Those who regularly visit Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff here in Concord CA know what a big baseball fan I am. I like several other sports, but I LOVE baseball!
Remember comedian George Carlin's bit about the differences between football and baseball?
Football is all about taking enemy territory until you reach a goal, while baseball is all about "going home". Football is a war, while baseball is still a game. Football is played in stadiums---a la the olden days of the Christians vs the lions in Rome's Colisseum, while baseball is played in parks...where we can all relax and enjoy the ggreen grass and sunshine as the game slowly unfolds. Most other sports are on a clock, while baseball is timeless. Baseball players and fans are also smart enough to head for cover when it rains or snows...
In my estimation, the world would be a lot better place if it was more of a baseball world---more peaceful, more timeless and better mannered. I know baseball isn't really a "gentleman's game"---nor was it ever. But its pace is a more healthy one for all of us--- and the lack of baseball on the calendar is matched up to a lack of sunlight in our winter days. You don't hear about people getting Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD) in June, do you?
So what does this all have to do with comics?
I'll stretch it a little and say this: Comics and baseball have some very positive things in common. The sublime pleasure of reading comics is as timeless and carefree as spending a warm summer day at the ballpark. We can rush through reading them ---or we can take our own sweet time to savor them. And the comics of our youth often will remind us of simpler times when we didn't have to watch a clock. For some nostalgists who double as baseball fans and comic readers, it's likely easy to recall where you were when you read that first issue of a favorite comic book--- or where you were when a big baseball event happened.
Who says we can't time travel?
FlyCoJoe
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