My Baseball Story - Diane Stanley

By Diane Stanley
February 6 2003

Was it the Grand Slams? Was it the Triple Plays or the Strikeouts? Was it because of the atmosphere in the ballparks or the allstar ballplayers? Or was it simply that you were born into baseball-loving family? Tell us, in your own words, how did you become interested in the great game of baseball?

"For The Love Of The Game"

Diane Stanley
from Toronto, Canada
Originally published on February 8th, 2001

I first got interested in baseball in 1992. I had been living in Canada since 1988 after moving over from England. To start with I had no interest in the game. I thought like most English people that it was just like the game of rounders that I had loved to play at school.

Come 1992 my kids were going on that they wanted to attened a game. Tickets at Skydome in Toronto were like gold dust at the time. In fact gold dust was probably easier to fiund and if you could find it, it was probably cheeper than four game tickets from a scalper. Anyway we managed to land four tickets right up in what is known as the nose bleed section. I swear they should have oxygen up there it's so steep!

I really was not looking forward to the game at all. The ordeal of the climb to the seats was bad enough, but having to stand way up in the air for the anthems was terrifying to say the least.

The first few innings passd with no real interest on my part. Then someone hit a towering home run. Could someone really hit a ball so far? It was guestimated (the term used here for the guess of the distance) to be 476 feet! Amazing!!

This brought my attention and my eyes were glued to the field. The Joe Carter, the right fielder threw a ball right from the 425 foot mark on the wall right to home plate to get the runner out. I was hooked to say the least.

After that we went a few times a season. As the Jays won the World Series in 1992 and 1993 tickets were almost impossible to get. In 1994 though they were terrible so it became easier.

By 1995 I started to go quite a lot. Usuelly with the kids, but on the odd occasion I would go with a friend. I had also started to collect autographs too. It was also in 1995 that I first got to really know young Rookie player, Shawn Green. He always signed autographs for the fans. He started to recognize me, so we would chat each time he signed. Over the years he was with Toronto I got to know him really well.

Shawn suffered some pretty bad times with the Jays due to a manager who could not stand him. I swear it was because he was Jewish, but I have no proof of that.

I saw the heartbreak in his eyes when he was benched for washed up Rubin Sierra in 1997. We both thought he would be traded at that time. Even though I wanted him to stay I knew it was best for him to go.

At the end of the '97 season the demon manager was fired, and Shawn got to play every day. It was in 1998 that he became the Blue Jays first ever 30/30 man. (30 home runs, 30 stolen bases.) It was also his first 100 RBI season. At least people were starting to see what I had seen for the last three years. The Blue Jays had a major star in their midst.

1999 was even better for Shawn. He had 42 home runs and 123 RBIs. By this time I was being left free tickets to almost every home game so there were not too many that I missed. Shawn was also an all star in 1999.

Shawn Green was good at "ballgames"

The end of the '99 season brought great sadness though. I knew my friend would not be back next year. He had been treated so badly by the Jays, and his dearest wish was to play closer to his California home. On November 8, 1999 his dream came true when he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. I still love the Blue Jays, but I love the Dodgers too. I will always follow Shawn Green's career no matter who he plays for. He's the main reason that I got to see the other side of baseball. The side that fans usually don't get to see. I got to see beyond the money and the flashy lifestyle. I also saw they heartbreak that can go with it too. I got to see that these guys really are just like us. They have feelings that can be hurt just as easily as ours. Money can't make up for some of the things they go through, but yes of course it helps.

Since then I have seen a lot of the heartbreak that goes with the game too. A young player who gets sent to the minors days before his wife is due to give birth so as she can't go with him. The guy who is traded the day after his dream home has just been finished close to his old teams ball park. The countless fans that follow them when they go out to dinner or try to go on a date. The evil female fans that treat the players wives badly, just because they are married to a player. Most recently there is the knowledge that someone whom I got to know quite well when he was with Toronto Huck Flener, had an eye explode when he was hit in the face with a comeback pitch. Yes basbell is a lot of fun, but the other side of the game is just as interesting too. Baseball really is "the grand old game." I'm so glad the people of England are starting to get interested in it too.

Thanks Shawn for giving me a true love of the game and the people who play it. Play ball!

You can check out my tribute to Shawn Green, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers @: www.shawngreen.net