Widely regarded as the most popular sport in America, baseball still holds a special place in Bob's heart from when he used to play as a child. He talks with Dan Liberthson, author of The Pitch Is on the Way: Poems About Baseball and Life, about Dan's love of baseball and poetry.
When Dan was a child, he used baseball as an escape from his family life, which included helping his schizophrenic younger sister. "Baseball, poetry, stories and writing were all ways to cope with what was really a tense and conflicted situation."
For Dan, baseball allowed him his own private world where he could live out his dreams of being a hero. "There was something about baseball that was really special to me," he says. "I also think it had to do with the equipment: the bat, the ball, the mitt. It's about being in the green outdoors in a world by yourself, playing with other kids but in your own special terrain."
Bobs says it's good to reminisce, but it's also important to take the beautiful elements of what we did 30 to 40 years ago and modernize them for today's youth. "The thing I would hate to lose [about baseball] is the teamwork element," Bob says. "I do see the kids of today becoming more independent, both from a good standpoint and a very negative standpoint. It's harder for kids to hone that skill of working together and working on a team."
