This One’s For You: C70 Weighs In

Three years ago, when FOX Sports Midwest rolled out that year’s “This One’s For You” tribute, I wrote a little piece as part of the United Cardinal Bloggers’ related project.  As I stated then, I don’t come from a military family by any means, nor do I have any ties to the armed forces save a few friends who have served in the past.  The military just never was a big portion of my life.

The reason for that is, of course, because of the military.  Their service and dedication to this country has allowed a large portion of the populace to live their lives under the banner of freedom without the daily reminders of armed guards or barbed wire fences.  They serve so that most of us don’t have to.  They give for our taking.

It seems quite unlikely that we fans, sitting behind the comfort of our keyboards and being up in arms about so many things such as the 25th man on the roster and whether the closer is being used to much, would still be doing that without the dedication of these amazing men and women.  Whether it is training and protecting close at home, on a relatively peaceful foreign base, or in the warmest of political hot spots, they keep the peace and allow us to do such silly things as writing about a baseball team’s inability to score runs.

Of course, there are correlating concepts between baseball and the military, most notably in the “team-first” philosophy.  A soldier who goes it alone has a worse survival rate for himself and his squad.  While it’s not as dramatic, baseball teams don’t win on the backs of one or two people, no matter how often you hear a player has “carried his team” to victory.  It takes everyone doing their part to have a successful team, whether it is at play or at deadly work.

There is some similar terminology as well, though it is always more serious for the people in fatigues.  A pitcher may throw bullets, but a soldier dodges them.  The batter that is in the hole is much more comfortable than one of America’s finest being in one.  And, most notably, a sacrifice in baseball is a temporary thing, but sacrifices by our military are most certainly permanent.

Tonight, FOX Sports Midwest again honors those men and women who are fighting to keep America free, who are fighting to allow us these luxuries of baseball and blogging and all the rest.  We stand and salute these incredible people most notably today, but we appreciate their work daily, whether we realize it or not.

This One’s For You, folks.  Hope you enjoy.

This post was brought to you by Daniel Shoptaw of Cards Conclave
You can follow Daniel on Twitter @C70