162 Reasons We're Glad Baseball's Back | Baseball Almanac

162 Reasons We're Glad Baseball's Back

In April 1997, baseball columnist Andrew Postman wrote a superb article for Diversion magazine giving one-hundred sixty-two reasons why he was happy baseball was back. It may be recent history, but it is still nothing short of legendary.

"Box scores. This is the only sport whose games you can actually reconstruct the morning after by reading the fine print." - Andrew Postman

162 Reasons We're Glad Baseball's Back by Andrew Postman (1997)
#	Reason
1.	World Series afterglow. The 1996 triumph by the long-lost Yankees left a sweet aftertaste in almost every fan's mouth - except perhaps Ted Turner's.
2.	For the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, this is next year.
3.	Baseball moves faster than golf.
4.	The labor agreement between the owners and the players. Pinch us.
5.	Great new baseball names like Arquimedez Pozo, Ugueth Urbina, and Pork Chop Pough.
6.	This is the year we finally catch a foul ball.
7.	Legendary broadcaster Vin Scully.
8.	Dick Vitale only covers college basketball.
9.	Fewer guys are wearing goatees.
10.	Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield will continue to get batters out with that cockamamy knuckleball.
11.	The bratwursts at Milwaukee's County Stadium.
12.	Maybe this year former World Series goats Mitch Williams and Bill Buckner can enjoy some peace. (Who am I kidding?)
13.	A new batch of rookies in their first-ever at bats.
14.	Every rookie (see no.13) who singles in his first-ever at bat, then stands on first, nonchalantly tucking his batting gloves in his back pocket and trying to look cool, when everyone can tell a smile is just aching to explode across his face.
15.	Ninth-inning, two-out rallies.
16.	Yet another season for fans to marvel at how that crafty old ploy - pitcher-fakes-throw-to-third-then-wheels-around-to-mail-runner-napping-on-first move - continues never to work. Never, ever.
17.	The strike zone will get bigger. (Logic? It can't get smaller.)
18.	The chance to see if Seattle Mariner Alex Rodriguez is for real, after he gave us the most phenomenal season by a middle infielder. Ever. While barely more than a rookie.
19.	The opening-month fantasy: the one that has you calculating the seasonal stats of your favorite player, who, if he can just maintain the pace he set in the season-opening, three-game series against Colorado Rockies pitching, is on pace to hit 216 HRs and 648 RBIs.
20.	The throwing.
21.	No clock.
22.	The Baseball Encyclopedia.
23.	Right before the Super Bowl, The New York Times had to pad the front page of its sports section with profiles of Dennis Rodman and Brian "the Boz" Bosworth.
24.	6-4-3.
25.	Cubs rooters, those beacons of dignity who, awash in a national sea of fair-weather fans, continue their traditions of throwing back enemy homers and never doing the wave.
26.	TV doesn't need to make the ball a blue dot or a red whoosh to get us to watch.
27.	The phrase (about any player who had only the briefest of major league careers) "He was up for a cup of coffee."
28.	Interleague play. Get ready Ohioans: Indians-Reds games count now. As do, Bay Area fans, meetings of the A's and the Giants. Etcetera.
29.	This is still the only sport you can enjoy on the radio.
30.	The hope, if utterly unfounded, that the quality of callers to sports radio talk shows will improve.
31.	After three-plus decades in the game, Yankees manager-good guy Joe Torre finally gets a World Series ring.
32.	The upper-deck, right-field facing at Tiger Stadium.
33.	A team at the bottom of the payroll list (maybe Montreal or Milwaukee) will give the big-bucks boys (the Braves, the Orioles, the Yankees, the White Sox) a run for their money, at least until September.
34.	Better April weather than in 1996. We hope.
35.	The American flag snapping in the afternoon wind at Wrigley Field, a sure sign that despite the earnest efforts of pitchers who take the mound that day (all 14 of them) the game will end up a 19-17 affair.
36.	Atlanta Braves ace Greg Maddux, having not won the Cy Young for the first time in four years, and having lost the final game of the World Series, actually has something to prove. Scary.
37.	The trend in stadium design toward greater intimacy (Baltimore, Cleveland, Texas) and real grass (Kansas City, St. Louis and Denver).
38.	Some hotshot young announcer with a great home run call. (May I try mine? "High. Far. Gone. End of Story!" Okay, maybe not.)
39.	Great Cuban born players, such as Osvaldo Fernandez of the Giants and Ariel Prieto of the A's, making a good living playing with and against their equals.
40.	Chalk, rosin, eye black.
41.	Seattle Mariners fireballer Randy Johnson once more composing chin music.
