Take me (back) out to the ball game? The adventure begins!

Returning to live sports is better with old friends. From left, it’s Jim Schlueter, Mike Bass, Ed Sherman and Frank Styzek.

Note to Coach’s Box readers: This is my weekly column for the Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati.com.

By Mike Bass
mbass@mikebasscoaching.com

CHICAGO — I walked into the ballpark, and it felt like I was exploring something both familiar and mysterious.

I was not simply entering Guaranteed Rate Field for a White Sox baseball game. I was landing in the world of live sports again after month after month after month of seemingly endless orbiting.

I had not attended a sporting event since March 2020, days before the COVID-19 shutdown. I had not been to a baseball game since the previous September.

How are you supposed to feel when you re-enter an amusement park after your favorite ride closed 15 months earlier for safety precautions? Would the thrill be the same? Would it feel safe?

You go when you are ready to go.

And I was ready to go.

 * * *

Walking through the concourse and into the open air, into the stands, I felt the rush and awe. Same as always. After all these years and all these games, this still wows me. But this felt different, too. This felt fresh. This felt adventurous.

Seating capacity just rose to 60 percent, only ballpark workers seemed to wear masks, but I sat with people I knew, we were vaccinated and outdoors, and I felt safe. Cautious but safe. So I pocketed my mask, and my face felt naked, like when I recently shaved off my facial hair for the first time in a dozen or so years.

It felt freeing. It felt right.

(I did ask a masked worker in the concession area if she would prefer I wear mine when I ordered food, and she assured me she was fully vaccinated, too. It turns out, she also works at a hospital and endured the long and stressful days when the pandemic hit hard, and I thanked her for all she had done. That felt right, too.)

Neither the White Sox nor the visiting Cardinals are my team, this park is not my home park, but this felt like a welcome back to a good friend’s home. Surrounded by old college friends, I realized how much I had missed this.

The sun was out and hot, the grass was strikingly green, the food was strikingly overpriced, the players were ready, the fans were ready, we were ready, and the world just stopped and smiled.

If it all sounds a little schmaltzy, fair enough. After all this isolation, couldn’t we all use a little schmaltzy?

 * * *

Here is a dose of reality.

I have seen more stirring games.

Not that it mattered, really. 

Tommy Edman hit solo home runs in the third and eighth innings for St. Louis, the Cardinals added a couple of runs in the ninth to win 4-0, and the White Sox finished 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position. Chicago did execute three sacrifice bunts, an ode to old-school manager Tony LaRussa and a pox to new-age analytics.

Which was good for stirring a little conversation.

And today was all about socialization.

We bantered. We laughed. We caught up. We reminisced. The four of us worked on the student newspaper once upon a time. Ed and Frank are White Sox fans, Jim is a Cardinals fan, and we all love talking baseball. We remembered obscure players from back in the day and discussed how how to enliven baseball today.

Because I have addressed referees in my business and column, Frank told me a story of when he umpired a park district softball game for fifth and sixth graders. This mom was arguing every ball and strike call, depending on whether her daughter’s team was hitting or on the field.

Finally, Frank had enough.

Between innings, he moved from behind the plate and sat next to her in the third-base stands. He said he was going to umpire from there, instead.

“Evidently,” he told her, “you can see the pitches and make better calls from here.”

After two or three pitches, Frank went back behind the plate. He did not hear a word from the mom again.

“The mom actually put her head down and didn’t look at anyone for a while,” Frank texted to me later. “She was totally embarrassed.”

 * * *

Umpire Joe West

I spent a few innings with another old buddy, Northern Kentucky attorney Kevin Murphy. He was in town to watch his friend and client Joe West a night earlier break the record for career games umpired.

Kevin had seen or met the likes of former MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth, country music stars Emmylou Harris and the Oak Ridge Boys, former NFL tight end Dave Casper, and legendary mascot the San Diego Chicken. I always enjoy listening to Kevin tell stories – yes, even about the 1969 Mets, the team of his youth that crushed the soul of the Cubs of my youth.

Kevin raved about West and his charity work and kindness to kids, and still was disappointed in the fans who booed when the record was acknowledged. Though the reception was predictable for a sometimes-controversial umpire with a big personality, and though Kevin appreciated that others started cheering, this is how you know West is more than a client. This is not lawyer-speak. This is Kevin, and I admire him for that.

It was great to see him.

 * * *

It was great to see all of these guys. This is what watching sports with friends does for me. It lifts my spirits.

Staying connected was more challenging before this. Talking, messaging, Zooming and emailing could be powerful in the interim, but being there is special.

I am grateful for my friends.

I am grateful to attend live sports with them again.

And this is only the beginning.

Remember to email Mike Bass at mbass@mikebasscoaching.com or reach out to him @SportsFanCoach1 on Twitter if you want to be included next week. His website is MikeBassCoaching.com.