This is not a soccer field ... soccer is for sissies.
This is heaven ... or what heaven might be like ...
Yes, this is me - stretched in Center Field at RFK Stadium, the former home of the Washington Nationals. In June 2006, season ticket holders were invited to a party on the field after a Nat's game. Heaven, pure heaven. I took my shoes off, and ran barefoot through the grass ... and we adults got to run around the bases ... I slid to third. Awesome.
The other photo shows Screech, the Mascot of the Washington Nationals - one of my three teams. Yes, it is strange, but I do cheer for three teams: the New York Mets, the Baltimore Orioles, and the Washington Nationals ....
I love baseball. Baseball is the king of sports ...
"Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. 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. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come. "