Circus and Baseball ... I Felt a Rare Connection ...

Before the parade passes by this morning when the Dodgers take a victory lap down in L.A, a few raves for Japanese Baseball.   

Honestly, I haven't been as fully thrilled by any event in the wider world of entertainment since spring days in the 1950s when John Ringling North's latest edition of the Greatest Show on Earth opened at the Garden in New York. Just to read about it. To learn of new acts from foreign lands. To awe over color photographs of new Miles White costumes filled me with wonder.

I grew up around rings of imported magic, when the words FIRST TIME IN  AMERICA  appeared in bold under the names of acts in the Ringling program magazines.

And a little of that other worldly mystique captured my spirits while watching the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.  Call this team the Japanese edition. They are calling Shohei Ontani the greatest baseball player ever.  He bats them out of the park with the ease of a kid with fly swatter   He can pitch in a pinch, too.  

But the MVP award is going to another dynamo from over there ---  Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a pitcher who sends the ball with incredible indifference to big league players hoping to touch it a little.

Three Rings of Magic: Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki 

Watching this electric World Series— lifting me to the gods of glory one moment, dumping me into despair the next, I, a certified wimp, walked out of the two games that fell into overtime, fearful of the worst, only to wake up the following  morning  to jubilant images on TV of Dodges players celebrating victory on the field.  I clapped my hand. I smiled up at the beyond. My body tingled with joy. 

And it helps me understand and respect how the most avid sports fans can, in fact must, ride so many emotions And why they can't stay away. Call it a healthy habit.  I’m sticking to baseball, a sport that they say is dying, yet a sport that drew the greatest attendance ever this season in one ball park. Guess which one? 

And in a few hours, I’ll be watching the World Series champs two times in a row parade down in Los Angeles.  (You can stream it on KTLA)

And next season, I can’t wait to step into the Giants ballpark in the city for the first time – to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers play.  

Buy a cap?  Around here, that could get me lynched.