"It measures just nine inches in circumference, weighs only about five ounces, and it's made of cork wound with woolen yarn, covered with two layers of cowhide, and stiched by hand precisely 216 times.
It travels 60 feet 6 inches from the pitcher's mound to home--and it can cover that distance at nearly 100 miles an hour. Along the way it can be made to twist, spin, curve, wobble, rise, or fall away.
The bat is made of turned ash, less than 42 inches long, not more than 2-3/4 inches in diameter. The batter has only a few thousandths of a second to decide to hit the ball. And yet the men who fail seven times out of ten are considered the game's greatest heroes.
It is played everywhere. In parks and playgrounds and prison yards. In back alleys and farmers' fields. By small children and by old men. By raw amateurs and millionare professionals. It is a leisurely game that demands blinding speed. The only game where the defense has the ball. It follows the seasons, beginning each year with the fond expectancy of springtime and ending with the hard facts of autumn.
Americans have played baseball for more than 200 years, while they conquered a continent, warred with one another and with enemies abroad, struggled over labor and civil rights and the meaning of freedom.
At the games's heart lie mythic contradictions: a pastoral game, born in crowded cities; an exhilarating democratic sport that tolerates cheating and has excluded as many as it has included; a profoundly conservative game that sometimes manages to be years ahead of its time.
It is an American odyssey that links sons and daughters to fathers and grandfathers. And it reflects a host of age-old American tensions: between workers and owners, scandal and reform, the individual and the collective.
It is a haunted game, where each player is measured by the ghosts of those who have gone before. Most of all, it is about time and timelessness, speed and grace, failure and loss, imperishable hope, and coming home."
"Baseball"
Written By: Ken Burns and Geoffry C. Ward
Spoken by Narrator: John Chancellor
Fireworks at Fritz Field
Posted May 31, 2017
The fourth annual fireworks on Fritz Field will be on Friday, June 16. There will be a beautiful fireworks display following the Cologne Hollanders vs. Hamburg 7:30 p.m. baseball game. Fireworks will be visible from almost any spot at Fritz Field. ...
Game vs Team MaxBat Postpone
Posted June 23, 2017
Due to yesterday's rain, the game against Team Max Bat has been rescheduled for this upcoming sunday (June 25) at 6:30pm in Cologne....
Cologne Wins Big Against Plato
Posted June 01, 2017
During last night's chill and mosquitos, Fritz Field hosted an exciting townball game. The Bluejays from Plato traveled to Cologne to play the hometown Hollanders. The hard hitting Bluejays' bats were quiet most of the night as the contest was a nine inning pitching duel between Plato's ...