42.	Oakland A's slugger Mark McGwire uncoiling from his stance and giving the hoi polloi in the fourth deck a chance to scramble for a loose ball.
43.	National League umpire Jerry Crawford making a third-strike call, with mustard.
44.	Blue Jays catcher Benito Santiago gunning a runner down at second, with time to spare... from his knees.
45.	Kenny Lofton (Indians) and Marquis Grissom (Braves), Havoc Lads nos. 1 and 2 on the base paths, provoking migraines on the mound.
46.	Perennial batting champs and future Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn (San Diego) and Wade Boggs (New York) taking a close pitch and getting the call. Deservedly.
47.	The fastball of Atlanta Braves stopper Mark Wohlers.
48.	The motion of New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera.
49.	Florida Marlins outfielder-alchemist Devon White climbing the wall to turn a homer into an out.
50.	Cal Ripken Jr. just sitting in the Baltimore dugout, with blue-eyed intensity, watching the game.
51.	A season of severely decreased macarenas.
52.	The chance to pick which Dodgers phenom wins Rookie of the Year (five in a row and counting).
53.	The chance to pick which Braves pitcher wins the Cy Young. (Are you listening, Denny Neagle?)
54.	Third base coaches giving signs.
55.	Michael Jordan is sticking to hoops.
56.	Brian Jordan, former Pro Bowl defensive back and current St. Louis Cardinals star outfielder, is forgoing football.
57.	The 1996-1997 Boston Celtics.
58.	Some player thought to be in the twilight of his career will turn back the clock. (The 1996 crop: Roger Clemens fans 20; Dwight Gooden tosses first career no-hitter; Gary Gaetti flashes renewed home run swing.)
59.	The All-Star Home Run Derby.
60.	Leagues Grapefruit and Cactus.
61.	A chance to see if Aussie Graeme Lloyd can actually pitch more than on inning for the Yankees without some announcer using the phrase "Down Under."
62.	Teams who, believe it or not, are actually using the same uniform motif and colors for the second year in a row.
63.	The hope, if dim, that one starting pitcher, on a team not based in Atlanta, will be allowed to go the full nine innings.
64.	The sound of wooden bat meeting ball.
65.	Sox. White, Red, Blue, Argyle, whatever.
66.	World Series broadcasts: This year they'll be land-mined solely by the usual and numbing corporate hectoring of Nike/GM/Bud Light, and not also by nasty and numbing political commercials.
67.	It's the 100th anniversary of five-foot-four-inch Wee Willie "Hit 'em where they ain't" Keeler's greatest (and only) .400 season, a phenomenal .432 in 1897.
68.	It's the 50th anniversary of Al Gionfriddo's famous World Series catch against Joe DiMaggio. (The Dodgers won the game, but naturally, managed to lose the Series.)
69.	It's the 25th anniversary of Oakland A's catcher Gene Tenace's becoming the first player ever to homer in his first two World Series at bats. Okay, maybe this one's a stretch.
70.	Speed guns.
71.	On Opening Day, all 27 clubs who didn't win the 1996 World Series will fully believe that they have learned from last year's mistakes.
72.	For Pittsburgh Pirates fans: only 13 weeks to the start of Steelers training camp.
73.	For Houston Astros fans: This September can't possibly be worse than last year's shoot-self-in-foot September.
74.	For Boston Red Sox Fans: This April can't possibly be worse than last year's dig-crater-too-huge-to-climb-out-of April. (Also for Red Sox fans, as well as everyone else, Mo Vaughn.)
75.	For St. Louis Cardinals fans: the chance to erase the sting of a 32-1 hammering by the Braves in the final three games of the season.
76.	For Atlanta Braves fans: the chance to see the team break its current losing streak (four games).
77.	For Los Angeles Dodgers fans: the chance to see the team actually win a playoff game. (The Dodgers' 1995-1996 postseason record: 0-6, twice swept; with a total of 14 hits in three games last year against Atlanta starters, and the unique honor of not having produced a single homer.)
78.	For Baltimore Orioles fans: Roberto Alomar can't possibly do anything as vulgar in 1997 as he did in '96.
79.	For Seattle Mariners fans: the renewed hope that they will finally see what Ken Griffey Jr. can do during the course of a season in which he doesn't break part of his body.
80.	For San Diego Padres fans: the chance to see if MVP third baseman Ken Caminiti, whose stats improved dramatically each of the past four years, will require a league of his own.
81.	For Cincinnati Reds fans: Owner Marge Schott's exile continues.
82.	For Chicago White Sox fans: the sight of opposing pitchers stepping off the mound and wondering what is the point of pitching around All-World slugger Frank Thomas when what awaits them is pitching to All-World slugger Albert Belle. Or vice versa.
83.	For Detroit Tigers fans: a staff ERA under six. Well, then seven.
