All it took was a game of catch with my dad and a Carlton Fisk baseball card.

And in an instant, I was hooked.

It was decided that when I was older, I wouldn’t be happy unless I was involved in sports in some capacity. And it was baseball that started it.

Baseball, for many American youngsters, starts the engine that drives a love of sports.

It’s the first game brought to their attention and the first game they participate in.

But for a small period, the greediness that seeps into the pores of sports today took away the game that defined us and turned it into a business.

I guess it just dawned on me as I watched the Houston Astros celebrate their first postseason series victory and as we embark upon another journey into the saga that is the Red Sox and Yankees, that after a short hiatus, baseball has returned to the forefront of sports fans’ minds.

People argued and argued that baseball would never be the same after the 1994 strike, and maybe they were right to some extent.

The NFL has surpassed MLB in total revenues and increased its own fan base in attempting to make football the new “America’s Game.”

But the events that have transpired since the 1994 shutdown have slowly peeled away the anger from fans’ minds and restored baseball to its rightful position.

There have been the records.

From Cal Ripken’s consecutive games chase, to Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa slugging their way to astronomical numbers in 1998, to Barry Bonds lapping McGwire’s record home run total and setting his sights on the legends of Ruth and Aaron.

There have been surprise world champions in the Florida Marlins, Anaheim Angels and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And baseball was there in the nation’s most trying times.

When the tragedy of Sept. 11 occurred and the nation shut down, how did President Bush let everyone know things would soon return to normal?

By throwing out the first pitch of the World Series in New York.

James Earl Jones once waxed poetic in Field of Dreams, saying that while America had changed, the one constant has been baseball. It reminds us of all that was once good and could be again.

Everything is good again. Especially the game.

The number one box office draw is the non-stop, action-packed, drama-filled Hollywood blockbuster known as the Red Sox versus the Yankees.

The rivalry to end all rivalries has provided entertainment for the nation since the dramatic American League Championship Series last season.

During the winter – when football, basketball and hockey should have been flourishing – the top story on SportsCenter was the trade rumors swirling about the Northeast region.

It took what seems like an eternity, but in reality only one year, to get to the inevitable continuation of their story.

Will it be different this time? Are the Red Sox cursed? Is Curt Schilling the cure to all that ails Red Sox fans? Who will be the goat this time?

It doesn’t matter.

Right around the corner for all to see will be another chapter in the game that once again consumes Americans.

The Red Sox ending 86 years of pain and anguish.

New York getting back to the throne that has eluded them for the last three seasons.

The Cardinals and Red Sox, the best hitting teams in the regular season, slugging it out in the World Series.

Or even Roger Clemens facing one of his former teams in Game 7 at his old stomping grounds.

The possibilities are endless.

American scholar Jacques Barzun said, “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game.”

The reality is that all it takes is one moment.

One moment to fall in love with a game as American as George Washington.

One moment to be etched in our minds forever.

And one moment to be reminded that baseball will always be “America’s game.”

At least for everyone who’s played that first game of catch.

Jeff Feyerer is a senior in applied life studies. He can be reached at [email protected].