Radio Free Montone: Play Ball!
By John Montone, 1010 WINS
Three and one half months ago the Royals turned the Mets home turf into Kansas City-field. A daring dash home in the ninth inning stole game five of the World Series from New York. As I described it that late November night on 1010 WINS All-News Radio, "Mets fans left the ballpark and walked out into winter."
But the season of ice and snow and influenza is fading fast. And even if March is miserable in the way it often is, teasing us with hints of May so that when we wake up back in January it hurts all the more, it hardly matters. The calendar is in our favor.
And all over Florida and Arizona the proof is in the players. Stretching and jogging. Soft-tossing and shagging. Pepper games on one field. BP on another. Such a rich language. The tweener. The Texas Leaguer. High heat. Around the horn. The hot corner. A can of corn. The infield fly rule. The Mendoza line. Chin music. The seventh inning stretch. Tie goes to the runner. The DH. The DL. A DP. The alley. The gap. The Hole. A seeing-eye single. A rope. Tape measure blast. A slider. A knuckleball. A yakker. A bench-clearing brawl. And a pickle.
Pitchers and catchers are our prelude to the daily drama of the 162 game season. The chill of an April night in Flushing. A mild May day in the Bronx. The summer heat. The dog days. Before the pennant races heat up in September. And finally if we are blessed by the gods of the diamond…October baseball in the Big Apple.
Maybe this year the Mets take that next step. 30-years after Mookie. After Keith and the Kid. And Doc and Darryl. Maybe it's finally our town again.
Listen. You can hear it in the distance. And soon it will roar like a speeding 7-train.
PLAY BALL!
