To Baseball

[By Tom Byrne. If you know the Byrnes, you know that if there is discussion about fishing, there is also discussion about baseball.]

Baseball is the Byrne family sports fabric. If you are not passionate about your team and you think using the word "hate" when talking about the Yankees is a little extreme - you'll have a hard time understanding the "discussions" around such topics as why the DH should be in both leagues and why should Jon Daniels be shown the door even after being the only Rangers GM to bring them to the World Series.

ET Byrne III & IV. 

My son, father and I have attended almost every home opener in Arlington for the last 20+ years. When they win that first game, it's like the world couldn't be brighter - we are on our way to the championship. When they lose, there is over analysis and arm chair managing all the way home.

Baseball was the first sport I knew and played in an organized league. It's the game of summer and being outside and no school. It brings together all the things we love in sports, heroes and goats and impossible, crazy stats and performances. I saw Nolan Ryan get his 5000th strikeout, Kenny Rogers pitch a perfect game and Bo Jackson hit a home run so hard and far that the the players in the field didn't even move when they saw it come off his bat.

But it is the time I have had with my family at the park that I remember most. The discussions on every aspect of the game, the way the field looks, the peanuts and beer, and if our expectations will meet the reality at the end of the season in September.

Above it all, though, was the look on my son's face when he realized he was getting out of school to go spend the day watching his favorite team play.