I got hooked at a young age. I can remember listening to the radio, very low, so my parents could not hear that I was listening to Cardinal games late into the evening, even on a school night. We lived in Pennsylvania at the time and after dark I could get KMOX out of St. Louis and hear Harry Carry talking about my heros. Harry is silent now but that "Holy Cow" still rings in my memory.

When I was big as nothing, my dad took me to New York and we saw the Cardinals play the Giants in the Polo Grounds. As I came out of the shadows of the stairs up to the seats and saw that diamond, I never thought green could be so green. The batter's box didn't have those holes that came from sandlot game after sandlot game. All the heros were there; Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst, Enos Slaughter, Howie Pollet and as a bonus we got to see Willie Mays. In fact Willie hit fungos for outfield practice. Just imagine, in today's baseball world, a player of Mays' stature hitting fly balls to the outfield. They would be in the clubhouse checking their stocks!

Could it get better than this? Well it did… we went to Philadelphia to see the Cardinals and Phillies and Stan "The Man" hit 3 home runs that day….

This was the height of my relationship with that demon mistress. I knew not of her dark side.

The relationship continued… into my marriage to Carol. By osmosis she got to know the important players on the team… the only team of relevance…. The Cardinals. Having never seen or heard a baseball game before we got married Carol has come a long ways. There are fewer "whys" and "that seems dumb". She learned the importance of such players as Ken Boyer and Bob Gibson and now Mark McGuire.

But over time as the teams got to know money and TV, there was a trial separation. The strike did me in for a while. For about a season and a half… baseball and Dale were history.

As baseball enters the new season its dark side is very prevalent. It demands cities build stadiums, it demands tax concessions (and the concessions at the stadium) . Should they not get their way another city longs to be misused by this team. The threat is always there… satisfy me or I am history. Winter Haven knows well the demands of their private mistresses, The Boston Red Sox… they found a more suitable suitor and picked up and left. Now the Cleveland Indians are the current demanding mistress. Having got the team because of another cities misfortune, they know that if they don't jump when the team says, the Indians may move on as well.

The salaries are so out of whack that rich teams can pay more to ONE player than other smaller cities (read smaller TV markets) pay their ENTIRE team.

George Steinbrenner is making noises about moving the Yankees out of Yankee Stadium!!!

So the strike and the money almost did me in. I could click right through game after game on TV… with nary a check of the score.

But then come Mark…King Mark, Big Mac!. Mark McGuire of "my" St. Louis Cardinals…. And I was in love again. Homer after homer… could he do 60? Could he do 62? Finally, how many would he hit? Could this be true, a humble hero in a world of jerks? A father that could kiss his son with millions looking on? Yes!

I did not miss one homer that I could see… Total relapse, total surrender to Mistress Baseball.

But this was not to be the end. My Mark did it to me. Scheduled to play an exhibition game with the Royals up the road at I-4 and 27… Mark decided that the bus trip from south Florida was just too much for a super star. Never mind that fans look to THIS game to see Mark, to see their hero.

So as we start a new season… we are back on tenuous terms, this mistress and me. I do know that she will break my heart… but until she does… Did Mark get a dinger last night? Who do the Cardinals play tonight?

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