If you grew up playing, watching or coaching baseball (or softball), a trip to Phillies camp in Clearwater does genuinely have you asking the Field of Dreams question: \u201cIs this heaven?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Phantasy Camp is about playing and talking baseball, of course. But it\u2019s about much more. It\u2019s about the bonding. It\u2019s a reminder \u2014 a beacon of hope \u2014 that there are things in society that draw us together. We do have much in common \u2014 memories, emotions, and relatable stories. In a culture of division and a constant barrage of information, sound bites and images that viciously \u2014 even understandably \u2014 pull us apart, there are still events, shared experiences and people that bring us together.<\/p>\n
Every camper fully understands George Will\u2019s commentary:\u201cBaseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campers are men and women from minimum age 30 (a teammate tried to comfort us by saying he\u2019s almost 31) to 80-plus. Among us you\u2019ll find retired military, fudge-makers, musicians, judges, salesmen, small business owners, police officers, retirees, coaches \u2014 and even a political commentator. Many play in various leagues \u2014\u00a0 from 35-plus to 65-plus. Some haven\u2019t touched a bat since their teens. Some spend time playing (or coaching) softball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The love of baseball binds us together. Playing. Watching. Talking about it. The teammates we had. Players we\u2019ve coached. Stars we admired.<\/p>\n
As an aspiring baseball player, whose \u201ccareer\u201d ended when a coach pointed out that (sort of) 5-foot-8, right-handed, singles-hitting players don\u2019t have careers as first basemen, who\u2019s been blessed to see games at Connie Mack, The Vet and The Bank, and who turned that love of the game into three decades of coaching baseball and softball (27 and counting), I got emotional standing on the Carpenter Complex fields, where Bowa, Kruk and Hamels played \u2014 and now coach \u201ccampers\u201d like me. And, yes, where Harper works to become \u201celite.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being blessed to come back for a second time with my squad \u2014 \u201cTeam Lefty\u201d (if you have to ask why the name, well\u2026), what actually struck me was James Earl Jones\u2019s line in Field of Dreams that baseball does remind many of us \u201cof all that was once good \u2014 and could be good again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sports transcends so much of life, and of society. Baseball even more so because it has existed for so long, played by so many, and because we can all debate statistics \u2014 be they old-school like the \u201cvalue\u201d of runs scored, or new-school \u2014 does \u201cWAR\u201d matter more than the eye test? Campers can all relate to the Seinfeld quote: \u201cI could read the sports page if my hair was on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are campers who are great ballplayers, be they 30 or 70. They glide effortlessly, instinctively to field balls. Some can hit the ball nearly 400 feet. And there are pitchers in their 60\u2019s throwing sliders. Others, well\u2026they\u2019re just as much to be admired. They wear leg braces. They need pinch-runners. They smile going hitless in camp. They have to go to the training room twice a day. Others of us fall in between.<\/p>\n
All so we can play the game we love.<\/p>\n
But campers soon learn that they\u2019re really there for the camaraderie. They willingly share time at favorite positions, or sit out an inning so a teammate can play. They offer advice and support to one another \u2014 be it a fist pump, a bro-hug, or Advil.<\/p>\n
That bond is built faster than a Matt Stairs home run leaving Dodgers stadium. (One of my coaches. The other is Aaron Rowand \u2014 it\u2019s why I know to give 110 percent for every fly ball to the outfield.)<\/p>\n
The Legend coaches are fantastic, offering instruction, support and war stories \u2014 and off-color jokes. When Charlie Manuel talks about hitting, it\u2019s like Stephen Hawking discussing physics: pull up a chair and listen. They chat with us for hours, take thousands of selfies \u2014 signing almost as many autographs. They share that bond.<\/p>\n
Campers prepare biographies before we meet. I listed mine \u2014 but added \u201ccamp is not about politics, it\u2019s about baseball.\u201d Why? Because I mean it. Yes, some had seen my postings. Some who share my views offered kind compliments, which I deeply appreciated \u2014 and immediately changed the subject. I\u2019ve had one \u2014 very civil \u2014 political conversation over two camps.<\/p>\n
One Legend tracked me down and bro-hugged me because of my commentary. Conversely, I said goodbye with a bro-hug to another Legend \u2014 whom I cheered for when he was a player, and now respect as one of the dozens of terrific Legend-coaches \u2014 with absolutely zero regard to a prior matter-of-fact (very brief and dispassionate) negative comment about Trump.<\/p>\n
Why? Because baseball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPhil\u201d in \u201cCity Slickers\u201d speaks for so many campers: \u201cWhen I was about eighteen and my dad and I couldn\u2019t communicate about anything at all, we could still talk about baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why my dad took me to Connie Mack and my Uncle Jack (\u201cReds\u201d) who worked there got me to meet Tony Taylor. It\u2019s why I took our oldest (my daughter who coaches softball with me) to The Bank when she was 5 1\/2. And why our whole family went to watch the Phillies at Dodgers Stadium during our vacation to LA.<\/p>\n
Sorry, \u201cJimmy Dugan\u201d was wrong. Sometimes, there is crying in baseball.<\/p>\n
Guy Ciarrocchi writes for Broad + Liberty and RealClear Pennsylvania, and is a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation. And, God willing, next January he\u2019ll be wearing the \u201cpowder blues\u201d in Clearwater. Follow Guy at @PaSuburbsGuy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you grew up playing, watching or coaching baseball (or softball), a trip to Phillies camp in Clearwater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,71870,144,25,4216,40,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-543937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-must-read","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","13":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","14":"tag-phillies","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115978229738203629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}