Auto racing and Baseball are my two passions in life, when it comes to professional sports. While I’ll tune into a football game or cheer for my Raptors, nothing drives me (pardon that pun) as much as auto racing and baseball. I sometimes wonder why I’m fascinated by these two sports, and not by, hockey, for example. I mean, what red-blooded Canadian doesn’t live for hockey? There aren’t many of us. I grew up playing hockey. I even achieved some level of success until came the day that I hung my skates up. You’d think my enthusiasm for the sport would carry over as a fan. I do have my Ottawa Senators to cheer for and I grew up attending many games with my folks. I never once attended an auto race with them. Motorsports was simply not a topic in my household, not for any other reason than my parents didn’t grow up on it, so why would I? As for baseball, I have always been so happy that my father made me play the game as a kid. At the time, I wanted to play soccer and many hockey players played soccer in the summer to keep up the cardio. But for some reason, my father made me play baseball. Once I got into the game, I could never go back to anything else. Some of my most pleasant memories as a child was going to Montreal to see the Expos with my dad. Montreal is about an hour and a half away from Ottawa, so getting there was no problem I don’t know if he realizes how much those trips meant to me.

Anyway, this ain’t Bridges of Madison County, so I’ll end the sentimental stuff and focus on the topic at hand. Why do I love baseball and autoracing so much? I think I figured I out. Both sports are actually very similar.

Both are the ultimate team sport. You can hit as many homeruns in a game as possible, yet its impossible for the team to win without strong pitching and the other 8 members on the team performing well enough to give you as many at-bats as possible to hit all those dingers. You can be the fastest natural driver in the world, have the absolute best instincts on the road, yet its all moot without a great pit stop crew, clever mechanics and great engineers. While its certainly a thrill watching Michael Jordan take over a basketball game, or Wayne Gretzky score all those goals, there’s something about an individual being able to beat the opposing team by himself that urks me a little.

Yet at the same time, both auto racing and baseball come down to individual battles. In baseball, its mano a mano, as the pitcher faces the batter. Pitcher wants to strike him out and the batter wants anything but a strike out. A stick and a ball. It couldn’t be simpler in a very complicated and intricate game. With racing, it’s a battle with the driver in front of you, or behind you. All that horsepower, all that technology behind the vehicles and it still comes down to a mano a mano battle between two drivers. Two super athletes going at it inside a souped up racecar.

Both sports are incredibly simple despite their complicated structure. Both sport represent the perfect mix of individual prowess and team effort. You can be a great baseball player or a great driver, but you can’t be a champion without an excellent team riding with you. (second pun!)
Champ Car baby! Champ Car for life!