
Listening to Soundgarden's final album today got me thinking about baseball.* I grew up with an All-American boy's passion for the American game. The players whose faces festooned my collection of baseball cards were like idols to me. Steve Garvey, Pete Rose, Willie Stargell, the Niekros - Phil and Joe - Ron Guidry, Don Sutton, George Brett, Dale Murphy - they were demigods battling with bat and pitched ball in the pantheon of Major League Baseball. I loved everything about the game - the slow pace and the Byzantine rules and scorekeeping. I loved [...]