It's March 31, 2011 ...
One hundred and eighty seven days ago, I was there when Comerica Park closed its gates for the summer, and seven days later, the Detroit Tigers ended their season in Baltimore. It's been 180 days since the season ended, and in my opinion, it's been 180 days too long. And sure, we've had spring training exhibition games for a few weeks now, and that is enough to curb my cravings a bit, but I've been ready for these boys to come north for awhile now.
Today is the day that I've been waiting for months. I've waited through endless Snowmageddons. I thought about it as I chipped ice off of my windshield sometimes two and three times a day. I thought about it while I was tailgating at college football games, and missed it while I was watching the Red Wings take the ice. When my Golden Retriever puppy, Juliette, needed to go outside again, in the frozen tundra and the snow was so deep that it got inside my boots that come almost all the way up to my boots, I thought I was literally going to freeze from the inside out. But I closed my eyes, and pretended that I was sitting at a seat on the baseline, and that the bitterly cold wind I was feeling was actually just a gentle summer breeze blowing over the ballpark. Eventually winter would leave, and spring would be here. Or at the very least, baseball would be back. And in seven days, they will be, and I will be there. It's Michigan, so we can't truthfully believe that winter has had it's final say yet, and the Tigers often arrive here with the promise of spring before the actual season decides that it's ready to settle in for good.
So, in honor of the start of baseball season, most especially in honor of the Detroit Tigers, who most believe (myself included) have something really big on the horizon, here are a ton of quotes -- all baseball, sunshine, spring or summer related. Enjoy -- and GO TIGERS!
"It's the first time breaking camp with the team and that's cool. It's an honor and everything. But I fully expected to be here. I did a few things last year. But I also know competition is good for the organization, and I never have a problem with competing. Now, I'm just excited to talk about 2011."
-Brennan Boesch
"I look at what they bring to the party, not the things they don't bring."
-Jim Leyland
"I feel like I'm trying less, but the results are more. Hopefully, I can stay in that good mindset where I feel relaxed, kind of letting the game come to me a little bit."
-Brennan Boesch
"Didn't get the result I wanted, but sometimes the at-bat that doesn't produce a good result, you can learn a lot from."
-Brennan Boesch
"We're not perfect, but we're a pretty good team. I'm happy with the results of spring training in all ways. We're getting the big boys ready, playing the young kids and somewhere around .500 -- it all worked out pretty good. We're like every team -- we're ready to get out of here. Start playing for keeps now."
-Jim Leyland
"From an organizational perspective, we're stronger than we've been since I've been here. I think part of that is, for awhile we had to trade a lot of young players to bring veteran players on board."
-Dave Dombrowski
"I've never really been a platoon or part-time player. My job, I think, is to make it as hard as I can for the Skipper not to put me in the lineup."
-Brennan Boesch
"There are times when a passion burns so strongly, that nothing seems as significant, and the things that should matter fade into the shadows, out-shown by a hero, a hobby or new found love. ... Baseball pulled my life into its orbit, spinning me gloriously into the sport, sending me dreamy journey, alive with promise and populated with Kalines and Lolitchs and Hortons. What I wanted most was to talk baseball. To watch it. To hear it. To read about it. To convert the uninitiated. To fill my hours of all they could hold. My dad understood. He had been similarly enraptured. ... He savored our common passion. ... Early on, I got my first glimpse of Tiger Stadium, the ballpark of my youth; a towering, embracing place. The home to heroes, a keeper of dreams."
-from The Road To Cooperstown by Tom Stanton (this narration was also featured in episode 1x03 of Baseball's Golden Age)
"Baseball is a tongue-tied kid from Georgia growing up to be an announced and praising the Lord for showing him the way to Cooperstown."
-Ernie Harwell
"Baseball is a lot like life. It's a day-to-day existence, full of ups and downs. You make the most of your opportunities in baseball as you do in life."
-Ernie Harwell
"God blessed me by putting me here for thirty-one years at Michigan and Trumbull. I had the greatest job in the world -- a job I loved to do. Bust most of all, I appreciate you fans. I appreciate your loyalty, your support, and your love that you've shown me, especially the love."
-Ernie Harwell
"If I walked back into the booth in the year 2025, I don't think it would have changed much. I think baseball would be played and managed pretty much the same as it is today. It's a great survivor."
-Ernie Harwell
"I love the game because it's so simple, yet it can be so complex. There's a lot of layers to it, but they aren't hard to peel back."
-Ernie Harwell
"The greatest single moment I've ever known in Detroit was Jim Northrup's triple in the seventh game of the World Series in St. Louis. It was a stunning moment because not only were the Tigers winning a world championship that meant so much to an entire city, they were beating the best pitcher I ever saw -- Bob Gibson."
-Ernie Harwell
"Baseball just came as simple as a ball and bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, a business, and sometimes almost even a religion."
-Ernie Harwell
"I love what I do. If I had my time over again, I'd probably do it for nothing."
-Ernie Harwell
"Radio is such a great medium. It makes you use one of the most important things God gave you - imagination. The listener can picture what the announcer is telling you."
-Ernie Harwell
"One of the last true gentlemen, Harwell, to many of us, was more than just a guy calling Tigers games. He was family."
-from lastangryfan.com
"He stood there like the house by the side of the road, and watched it go by."
-a relatively famous Ernie Hawell-ism that he often used while calling games
You've gotta have heartAll you really need is heart
When the odds are sayin' you'll never win
That's when the grin should start
You've gotta have hope
Mustn't sit around and mope
Nothing's half as bad as it may appear
Wait'll next year and hope
When your luck is battin' zero
Get your chin up off the floor
Mister you can bea hero
You can open any door,
There's nothin' to it, but to do it
You've gotta have heart
Miles and miles and miles of heart
Oh, it's fine to be a genius of course
But keep that old horse
Before the cart
First you've gotta have heart
-"Heart" from the musical Damn Yankees
The nights are getting warmer, it won't be long
Won't be long 'til summer comes
Now that the boys are here again
-"The Boys Are Back In Town" by Thin Lizzy
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
And I say it's all right
Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
Little darling, the smile's returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right ...
Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
And I say it's all right
It's all right
-"Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles
Take me out to the ball game
Take me out to the crowd
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
I don't care if I ever get back
So let's root, root, root for the Tigers
If they don't win it's a shame
For it's one, two, three strikes you're out,
At the old ball game
-"Take Me Out To The Ball Game" by Jack Norworth
And finally, a classic ...
For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of the birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
-Song of Solomon 2:11 (as Ernie Harwell always read at the beginning of baseball season)
