Chasing baseball

It has been harder than expected to live up to a claim made many years ago that I would not live in a town without professional baseball. Teams come and go. Sometimes they seem to elude me.

The Braves were accessible (by Atlanta traffic standards) throughout my 18 years of living in the metro area. However, 13 of those years were in Cobb County where the Braves will move a few years from now.

Tales of the original Chattanooga Lookouts filled my early years of living just a Harmon Killebrew shot over the state line. But going to the games are not in my memory log. The only big gap in the franchise’s long history was from the time I was a kid until after I went off to college.

Moving to Macon 14 years ago offered the chance to see the up-and-coming A Braves on a regular basis. But after three seasons of my enjoyment of games at historic Luther Williams Field, the M-Braves left for Rome, Ga.

And, once upon a time, I spent a few years in Georgia’s Rome as well — before baseball, of course.

Currently, my only remaining baseball option is to drive to Atlanta from Macon, which isn’t bad. Turner Field is easily accessible from the south side of the city. And without the daily hassles of a metro Atlanta commute, and with no minor league team in Macon, I attend more Braves games than ever before.

My recounting of the bad timing between where I’ve lived and where baseball teams locate should not be considered a major, but perhaps minor, complaint. It may take a little more effort, but I get in my share of the national pastime.

Baseball gets worked into my travels as much as possible — and I enjoy regular viewing of the game’s best from the front row of section 222 at Turner Field.

However, the news that the Braves will relocate to the northern ‘burbs in 2017 continues a challenging effort to be in the right place at the right time for baseball.

Baseball may run, but it cannot hide. I’ll track it down like a long fly ball up the centerfield hill in old Engel Stadium.

Now if winter will just give way to spring.