Baseball fan here . . . MAJOR baseball fan. Therefore, bet you can’t guess what this blog on this first day of the World Series is about can you?

          Ahhhh . . . baseball . . . the sweetest, most perfect game in the world. Throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball, run. Perfect. There’s dirt and sweat, chatter and spit, and pure power at the end of a stick. Oh yes, baseball is my game.

          The perfect scenario for me is to watch the entire game from the first pitch to the last out, of course, but that’s generally impossible for me to do either on TV or in person. If I can catch any of the middle innings, I’m happy. Not so crazy about the first few innings where they sing and introduce everybody and the teams are still warming up. Most of the time, I really don’t care who wins . . . so the latter innings and all the drama doesn’t mean a lot to me either. Except now. Now, I’ve got to see it all, pre-pre-game, pre-game, the game itself, post game and then I try to catch whatever ESPN has to say about it all.

          I watched every game of the pennant race, and so far (with one game played) I’ve caught all ONE game of the series. Tonight’s game was only impressive in the fact that the Phillies almost shut the Yankees out in New York and Cliff Lee did an excellent job on the mound. Basically, a so-so game, just like hundreds of thousands of others I’ve seen.

          What was interesting about the game, was the first few minutes when the first pitch was thrown out. In fact, so impressed was I, that I jotted down some stuff on a piece of paper just so I could write this blog tonight.

          The "honorary" person chosen to throw out the first pitch was Yankee Hall of Famer, Yogi Berra. Obviously a fan favorite and quite the spry old guy. He was escorted to the mound by President Obama’s wife Michelle and Vice President Biden’s wife, Jill. Once they were on the mound, a young Army Captain in full uniform, but sporting a hook where his left hand used to be, joined them. With little fanfare, Capt. Odierno was given the baseball, and nonchalantly tossed it a couple of inches in the air and caught it in his right hand once . . . twice . . . and then let it fly over the plate.

          Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter caught the pitch and went immediately to the mound to shake hands with the two real celebrities at the game. I don’t know about anybody else, but it brought a smile to my face to see Jeter so humbled by the soldier and Yogi, himself a veteran of World War II. So impressed was the ball player, he stopped all the action, and asked for a picture to be taken of himself and the real heroes.

          Cool. Who would think that Derek Jeter would want his picture taken with anybody but himself?

          While I disagree with many, many decisions of Major League Baseball, (like playing in November), I was very pleased to learn that tonight’s game was dedicated to this country’s veterans. They are promoting community service for the regular Joe’s like you and I, and tonight’s "special cause" was veterans.

          It just doesn’t get any better than this. . . baseball and the honoring of America’s finest.

          And the Phillies won.

          And the Yankee’s lost.

          And this was just the first game.

          Ahhhh . . . . baseball.