For Love of the Game

My sister, who is my only sibling, lives in Germany. She works for the USAF and has been stationed overseas for several years now. Twice I travelled across the Pacific Ocean to visit her, in Okinawa and South Korea respectively.

She was in the states for the holidays, only going back to Germany a week ago. When she got here, she had some big news. I am going to be an uncle, which was certainly unexpected.

I do not have any kids of my own, but the prospect of having a niece or nephew excites me. Knowing that I will be a part of a child’s life in some way, helping at times to shape who this person will become, is incredible to me.

Something that I look forward to more than anything else is an opportunity to share my love of baseball.

That love for the game was handed down from my dad. He taught me a lot about the structure of plays on the field and why things happen the way that they do. He taught me the history and the tradition and the nuance. More than anything, though, he taught me how to love it.

I still do to this day.

Now I have an opportunity to share that with someone else. Someday, maybe 6 or 8 or 10 years from now, I may take my niece or nephew to The Ballpark in Arlington. We’ll watch a Rangers game and I’ll talk about other games that I’ve seen.

I’ll talk about those teams in the ‘90s, the ones that took us to the playoffs for the first time. I’ll talk about the return to the postseason after 11 years and Neftali Feliz striking out A-Rod to take us to the World Series. I’ll probably talk about Game 6 and all of the heartbreak that came with it.

I’ll talk about how much I love the game and, maybe, I will teach them to love the game as well.

There’s a lot to look forward to, Rangers fans. For this team. For yourselves.

(My name is Michael Luna, but these days I go by Mike. I am new to Fansided, but I have been writing about baseball on a personal site called The Bleacher Seats for over a year. I was recently drafted to write for Nolan Writin’, which I intend to do with honesty, passion, and a little bit of levity. I hope you like what I have to say.)

Press on, Rangers fans.

(You can find me on Twitter @BleacherSeatsTX.)