When did you fall in love?
...with the game, that is. I can remember the moment as if it happened only moments ago. I was 10 years old and my parents took me to Yankee Stadium. The crowds outside the stadium were intimidating, and I remember clinging to my father's side as people brushed past. We walked around the rotunda until we came through the entrance way to our section, and it hit me. The blue background, the green grass....I think of it now and my eyes water. It was the purest sight I can recall ever seeing....Yankee Stadium for the first time. From that moment on I have loved the game, and have absorbed it like a sponge. I am 33 years old but I still get goose bumps when a player signs an autograph for me, and I tear up at every national anthem before any game I go to. I thought of these things last night as my sister and I took my soon to be 3 year old niece to the Rays-Orioles game in Baltimore. She is only a month away from 3 years old, and I am pretty sure that I got more excitement out of B.J. Upton tossing me a ball to give her, but a few times I looked at her and she was staring off at the field, surveying it almost, and I wondered, is she falling in love with the game? I thought not once she starting playing with peanut shells on the ground for 7 innings, but who knows, maybe someday, at some game, she too will fall for the game I love.
Welcome to MLBlogs! For me it was when I had my tonsils taken out as a boy and someone brought me a new catcher's mitt at the hospital. That and ice cream worked. I was hooked!
Have fun here,
Mark/MLB.com
http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com
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My falling in love experience was also with the Yankees. I was a boy-crazy pre-teen who had an immediate crush on Mike Pagliarulo. I also remember watching games on television with my family - it was a nightly ritual in my family and our father's enthusiasm for the team and the game was infectious.
Great blog, by the way.
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I fell in love twice and still do whenever I see those pinstripes! First love was as a child, 8 yrs. old. My Dad took me to Yankee stadium, sat behind home plate and saw Yogi Berra. It was thrilling and I still get that feeling even now, watching Yogi in those AFLAC ads!!! Second time, we brought our daughter to Yankee stadium. She loved Lou Pinella. We went to the player's entrance area because she had written a "note" to give to Lou. She ended up standing right next to him, letter in hand, and in complete awe. She froze dead in her tracks and never gave the letter to Lou! I think she still has it! Great blog! Keep up the good work.
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Dear mlbbloger, Your love for the game was deep very deep that when it came to playing little league you didn't want me as your coach because I might get in the way. Get in the way when theyput you in for the basic three innings and sat you on the bench because you had played your precsribed time. It wasn't until you were eleven when they realized they had one of the better hitters in the league, putting balls against the fence and over. You may have fallen in love with the game but you enhanced by passion for the game watching you play from little league thru college. It was a great enjoyment following your baseball(softball) career. Thank You.
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