365 Photo Project - Day 94

Taken: April 4, 2010, 2:30 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, Ca.

I love baseball. For me it's a state of mind, like a brilliant memory sparked by a sound or smell, like breathing in a perfect spring day or the crisp salty air of the sea.

I love the languid pace, the poetry, the bright white of home uniforms against that perfectly cut green grass, the strategy, the sound of a baseball crowd - so distinctive and punctuated by the calls of the hotdog and beer vendors. The crack of baseballs off bats or landing in leather are cliches yes, but for me they resonate deep in my soul, they warm my heart, for me they call me home.

I'm a big fan of other sports but baseball is my favorite, the game I most love and love to play.

And this is the season of my heart's content. Tomorrow is opening day for my game and my team, the Mets.

The word is my boys aren't going to be very good this year but I'm a true fan so my hopes are alive and well, hopeful. Everybody is in first before the opening pitch after all. (Well not the Yanks and Red Sox who played tonight with thr Sox winning which warms my heart because a) I hate the Bombers and b) I spent my summers as a kid on Cape Cod before cable and the world wide webs and the only baseball games were Sox games.)

But I digress. I remain one of the last true believers. I know the game has changed and I know the changes mostly suck. I know and I don't care.

Each spring I'm lured back to the game like a salmon returning to its spawning grounds. Each spring I fall in love all over again. I believe once more.

I shot this with my K100D, edited in Photoshop. Hope it doesn't rain tomorrow.