The Chris Moeller Archives

The baseball bucket list

On Thursday, ESPN's Jim Caple published his baseball bucket list: 50 things all baseball fans should do before they kick the proverbial bucket. Not all 50 resonated with me, but it was a fun idea and a good list. I took stock...

-Spend a week at spring training.

Does five days count? In 1998, Aaron and I did three games and two rainouts in the Grapefruit League.

- Learn to keep score.

Cindy Kaestner of Newhall taught me how to do this when I attended my first game at Busch Stadium at 8 years old. I have completed scorecards today of every Cards game I've attended since 1988.

- Learn about Tommy John surgery by throwing out your arm at the stadium speed pitch station.

Not at a ballgame, but I did major structural damage at the Adventureland Park speed pitch in Altoona, Iowa in 1985. It made it well worth it when I hit "50" on the gun.

- Watch "Field of Dreams," "Bull Durham," "A League of Their Own," "The Bad News Bears" (the original) and "The Natural."

Check, check, check, check, and check.

- Use a wood bat.

Did it in competition, actually. This 14-year-old purist broke out a Louisville Slugger in a Pony League game in Walford, Iowa in 1989. The experiment lasted one game, then Dad sawed me off on an inside pitch in the back yard while I was practicing my Tom Brunansky batting stance. ("Bruno" had quicker hands than I did.)

- Enjoy a beer in the bleachers at Wrigley Field on a sunny summer day.

This experience can only be enjoyed if your team is beating the Cubs in the park at the same time. Check.

- Listen to Vin Scully call an entire Dodgers game.

Most recently this winter when I Netflixed and re-watched Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

- Read "Ball Four," "The Boys of Summer," "Nine Innings," "The Glory of Their Times" and any (preferably all) of Roger Angell's collections.

All but "The Glory of Their Times," though it's on Aaron's bookshelf waiting for me. My required four would be Marvin Miller's "A Whole New Ballgame," John Helyar's "Lords of the Realm," Bill Veeck's "Veeck as in Wreck," and Bill 'Spaceman' Lee's "The Wrong Stuff."

- Go to Japan's Koshien high school tournament (i.e., where Dice K threw his famous no-hitter).

Um, yeah. I'll get right on that.

- Hit a home run.

July, 1989, Iowa Valley Pony League Championship, solo shot, right-center (opposite) field, 2nd inning, Atkins vs. Walford, off Jim Schulte, in Atkins, Iowa.

- Coach a Little League team.

Would it guarantee me a captive audience for the story about the time I hit an opposite-field home run in the league championship game?

- Ump a Little League game.

I boo umpires. I don't become them.

- Boo the Yankees in person.

Great segue, and check-- most recently yesterday in Chicago, actually.

- Play Strat-O-Matic, APBA, Dynasty League or a similar computer-simulation game.

It's an APBA world. We just live in it. Dice and cards over computers, though.

- Attend a fantasy camp and have more fun than you can imagine feeling old and young at the same time.

This has never really appealed to me. But then I'm a long way from middle-aged.

- Tour the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

In 1987 and again for Ozzie's induction in 2002, but I'm not going back until they enshrine Mark McGwire... and Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon.

- Oil your glove and stuff it under your mattress for the winter, then play catch the first day of spring with your parent/child.

I've refused to play catch with Dad since he broke my wooden bat.

- Get to a game early enough to watch batting practice.

You haven't lived until you've seen Mark McGwire take batting practice. It was as impressive a display as anything I've ever seen in the game.

- Go to the College World Series.

This annual event takes place just two hours down the road in Omaha, but I've never had the initiative.

- Play pepper.

As a kid, check. Do kids still do this? They should have a pepper game for Wii Playstations.

- Go to a batting cage and see what it's like to hit a 90 mph fastball. Or, more likely, fail to hit a 90 mph fastball.

I could never come close to a 90 miles-per-hour pitch in high school. Only Bugs Bunny could throw a pitch slow enough now.

- Attend a townball game in Minnesota (the smaller the town the better).

Minnesota has townball? Check out a Watkins Mud Hens game in Iowa. The community of Watkins is so small, it's unincorporated.

- Visit the "Field of Dreams" site in Dyersville, Iowa and the old Durham Athletic Park (where "Bull Durham" takes place).

Check, and no check. I'll hit Durham Park when I travel to see the Andy and Opie statue in Raleigh.

- Take your kids to see The Chicken or The Phanatic.

I've seen The Chicken, and he's entertaining, but I'm not convinced it's a good strategy to have children just so I can check off this item.

- Run around the bases after a big league game.

I'm over the age limit now for running the bases at most of the stadiums. That's why I typically take my lap around the circuit in the middle of the fourth inning.


The second 25 will be in the next post. You've got a few to get you started. Get going...

posted by CM @ 7:23 PM