If Roy Wood Jr. have been allowed to make one change as commissioner of Major League Baseball, he would encourage extra bat flips and character within the recreation.
“It’s a simple change,” he mentioned whereas sitting in Section 124 of Wrigley Field throughout the Chicago Cubs-Arizona Diamondbacks recreation on Sept. 9. “I like bat flips. I like Ok-struts. I like designs on sneakers. The cool bat work throughout the Home Run Derby. That must be a standard factor.
“If a player wants to strut, if a player wants to dare to show an ounce of fun while playing this game …,” his voice trailed off as Seiya Suzuki stepped into the batter’s field within the second inning.
Wood, a comic, was on the town along with his son Henry, 7, to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” throughout the seventh-inning stretch. It wasn’t his first time main the group within the track. In reality, Wrigley Field is his favourite place to expertise a baseball recreation.
Chase Field in Phoenix has the perfect meals, he mentioned. Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City has the perfect ballpark expertise. But that Saturday in Chicago, it was an ideal 70 levels — scorching within the solar, cooler within the shade. The wind was blowing left to proper. It was the sort of day on the ballpark he had hoped to share with Henry, who isn’t into baseball but.
A Cubs fan since he was a small little one in Birmingham, Ala., Wood mentioned he was the one sports activities fan in his house. Even although his father, Roy Wood Sr., as soon as hosted a weekly radio present with Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, Wood Sr. “never really cared about sports.”
“My father’s only alliance was to Black people,” Wood mentioned. “I can’t let you know that I ever noticed my dad watching a single organized sporting occasion. My mom by no means watched sports activities.
“Ernie Banks was a very integral part of the city in terms of being the Black guy on the white side of town doing extraordinary things. And we’re still in the early days of the integration of baseball. So my father looked at Ernie Banks as a bit of a bridge to the Black experience in a sport that was still very, very white — at a time that was still very, very racist. I think if it had been any other player, he probably wouldn’t have even done it.”
WGN-TV introduced Wood into what would develop into his lifelong baseball allegiance. His alternative was between the Cubs within the afternoon and the Atlanta Braves within the night on TBS. The Cubs gained as a result of watching the Braves too usually would imply slicing it too near bedtime.
Wood’s love of baseball led him to play the game. His highschool crew, the Ramsay Rams, performed at Rickwood Field, the oldest skilled ballpark within the United States — a possibility many baseball nerds could be enthusiastic about.
Wood mentioned his hometown wasn’t all that into baseball and lots of weren’t even conscious of the state’s wealthy historical past throughout the sport. Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Tim Anderson hail from Alabama, and Rickwood served as house to the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro leagues.
“To grow up playing high school baseball in a stadium as historic as Rickwood, it never really dawned on us,” he mentioned. “We have been by no means actually advised about it. We have been taught loads of Black historical past, however we have been taught all of the battle and strife. The Black expertise in baseball is one in all division and optimism.
“So when they renovated Rickwood for the Ty Cobb movie in 1992, it became a cool place to play. The grass was butter, the dirt was perfect.”
In June 2024, Rickwood Field would be the website of a regular-season recreation between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants, just like the Field of Dreams recreation in Iowa.
Baseball was a “safe” sport for Wood. “Nobody was messing with you on the baseball team,” he joked.
Today, baseball stays that area for Wood, who calls it “calm, normal.” When most individuals round him have their TVs tuned to information networks, he’s watching MLB Network or listening to a recreation. It’s his white noise. He can suppose and get work performed with a recreation enjoying within the background. There’s no must work together or have interaction with it; for him, it simply is.
Wood stays updated on the Cubs, together with their minor-leaguers. He’s enthusiastic about this present iteration of the crew, although he was disenchanted when the World Series veterans began to go away in 2018.
“They’re fun to watch,” he mentioned. ”Once you add in individuals like Brennan Davis and Pete Crow-Armstrong, we’re nearly in just a little of a logjam, which is an effective drawback to have. There’s been some nice surprises, and so long as you’ve acquired youth, you’ve acquired an opportunity. And youth is reasonably priced. But I’m actually inquisitive about whether or not or not (Cody) Bellinger stays.”
The Cubs had misplaced eight of their final 10 video games coming into Tuesday and have been tied with the Cincinnati Reds for the ultimate National League wild-card spot.
“Nobody would have expected them to be more than third or fourth in the division,” Wood mentioned. “At the All-Star break they were like ‘OK, well, we’re just looking at the pieces we have to get ready for next year.’ And then we came out like a bat out of hell. And it’s like, ‘Oh, wait a minute.’”
The crew’s future seems promising to Wood.
“We’re still looking at all we can do next year,” he mentioned. ”It’s inconceivable we’re not this season, if it ended at present, with a wealth of optimism about what the core elements are and what we’re placing collectively proper now.
“In baseball all you need is a hot bump and you’re the world champion. But I think this season has already been a win for Cubs fans. Cubs fans are a bunch of Eeyores, always sad. But I think we’re in a good place and it’s not fake optimism.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com