Baseball Is More than Just a Game

By Leonard Wibberley

First Published June 14, 1979

3/29/2023

Photo Credit Manfred Guttenberger Pixabay — Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

The other day I went to Dodger Stadium with two young friends, Steve and Frances, from England.

And while I was sitting there looking about at the crowd spread through the stands like confetti, I began to wonder whether the ancient Britons were not exercising some influence on the ball team and its fans.

It was the color blue that brought this thought to mind. Blue is, of course, the Dodger color and all the handrails were painted blue at the stadium and so are a great number of the seats. But blue was also the predominant color worn by the spectators, far outstripping red. I would say that well over half the 40,000 or so people in the ballpark were wearing something blue—blue pants mostly but also blue T-shirts.

Attributing as much of this as is reasonable to loyalty to the Dodgers, that still left a great deal over for loyalty to the ancient Britons. For blue was also their favorite color—it was almost the color by which they were identified from other tribal groups. They made a blue dye called woad out of the juice of acorns, and the social anthropologists insist that their love of blue was passed on to modern Britons who prefer that color over all others. But I think it was also passed on to the Dodgers and their fans in some mystic way and the chariot warriors Boadecia and Caractacus may well be Dodger rooters.

One of the great things about going to a ball game is that it helps to take your mind off the cobwebby problems of life, and fool around with the ancient Britons, and also the art of making paper airplanes, which is something I was expert at as a boy, though I have lost all talent for it now. Paper airplanes, of course, however well made, rely like gliders on convection currents to do the soaring at all That is why they fly very much better at games played on a summer afternoon than at night games when the air is chilly and there are practically no convection currents at all.

The game I went to was a day game and the afternoon beautifully sunny. It was what is called a “businessman’s special,” for most of the children were in school, and the seats occupied almost entirely by adults.

But the adults were still making paper airplanes just as the children do in the evenings. They made some pretty good ones, too, which soared about the seats from tier to tier, sometimes rising when they hit a column of hot air.

It was while watching one of them that I missed the only home run of the game, hit by Steve Garvey. It was perhaps the most tactless home run hit all season. For in that particular game Joe Altobelli, manager of the Giants (Did I say the Dodgers were playing the Giants—I did not? Well they were) anyway, Joe Altobelli was thrown out for arguing with the first base umpire about a ball which hit the umpire and which he declared foul but Altobelli declared fair.

Then Jim Davenport was thrown out of the game for insisting on the same point. And when everything seemed to have simmered down, catcher Mike Sadek got annoyed about the whole thing and took up the argument again with such effect that he also was thrown out of the game.

He retired to the dugout and did a sort of strip-tease, throwing his chest protector, his mask and his shin pads one by one into the field. My English friend Steve said to me “I expect it is a bit hot wearing all that stuff. I’d be glad to get it off myself.”

When I recovered from that remark, Steve Garvey stepped up to the plate and hit that home run on the first pitch, which was a trifle unsporting. I was watching that paper airplane made by a young business executive and missed it, but I looked immediately at the Giant dugout hoping to see the disgusted Sadek throw out his shirt and pants. But he disappointed me.

I am writing now about the ancillary delights of going to a ball game, and do not want for a moment to suggest that the game is so boring that one has to look about for other sources of amusement. Quite the contrary. But baseball is one of the few spectator sports which permits you to enjoy the game, the people, the fresh air, the birds and so on.

And talking about birds, Capistrano does indeed have its marvelous swallows, but Dodger stadium has swallows too. Actually, I think they are martins, but they swoop about the field all day, not in the least upset by the arguments with the umpire or the rival paper airplanes.

All this leaves me with two suggestions for the Dodger management. The first is that some afternoon they permit all the young businessmen and women of Los Angeles to assemble in the Stadium and hold a Paper Airplane Long Distance Flight and Acrobatics Contest. The second is that they watch carefully for the arrival of the first swallow of the year at Dodger Stadium. I bet it turns up on the opening day. And in Dodger blue.

***** NEW ON KINDLE *****

APPRENTICE TO A REVOLUTION

In this BONUS book in the Treegate Series on American History, the author takes readers back to the beginning—to the Revolutionary War—in another epic adventure with a new young hero.

In this classic coming-of-age story set during the Revolutionary War, 16-year-old Matt Tyler (a naïve cobbler’s apprentice) unwittingly aids a rebel spy and is forced to slip behind British enemy lines to survive—only to be captured by the Continental Army. His only hope to make it home alive is to find a strength he never knew he had.

Along the way, Matt finds himself caught up in major events of the Revolutionary War—from the Crossing of the Delaware and the Siege of Boston to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

Apprentice to a Revolution is the eighth book in the series, which makes a great companion to study of the Revolutionary War era.

Each book in the series is complete to itself and can be enjoyed if read in any order. However, for greatest reading pleasure, it’s recommended that the books be read in sequence.

“A real thriller about the Revolution and a Boston lad who becomes a soldier through a strange turn of fate. Don’t miss the share of excitement that will be yours when you read this book!”—Boston Herald

★★★★★ “Exciting battles on land and sea, generals and spies, a courageous pirate and a cowardly captain, Red Coats and Pennsylvania Riflemen, and a little romance and heartbreak all figure into this high-spirited tale of America’s struggle for independence.”—Goodreads Review Find Apprentice to a Revolution on Amazon here.

ATTAR OF THE ICE VALLEY

In the time of the Ice Age, a teenage Neanderthal boy named Attar must question all the beliefs he was raised with in order to find new hunting grounds and save his starving tribe. His journey tests the limits of his endurance as he braves new lands, tames a feared predator (a wolf-dog), and comes face-to-face with a volcano.

★★★★★ “Wonderful book. Vividly written account of the challenges faced by a prehistoric teenage boy. I’ve read it twice as an adult. The hero is a genius for his time, like the heroine of the Clan of the Cave Bear. However, I personally prefer Attar of the Ice Valley to Jean Auel’s heroine (though I remember enjoying Auel’s first Clan of the Cave Bear book).”—Amazon Review

★★★★ “This book got me emotional because of the writer’s illustration of the ancestors of the Homo sapiens. Wowed.” —Goodreads Review

“Tightly woven, presented in deceptively simple, stark tones, (this book) shows a way of life stripped to bare essentials: a full belly, warmth, and a roof to shut out cold, wind and rain. The flab of today’s civilization hides what these things meant to those early cavemen who fought only to survive. The story centers on Attar and his struggle as a boy hardening into a man—the Ice Age, his taming of the wolf as the first dog, the accidental discovery of a spear and bola, the first exposure to ocean tides and a live volcano… The author writes about the dawn of mankind with control so expert that the reader feels himself huddling with Attar’s tribe, fearful of the unknown.”—New York Times Find Attar of the Ice Valley on Amazon here.