84.	For Philadelphia Phillies fans: Perhaps this is the year the Phillie Phanatic - garishly green, ubiquitous, irritating as hell - finally pulls a groin muscle, sidelining him for six months.
85.	For Florida Marlins fans: Kevin Brown (1996 ERA: .189) has teammates named Moises Alou, Bobby Bonilla, Gary Sheffield, Devon White, Alex Fernandez...
86.	For Toronto Blue Jays: The Rocket has landed.
87.	For Anaheim - yes, Anaheim - Angels fans: If nothing else, this hard-luck team has to be more uplifting then the O.J. trials.
88.	For Montreal Expos fans: They can still get more American dollars for their currency than Russians can for theirs.
89.	For San Francisco Giants fans: outfielder Barry Bonds. No matter how hard he tries to annoy, he is still the greatest player of the 1990s.
90.	For Oakland A's fans: the most spectacular batting practice team in baseball.
91.	For Milwaukee Brewers fans: the monikers Brew Crew and Cheeseheads (perhaps that last one's a little tired now).
92.	For Arizona Diamondbacks fans: continued psyching up for next season, when club records will surely be broken like never before.
93.	For New York Mets fans: an April free of the hype - well, as free of hype as a New York sports team's season ever gets - that last year humbled (can you say "humiliated"?) a pitching staff still soaking wet behind the ears.
94.	For Chicago Cubs fans: Seriously, why is this year different from all other years?
95.	For Colorado Rockies fans: relief (a concept foreign to their hurlers) that the rumored league resolution - to exempt all non-Colorado-based pitching staffs from having to take the mound at Coors Field - probably won't pass.
96.	For Cleveland Indians fans: a chance for the best American League team for the past three seasons to bring home more than just the 1995 pennant, and to show that there is life after the Belle.
97.	For Minnesota Twins fans: Paul Molitor, living Geritol commercial. Since the second half of Molitor's terrific career has improved on the first half - a rare and astonishing feat - then what about his going after Hank Aaron's hallowed third place spot on the all-time hits list (only 757 to go)?
98.	For Kansas City Royals fans: excellent beef. (For vegetarian Royals fans, there's not much to say.)
99.	For Texas Rangers fans: a chance to see how far a talented team can go, now that the "Never made the postseason before, so how will they screw it up this September?" label is gone.
100.	For Tampa Bay Devil Rays fans: See reason no. 92.
101.	At some point, a lazy pop foul that even you or I could catch will fall, untouched, in the midst of four infielders from our team's opponent, a gift.
102.	Two games up, but three in the all-important loss column.
103.	One hundred eight double stitches in every regulation baseball.
104.	The old-fashioned, to-the-knee sock height favored by the Braves' Chipper Jones and the Mets' Jason Isringhausen.
105.	Punching the glove before the ball lands in it.
106.	Box scores. This is the only sport whose games you can actually reconstruct the morning after by reading the fine print.
107.	Let's play two.
108.	We understand better how to pronounce Montreal infielder Mark Grudzielanek's last name, and we're hoping to learn more about Atlanta outfielder Andruw Jones' first.
109.	In the NFL, the Carolina Panthers are part of the Western Division.
110.	Some player will homer in his first game after his wife delivers. (Darryl Strawberry, who plays no favorites, homered in the first games after the birth of each of his first two kids.)
111.	Satellite dishes and big-screen TVs, for the junkie in all of us.
112.	Unlike in the military (excuse me; I mean football), the top guy doesn't wear a headset and his tactical unit strategists (excuse me; I mean coaches) aren't sequestered way up in sky boxes, calling plays.
113.	The column of numbers under "G," for "Games," on Cal Ripken Jr.'s new baseball card.
114.	Outfielders who toss third outs and foul balls to the nearest young or old fan.
115.	All the records that were not broken last year. (A truckload of them were, most of them hitting, most of them home run.)
116.	We get to see American League pitchers hit... or swing, anyway.
117.	The raised consciousness of overweight umpires. Because of the tragedy of John McSherry's Opening Day death last year in Marge Schott's house, they've learned the necessity of keeping fit.
118.	The elimination of bull pen cars. They were cute, but come on.
119.	The inner peace one gets from knowing something truly and deeply: that it's not possible for baseball's owners to get any greedier than they are right now (and, in fairness, probably always have been).
120.	Former Detroit and Cincinnati manager Sparky Anderson will start using higher sunblock.
121.	Derek Jeter.
122.	Bernie Williams.
