Sign in with Facebook
Ryan McGee’s Followers (15)
Ryan McGee
More books by Ryan McGee…
“To me, the mark of a truly great sporting venue has never been what it sounds like or how it feels when the stands are packed. That's easy. Even the most generic cookie-cutter stadium or arena feels electric when the game is big, the lights are on, and the crowd is amped. The real measure of a ballpark's character is how the place feels when it's empty. When the only noises to be heard are produced by the occasional breeze that slips through the concourse. It rattles the ropes on the empty center-field flagpoles. It pushes a stray plastic cup around beneath the feet of the box seats. And if you listen closely enough, that wind carries on it the whispers of the ghosts. The athletes who played between the lines, their toes in the dirt where only those who compete are allowed to roam.
During my career in sports media, I've heard their voices at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway. I've heard them at Lambeau Field and the Rose Bowl. I've heard them at old Boston Garden and Augusta National. And the morning of Thursday, March 3, 1994, I heard them at McCormick Field. Cobb, Gehrig, Dizzy Dean, Hank Greenberg, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Willie Stargell. From the Hall of Famers to a thousand minor leaguers whose names no one remembers. I swear, they were all there that morning to welcome us into the little mountain ballpark that they'd helped build.”
― Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time
During my career in sports media, I've heard their voices at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway. I've heard them at Lambeau Field and the Rose Bowl. I've heard them at old Boston Garden and Augusta National. And the morning of Thursday, March 3, 1994, I heard them at McCormick Field. Cobb, Gehrig, Dizzy Dean, Hank Greenberg, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Willie Stargell. From the Hall of Famers to a thousand minor leaguers whose names no one remembers. I swear, they were all there that morning to welcome us into the little mountain ballpark that they'd helped build.”
― Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time
“The Earwood family was special to me then. They are still special to me now. I suppose that we all have those too-brief relationships, where we can’t help but think back and wonder how much different it might have been if the timeline of our lives had run more parallel instead heading off into a hundred different directions like the rails in that train yard. But that doesn’t make me any less thankful for the one spot where they intersected.”
― Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time
― Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time
“Imagine someone with an actual beating heart, who claims to love baseball, looking at a spreadsheet on a computer at a Fifth Avenue Starbucks and deciding that the national pastime in the very places where it truly touches the hearts of that nation might be better off without McCormick Field. Without the next Ron McKee or Gary Saunders. Without James the Mountain Man bracing snakebites to retrieve baseballs. Without the Circuit Rider and the Two-Eyed Redeemer galloping in to save souls before a Sunday-afternoon matinee. Without jazz saxophone national anthems, panty-less miniskirt haircuts atop the home team dugout, and mascot fights. Without a McCormick Field sunset, settling in over the ballpark as fireworks explode overhead and-sure-, why not?-Alabama's "Cheap Seats" reverberating off the trees, the forest, and the honeysuckle vines that line the magnificent little bandbox carved into a nook of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
That's the imagery I carry in my head. It's what I see in my mind's eye the very instant someone mentions the Asheville Tourists or McCormick Field. It has been that way every single day of my life since the summer of 1994, and it will be that way until I depart this Earth to be rejoined by Julio the Cat.”
― Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time
That's the imagery I carry in my head. It's what I see in my mind's eye the very instant someone mentions the Asheville Tourists or McCormick Field. It has been that way every single day of my life since the summer of 1994, and it will be that way until I depart this Earth to be rejoined by Julio the Cat.”
― Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time
Topics Mentioning This Author
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Play Book Tag: * Poll Ballot Tally -- Announcements and Reporting | 5521 | 184 | Dec 31, 2020 04:35PM | |
| The History Book ...: BASEBALL | 383 | 633 | Jul 31, 2023 02:17PM | |
| Chapter Adventure...: March | 31 | 75 | Dec 15, 2024 07:14PM | |
| Mount TBR Challen...: Indy_Chick's first climb | 5 | 10 | Jan 02, 2025 11:55AM |
Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Ryan to Goodreads.
