Nine men and a diamond. A bachelorette's dream. (Move over Jen, this is my ballfield.) Three strikes and you're out, four balls and you walk. If you're lucky, you can get to third base on your first at-bat. If you have a good eye, good aim, and a fast arm you got it made. What more could a lady ask for in a sport?

It's baseball season!

What a fantastic game. If you don't know it well, it can look like you are watching grass grow. But baseball is played in the mind as much as it is on the field. And therein lies its genius. The victorious are not the bigger, faster and stronger. They are the smarter (and perhaps the better paid).

It is a gentleman's game. No hipchecking and tackling, no rough and tumble, no oafish exertions of testosterone.

Watching baseball is like watching a movie with a profound plot. You gotta pay attention, you gotta follow it. The subtle plays make sense overall--like sacrifice bunts to advance runners. Sure, your team will get an out, but your fastest runner may get to third and pull a Willie Mays Hayes.

"I bought a hundred of these. One for every base I'm gonna steal."

And beyond that, baseball is a constant America has been able to turn to for the last hundred years to take minds off of six wars and a terrorist attack, among other historical happenings. I don't think grass growing would be able to engender the same capacity to distract...

And it's more of an experience than just a game.

Fathers live to see the wide-eyed and wonderous looks in the eyes of their sons (and daughters!!!) as they catch their first glimpse of the green and tan diamond, walking into Fenway or Wrigley or Yankee Stadium.

Kids all over the country emulate the best of the best ball players from dawn to dusk on dusty sandlots during their summer vacations.

Little boys dream of the day they will pitch a no hitter or hit a grand slam. Guys like Jimmy Morris can realize those dreams, even if they are pushing 40.

Whatever baseball inspires in a person, the key is that it inspires...it is more than a game.

And the greatest insult in the baseball world...You play ball like a girl!

But the little girls used to whup the little boys, at least in Colonie Little League, so I see not offense but compliment in that accusation!

I have to walk a mere four blocks to Wrigley Field...