123.	Andy Pettitte.
124.	Rooting for the Yankees is no longer akin to cheering for U.S. Steel.
125.	Now that they have a new group on winners, perhaps this season Yankees fans won't have to sit through another 4,000 testimonials to the greatness of the cold, haughty Joe DiMaggio.
126.	Maybe this year, talented but tortured Paul O'Neill will make an out just once with wanting to commit Harry Caray.
127.	It is rumored that 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier has been playing winter ball.
128.	After his disappointing year, pitcher Kenny Rogers will still hold a place in the hearts of New Yorkers, so long as he keeps serving up that great chicken.
129.	The 1996 World Series image of Wade Boggs riding a horse on the Yankee Stadium warning track supplants the 1986 World Series image of Wade Boggs in the Shea Stadium dugout, sobbing in defeat.
130.	When future teams lose the first two World Series games at home, mindless sportswriters will not be able to force-feed us the "Put-a-fork-in-'em, they're-done" notion.
131.	If you're a Republican, former Phillies pitching great Jim Bunning's in Congress.
132.	If you're a Democrat, Steve Garvey isn't.
133.	The hope that cliche-addicted stars will stop referring to themselves in the third person. (The fourth person, maybe?)
134.	The democracy (shame on you, ballot stuffers) of voting for your favorite All-Stars.
135.	A pitcher shaking off his catcher's call for the breaking ball because he wants to bring pure heat, just as he did when he was younger and threw baseballs through old tires hung from the trees.
136.	Fox TV's smart use of the upper left corner of the screen to show, continuously, the score, inning, number of outs, and runners on base.
137.	One of these guys - Chicago's Albert Belle or Frank Thomas, Oakland's Mark McGwire, Seattle's Ken Griffey Jr., Boston's Mo Vaughn - is poised to break Roger Maris' season home run record of 61. Full speed ahead, and damn the asterisks.
138.	The seventh-inning stretch.
139.	Infielders Jose Vizcaino and Jeff Kent, traded together from the Mets to the Indians, then traded together from the Indians to the Giants, will start their won vaudeville act.
140.	You'll see something (no matter how long you've been watching baseball) you've never seen before. So will veteran announcers such as Vin Scully and Tim McCarver; so will Buddha-in-the-Yankees-dugout Don Zimmer.
141.	Great old stories from former players-turned-announcers, during rain delays.
142.	Los Angeles' Hideo Nomo, whose pitching genius will become even more apparent as Americans grow used to the idea that baseball greatness can come from hemispheres other than our own.
143.	Managers going with their hunches despite computer printouts that tell them the odds favor making the righty-lefty switch. And hunching correctly.
144.	A home run trot. Even when there's some swagger, it still isn't as irritating as an end zone dance-and spike.
145.	We finally see who wins the winter-long bet over which manager loses his job first. (Jim Riggleman of the Chicago Cubs, are you listening?)
146.	For former Mets, the spirit of the phoenix. Yes, you can rise again, from drug abuse (Dwight Gooden), from tax evasion (Darryl Strawberry), from aneurysm (David Cone).
147.	Another season for those rarest of present-day name players - San Diego's Tony Gwynn, Cincinnati's Barry Larkin - who stay with one team their whole careers, and in so doing actually show the hometown faithful (brace yourself) some respect.
148.	Fewer total homers. Round trippers can't be as plentiful this season as last (they simply can't), and sports highlights can't possibly be so reverential of the dozens of freakish, opposite-field taters being hit by every anemic infielder (see Elster, Kevin).
149.	Bases loaded, with no outs and a 2-0 count on our no. 3 hitter.
150.	Yogi may never again set foot inside Yankee Stadium, but he's still around somewhere, because that's where he is.
151.	Seven months of ESPN SportsCenter diamond highlights.
152.	To quote the marvelous sportswriter Red Smith: "Ninety feet between home plate and first base may be the closest man has ever come to perfection."
153.	Play ball!
154.	I lied. This, and not no.162, is my last reason why we're glad baseball is back. Why lie? To make my point that certain things - clever lists, say, or baseball seasons - can go on just a little too long.
162 Reasons We're Glad Baseball's Back by Andrew Postman

This legendary list appears EXACTLY as it was listed in Diversion and is the sole property of the magazine, its author (Andrew Postman), and Baseball Almanac.

Go through the list carefully. Was Andrew Postman correct more often than incorrect? Baseball Almanac believes he might have known the future...

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