COMMENTARY : America’s Family Sport Simply Endures

Peter Ueberroth said it five years ago, when he was baseball commissioner:

“The magic of baseball is elusive and impossible to explain. Perhaps this is one reason that it has captured the hearts of Americans for generations.”

That’s the way it is with our national pastime. Nothing is able to spoil its mystique.

There was the Black Sox scandal in 1919 and the beanball death of Roy Chapman the year after. Baseball survived.

Last year, when the game was besmirched by the Wade Boggs and Pete Rose affairs, major-league baseball smashed its all-time attendance record for the fourth consecutive season. The game drew 55,173,096.

Despite franchise shifts, labor conflicts, drug abuse and more, America remains hopelessly in love with baseball.

What is it about the game that so enflames our passions?

The baseball philosophers and pundits, the George Wills and John Updikes and Roger Angells, write of the civility of the summer game, the renewal process, about baseball as hyperbole for life.

But the words of the late Bill Veeck keep coming back.

“Baseball,” said Veeck, “has a family connotation that sets it apart from other sports.”

That becomes more evident every day. It was evident last Saturday morning when the Baltimore Orioles held a clinic at Memorial Stadium for kids ages 6 to 12. The clinicians were Bob Milacki, Sam Horn, Elrod Hendricks, Curt Motton and Randy Milligan. The bullpen area and the parking lot outside it were packed.

“We’ve got 550 kids here,” said an overjoyed Julie Wagner, the club’s community relations director.

“And just about that many parents,” added one of her assistants.

To watch Randy Milligan surrounded by 150 or so kids is to see this whole thing in microcosm.

Milligan has a soft voice, a gentle smile and a wry sense of humor. He’s the perfect conduit for the youngster having his first contact with a big league player.

Kid: “Hey, Randy, who’s pitching tonight?”

Milligan: “For the other team, McGaffigan. For the Orioles, Pete Harnisch. And Cal Ripken will be in the lineup.”

Kid: “What about that fight last night, Randy?”

Milligan: “It’s not necessary to fight but sometimes you have to grab somebody so nobody gets hurt.”

Kid: “If Nolan Ryan hit you with a 95 mile an hour fastball, would you charge the mound?”

Milligan: “No. I’d be in too much pain.”

Kid: “Do you know all the guys on the other teams?”

Milligan: “Being a first baseman, I get to meet ‘em all when they get to first base, and I can honestly say 90 percent of them are nice guys. Jose Canseco is a little arrogant. He thinks he’s a better player than everybody else. You have to remember, there’s always somebody better than you.”

Kid: “How do you become a good hitter?”

Milligan: “You have to spend a lot of time in the batting cage. It takes a lot of practice to develop a good eye. Of course if you saw the game last night you’d say I don’t have a very good eye.”

Kid: “You struck out three times.”

Milligan: “Thanks for reminding me.”

One family of four was so taken with Milligan and with the spirit of the moment, they came back that night to see the Orioles play the Kansas City Royals.

“Give me four bleacher seats,” the father told the ticket seller.

“Nineteen dollars,” said the seller.

“Don’t you have any bleacher seats?” the father asked.

“That’s what I gave you,” said the seller. “Section 16. Left-field bleachers. They’re $4.75 apiece. That’s $19.”

“That’s cheaper than the movies,” said the mother, who had just paid $6.50 for a ticket to see Dick Tracy.

So they joined the crowd of 48,160. Only Opening Day has drawn a bigger crowd this year.

By the second inning the two kids wanted peanuts. The father went down to the concession stand. Waiting in line, he missed 25 minutes of the game. Two small Cokes, a hot pretzel, a bag of peanuts and M&M;’s were $6.50.

This is no revelation. Everyone who goes to the games knows that even a cheap night at the ballpark is not terribly cheap. That’s just the way it is as baseball is passed on from one generation to the next.

And America can’t seem to get enough of it.