGwire, play in person. McGwire was given that day off in favor of some guy named Lee Blankenship. McGwire getting a day of rest every time we went to watch him play was a running theme for many years. 

-The first stage of quarantine was the Marvel Cinematic Universe stage. The second stage was the Tiger King stage. We're currently on stage 3 and I'm scared to find out what stage 4 and beyond looks like.

-One Jamie Moyer fact... he pitched in FIFTY (50!!) different MLB stadiums.