i read the article. keillor doesn't mention crazy evangelists. why does salon make these things up?

I can remember the joy of playing baseball as an innocent, many years ago. Perhaps the innocence was related to my ignorance of politics. But as politics probed its way into my realm, it left less room for innocence, and led to a slow withdrawal from baseball. The joy of playing baseball was replaced by enjoyment, then appreciation, and finally indifference.

Perhaps Mr. Keillor’s description of baseball is no longer relevant. As I travel the country, the vast majority of baseball fields that I see are completely lonely. They seem to be monuments built by those who once played the game and now have means to build the manicured fields that they wished they had in their youth. And like all monuments, they are appreciated only by those who know their meaning.

I no longer see baseball infields burned into open fields, like years ago, when any expanse of flat, empty and treeless land within biking distance was surveyed, marked off, and used as a baseball field, until some “business man” shooed everyone away.

Baseball, like America, was once a place where you could literally feel yourself grow as you participated, but now, as Mr. Keillor states, it “is about money”. - AGJ

Please come to Crawford in this Summertime.

Camp Casey 3 is just down the Road and George Walker Bush has shown that HIS COLORS RUN. Not to Alabama this time, possibly Timbukto, Outer Mongolia or some other "GREEN ZONE": anyway, he will NOT tell Cindy what Nobel Cause he can justify his MURDEROUS intentions.

PLEASE COME TO CRAWFORD

SUB SOLEUB UMBRA VIRENS

jp irving, msha

Even if you have not bowled for decades, take your sweetie and a bachelor friend. Avoid the bowling leagues. Just find the times when open bowling is cheap and bowling shoe rental is half-off.

You do not even need to remember how to keep score. Machines do it for you now.

I bet you will remember your Grandpa, and smile. You will meet a much nicer class of people than you meet online or in church... And they will be the same people!

The Boys of summer-- Won't you please come to crawford to see what you can do for peace! We came; mothers and daughters, fathers and sons,brothers and sisters, Iraq war vets Vietnam vets, Mothers of vets, Gold Star sisters, Gold Star cousins and lovers of America to work to build Camp Casey; a mecca for Peace in this time when the politicians may have gotten us down. Are we down? No, we are celebrating a victory! George cut and ran. Again!! When we got here he cut his vacation short and hundreds here from around the country are networking and organizing to end the war, bring our troops home, and to take care of them properly when they get here. Gold Star Sister-KM

My brother is a pentecostal minister. My husband is an agnostic biblical history buff. My brother is a Texas republican, and my husband is an urban democrat. When our family gathers, baseball is the connector, the safe harbor topic, and a way for them to share a passion. Thank god for baseball!

This is very midwestern, this idea that we should gather round some idiotic activity like professional sports and beer and bratwurst while keeping our mouths shut to avoid any suggestion of dissension, and that this represents some ideal of civil unity. I have relatives who do this at reunions and brag about it and feel superior to those who are genuinely troubled by events and circumstances. Good Tom Jefferson, a high-ranking idealist on paper, no doubt adopted a similar tactic to avoid straightforward dealing with his unpaid help. Ah, this bratwurst is delicious!

But it is not enough!!! This urge to feel good, to find comfort in macaroni and cheese and equivalent states of mind, is deadly. There is no good joke to be made out of the way of the world these days. To believe we can escape our troubles by reducing ourselves to trivialities like baseball and football and low-brow entertainments is to enforce the couch potato mediocrity that allows the lives of millions to be abused and destroyed by the clever criminals in politics and pulpits.

It may be amusing, like watching monkeys play with other monkeys, but it represents an abdication of the responsibility vouchsafed to a species with ostensible intellects.

Yo, Garrison. Too bad the boys over at DeLassalle High School don't have a field to play baseball in, isn't it? Say howdy to Phyliss for me.

Nobody was ever betrayed by a Bratwurst? I was!

I bought a lovely Bratwurst from a street vendor in Vienna last summer. It looked just right and tasted fine, too, but about 6 hours later I was hit with the most vicious food poisoning I have ever experienced -- not that I make a habit of food poisoning, of course. I recovered with time, but the instrument truck that took me back to Vienna (I was traveling with my son's orchestra) near the midpoint of a very long night may never be the same.

Jesus-I thought I was serious.TK lighten the fuck up.Everything isn't a tragedy.Without humor there is no melancholy.So next time you look up and see the bombs falling,smile.Sourpuss.

GG EEE

Those Colors DO RUN!

WAY AWAY Running away from Crawford.

Please come to Crawford for this CELEBRATION: at the Peace House in Crawford, Texas.

George is Roving off to see the Wizard, Dick, or DUCK DICK 'cuz I'm runnin' away.

NO, NO; No Alabamee now,

perhaps the "GREEN ZONE" Timbuktu or Outer Mongolia again: MAYBE A SHUTTLE FLIGHT as Ralph Kramdon would say to his Alice or to the Moon.

Sub sole sub umbra virens

jp irving msha

Dear Garrison,

Thanks once again for a great piece of writing. Please don't ever stop. Your articles cause me to think of other things for a few moments and that diversion is worthwhile. It helps me regain a bit of perspective and escape, both are valuable and refreshing.

I have never much cared for politics but due to the criminalization of same by Bush/ Cheney and Rove I think about it everyday and most of the day at that.

So your articles bring some much needed relief and respite.

Many thanks for that.