Katie at the Bats

Every week I'm contractually obligated to write a little something for the Dec faithful who take the time out of their busy daily schedule to read this column (God bless you all). And in return for their time, I try to offer an opinion on an issue that has a real bearing on the rest of the university. Well, fuck that. It's time to let an opinion that has absolutely no bearing on the rest of the university shine through. After all, that's the kind of opinion that most people have anyway.

So here it is: I love baseball. Like too many here in Charlottesville, I was raised on Atlanta Braves baseball on TV, you know, the Dale Murphy games that came before the Ted Turnerized dynasty of today. My dad was an umpire, so he would always try to make even the conference on the mound seem exciting. This, of course, is a futile gesture; baseball on channel 17 is about as exciting as your "How Things Work" class. Sure, it has its moments, but just how often can you watch a batter call for time unless you're not completely sober?

Nope, it wasn't until I watched it live that I realized that baseball was meant to be that way. Any town with a decent minor league team can tell you that. I like the Braves as much as anybody in the greater southeastern United States, but it's the immediacy of the minor leagues, the, well, liveness of it all that makes their games better than pretty much anything. I think that's why people seem to care about college teams more than pros, and I know that's why folks don't seem to care for pro baseball anymore (but that's a whole Œnother edit altogether).

So of course I was ecstatic upon hearing that a rookie league team from Pulaski, Va. -- from Pulaski -- was thinking of moving to Charlottesville. I really can't imagine a better way to spend my summer. The Appalachian League is probably the lowest you can get in professional baseball: half of its players are barely out of high school and the other half have day jobs. That's what makes it great. Every perfect summer night, for a week at a time, you can go out to the diamond to watch a game of baseball with your friends. And then after the game maybe you can buy the winning pitcher a drink.

If I sound a little desperately nostalgic for sports, of all things, I apologize. I know it's not the most important thing in the world, especially considering that it will probably cost half a million to spiffy up the field for Appalachian league standards (I'm a little surprised the league has standards). But baseball is a suprisingly great way to spend a day. And I haven't heard anything I'd like to do more in Charlottesville in quite some time.

Kate Zimmerman

Viewpoint consists of the majority opinion of the managing board of The Declaration and is written by the executive editor on a weekly basis.