Play Ball! Wage Peace!

The New York Yankees. 

The Bronx Bombers.

The best team money can buy. (Mostly Red Sox fans, critics of the Yankees, throw that one out there.  And there is no doubt that pro ball players of all sports make waaaaay more money that most folks think they should.  The system behind them getting all that money implicates every pro sports fan who watches on TV, listens on the radio, or buys a ticket to go to the game...that's not the point of this posting.)

Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio, Berra, Maris, Kubek, Nettles, Williams, Ford, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter!
And "The Mick."  #7, Mickey Mantle.

You got your favorite team and players.  I got mine.  The Mick has been, since I was a kid, my favorite player of all time...but Jeter is now running a close second.

I re-read the following from David James Duncan recently.  Check this out:

"I cherish a theory I once heard propounded by G.Q. Durham that professional baseball is inherently antiwar. The most overlooked cause of war, his theory runs, is that it’s so damned interesting. It takes hard effort, skill, love and a little luck to make times of peace consistently interesting. About all it takes to make war interesting is a life. The appeal of trying to kill others without being killed yourself, according to Gale, is that it brings suspense, terror, honor, disgrace, rage, tragedy, treachery and occasionally even heroism within range of guys who, in times of peace, might lead lives of unmitigated blandness. But baseball, he says, is one activity that is able to generate suspense and excitement on a national scale, just like war. And baseball can only be played in peace. Hence G.Q.’s thesis that pro ball-players—little as some of them may want to hear it—are basically just a bunch of unusually well-coordinated guys working hard and artfully to prevent wars, by making peace more interesting."

That's #2, Derek Jeter playing at short, ready for one of his patented go-to-the-left, field-it-cleanly, jump-in-the-air-and-do-a-180-to-throw-the-runner-out-at-first moves.  Yeah, that's great stuff.

I doubt, however, that Jeter thinks he is artfully preventing war by making peace more interesting.  In fact, there are far too many dang wars going on everytime he takes his position on the field.  But, I did like that piece by Duncan, if only to wish-it-were-so.

Play Ball!  Wage Peace!  They don't go hand-in-hand, but wouldn't it be nice if they did!