Passing Lane

A NASCAR BLOG BY Mike Hembree

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Play ball!

Jun 2

DOVER, Del. – I’m leaving Dover in the rear-view mirror this morning with the Pocono Mountains on next weekend’s schedule. In between, however, the NASCAR Scene cruiser will make stops in New York City, Pittsburgh and Toronto – all part of a week’s worth of racing-related endeavors, with a little baseball thrown in.

Contrary to popular opinion, those of us who chase racers around the country from January to early December don’t lock ourselves in garages and practice changing oil and-or engines when there isn’t a race to attend. We do other stuff. We play golf. We play tourist. We play well together (at least most of the time).

We also – many of us, anyway – like baseball, at least as it is played on a major league (or high minor-league) level. Put us within a few hundred miles of a major league park, and we’re likely to cram into a vehicle and head there at a moment’s notice – with or without tickets. Tickets can be bought to almost any event within a few blocks of it (or at least it appears that way, what with all those guys holding “I Need Tickets” signs outside NASCAR races).

So it is that baseball will be on view Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium and Wednesday night in Pittsburgh (Toronto’s another story) before everybody gathers again at the sound of engines in Long Pond, Pa. Then, on the way home from Pennsylvania, it’s a Monday night game at the new park in Washington.

Thing is, we’re halfway expecting some guy named Busch to show up as a cleanup hitter at one park or another.