Across the Pond - Englishman's View of Baseball

By Storyheart author of "Across the Pond"
http://across-t-pond.com



AN ENGLISHMAN’S VIEWS OF BASEBALL

I know I could write about people who earn way to much money, stick themselves full of steroids, then swear they had no idea what they were doing. Stats that were meant to live a life time are now marked with an asterisk in record books if they are even still there. It is a place where a game stops halfway through the seventh of nine innings so people can have a sing and a stretch (sounds like half way through the seventh pint in England)

Any way I’m not going to talk about that side of things this is my early view of what I thought about baseball after first arriving in the USA.

BASEBALL

I have now been living in the USA, or as we still call them the Western Colonies, for several years. And while there is still a lot I either do not understand, or even dislike about these western shores, I am here and starting to learn a few things.

Baseball was like softball for the last few times an event in the Olympics but of course the overpaid superstars would never appear in such an event (does that sound like it used to be with basketball until the superstars got shown up one Olympics)
This last Summer, with the joining of a Fantasy Baseball League at work, the Englishman's team if "Just Not Cricket" is surprising a few people who thought I would know nothing about the sport, I am actually following the games, and my players this year.

So let's talk about baseball, through the eyes of an Englishman.

Baseball, the sport of the people, played by men (woman play softball), who earn a fortune, for wearing crash helmets, and a giant oven glove, and trying to hit a ball out of the arena, so they don't have to break into a run to travel round the diamond.
Ok so that's not a great explanation, but it is the national summer sport of America, played by millions in one form or another. There is after all the World Series at the end of the season, played between the top two teams of the National League and the American league. I know, I know how can a world series take place between nearly (all except one Canadian teams) American teams?

Well it is America, and of course the teams are full of many different nations, from Japan and Australia to Cuba and the Dominican Republic. In fact it would
be really interesting if they ever DID have a true world series..... and the star players actually played unlike now where money rules.

It seems one of the major actions in any baseball game is to be able to spit (remember the film Naked Gun?), many eat sunflower seeds, others just seem to be able to produce their own fluid, but spitting it would seem, is a must

Then there are the uniforms, how some of the teams manage to squeeze some of their larger players into those uniforms, well perhaps that could make another chapter.

Players and fans alike though enjoy the game, or seem to no matter what the weather, and the pure joy one sees on the face of a fan, who has actually caught a baseball sent into the crowd, just shows you the thrill? of the game. It is quite amazing to see so many fans of all ages, sitting there, with their large gloves, ready to catch the ball.

Ok, now a baseball, is not as hard as a cricket ball (which for those Colonials, is like a field hockey ball), the players stand further away, for the most part. Sure the ball get's hit very hard, and thrown very hard, but so does a cricket ball. Yet in cricket the only one who wares large gloves is the wicket keeper.

I have watched several games where with the glove on the left hand, the ball comes to the right side of the player, and he leaps trying to catch it with his gloved, left hand. Now if you try and catch a ball on your right, with your left hand, you can not reach as far as if you used your right hand... following me??
So as I was saying I have seen balls go past players, that if they used their right, all be it un-gloved hand they could have reached it.

I now play softball and it is one thing I can never manage, the ball comes to my right, I use my right hand, not my gloved left… still do

OK I'll stop at that... but I really have learned..

I now know a "sacrifice fly", isn't an insect that drinks from your beer, and then sits on the bar, waiting to be squashed

I know that "stepping up to the plate" does not mean that dinner is ready

I know that a "stolen base" isn't something that the police need to be got involved with.
I know that “stealing home” has nothing to do with breaking and entering.

I know that "Chipper Jones" is not a person from the local fish and chip shop, and a relieve pitcher, is not a place to get a drink when your thirsty.

I know which team hates which team, a lot of the players, even to having a few favorite players of my own.

But the “World Series” with only American teams will always get me beat...



ABOUT MY BOOK “ACROSS THE POND” by Storyheart

No new reviews or interviews but several should be available soon

Across the Pond by Storyheart.

Is a young adult fiction novel with believable characters, exciting events, humor, first love, education and a little sport thrown in for good measure, this is a book for all ages. I am on 49 reviews at Amazon alone and check all the time to see when I might make that magical 50.

News, views and reviews of me Storyheart and my young adult romance, romance or whatever you want to call it book Across the Pond.

Spread the word…. Follow the blog and enjoy the ride

RADIO:

On the radio side I am still working on not only appearing on a few more radio shows but hosting my own show every Saturday at 11am EST

This Saturday I am talking about “Virtual Book Tours” and how good they can be for authors.

The show is called “A BOOK AND A CHAT”
You can hear the show at http://acrossthepond-storyheart.blogspot.com/

I am looking for guest AUTHORS AND BLOGGERS to appear on the radio show, all you do is let me know at http://across-t-pond.com/ I’ll send you the contact phone number and we’ll sit and have a chat for 30minutes about your book or I really hope about people’s blogs and what they are reading.

This is more a general chat over a cup of tea than a literary show going into depths of books and writing styles. It is for enjoyment, a couple of laughs and the latest news on the book you've written or read. Not only will I have authors talking about their books, or their virtual tours, but I want to get bloggers to come on and tell everybody about their blogs, what they are reading or have just read, even what is in their book case.

I have visited quiet a few such blogs, many run by teenagers which cover a huge variety of books and provide some wonderful incite from the people these books were actually written for.



Storyheart
Across the Pond
http://acrossthepond-storyheart.blogspot.com/
http://across-t-pond.com

If you are interested in appearing on my blog radio show A BOOK AND A CHAT” please email me at acrossthepond@mail.com