America's PASTime

Several years ago I returned to the baseball field where, as a youth, teen, and young man, I played in countless organized baseball games. Starting behind the backstop, following the first base line, and all the way to the right field fence there lies a dense wooded area abutted by a sprawling horse pasture. Game after game, without fail, foul balls and mis-throws to first base quickly found themselves into the dense undergrowth never to be found again. One sweltering afternoon during the summer of 2011, I decided to brave that vast forest where the baseballs of my youth lay hidden from time, with the purpose of unearthing them and bringing them to light once again. My quest was a successful one. I discovered a trove of old balls just waiting to, once again, return to the potential of becoming a memory of something great. Most were in various stages of decay, each one changed, yet still as beautiful as the day they were removed from a brand new box. The new beauty that they exude represents the enduring beauty and resilience of America's Pastime - changed, yet still familiar and still beautiful after 5, or 20, or perhaps 30 years of lying in wait while generations of ballplayers played, grew into men, and moved beyond the playing days of the game they once loved.

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again." - Field Of Dreams