Gene Mauch and History...

Growing up in St. Louis, the closest I ever got to watching Gene Mauch was the '86 ALCS, the one that forever linked Dave Henderson to Donnie Moore and tragedy.  I remember watching that game and that series.  Around September 15 of every season I about the Cardinals team that caught Mauch's Phillies, overcoming a 6 1/2 game lead with 12 games left.  I never met him, spoke to him, covered a team that played one of his, or (outside of the playoffs or occasional Game of the Week), watched his teams play on tv.  I couldn't tell you a word about his managerial style outside of what I've read today in articles honoring his life.

But I know who he is, I know what he did, and though it was in the tiniest of ways, his life overlapped with mine. 

Baseball is a long game.  It's history is long, it's season is long, it's games are long.  That length can be a curse, as anyone who has suffered through an August game in Tampa can tell you.  But that same length gives the game what makes it most special.  Context and history.  My brother (ak.mlblogs.com) has never been the baseball fan that I have.  I played the game longer and more often than he did, I've always taken stats more seriously.  Honestly, I can't remember ever seeing him hold a baseball card (Recently, I found a pile of cards I'd set aside as potential winners down the road.  Seriously, I must have saved every freakin' rookie card on the planet, no matter how useless.  I had four Van Snyder rookie cards.  Van Snyder doesn't have four Van Snyder rookie cards).  But he still signpost the 80's based on what the Cardinals were doing and who was on the team.  That and which John Hughes movie came out that year. 

Length is what allows the game to wind itself into the national fabric the way it does.  It's what allows broadcasters to tell stories to fans, fathers to tell stories to their kids.  Every 15 second gap between pitches is a chance to learn about a player.  Every minute and a half between innings is a chance to learn about a season.  Time enough to teach someone to keep the book.  Length is what makes a boring game in May exciting in October.  It's what makes baseball often more interesting to talk about as in intellectual exercise than watch on tv.  All at once length is why no sport will ever be so fundamental a part of American life and why kids seem to be leaving it at the same time.  Take a kid to a hockey game.  They may get hooked on the sport- there isn't a better one to watch- but they won't sense the history.  There's no time to explain it.