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It’s now official… summer is just around the corner as the major league baseball season has begun. Briefly, it was possible that the greater Tri-City area would host a major league franchise. Back in 2008, the Oakland A’s were toying with the idea of moving to Fremont as part of a ballpark village concept. Opposition to increased traffic congestion and attendant problems of large crowds – noise, crime, etc. – fueled local rejection of the idea until the team called the plan quits in 2009.
Was this part of a pressure campaign to convince Oakland that a new and better contract (and ballpark) was necessary? Probably. As a result, the A’s remain in Oakland although their football counterpart Raiders, departed for Las Vegas. The A’s opened their 2023 season in the Oakland Coliseum and fans are back, watching their favorite players while listening to vendors cruising by with cries of “peanuts!” and other assorted snacks. A leisurely day at the ballpark is vintage Americana, no matter what venue or level of play – major league, minor league, college, high school, little league or even a pick-up game.
Whether Bay Area fans root for the A’s or San Francisco Giants, the game has been modified this year to shorten pitching pauses and increase base size to encourage more action on the basepaths (i.e., base “stealing”). Even for those unmoved by the national pastime, the appearance of the “boys of summer” is a sign that spring is here. Spring is also associated with hope and renewal as storm clouds dissipate, the sun dominates daytime and flowers bloom. Celebrations at this time of rejuvenation are indicative of renewal and salvation through biblical stories of suffering followed by miraculous rebirth. Both Easter and Passover traditions honor belief in the triumph of faith and deliverance over desperate circumstances that threaten core values of humanity.
A combination of good weather, the promise of a successful baseball season and the joy of miraculous historical events can be a prelude to a fruitful and peaceful year ahead. The political scene is uncertain and personal issues can become overwhelming at times, but it can also be the best time to take a break at a ball game, rooting for the home team with a hot dog and box of Cracker Jacks. The spirit of a 1908 song that has endured as the unofficial anthem of baseball says it all…
Take me out to the ballgame,
Take me out with the crowd
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks
I don’t care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don’t win, it’s a shame.
For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out,
At the old ball game.
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