Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us
Despite all the discord we’re worth all the fuss
We’re the land of the free and the home of the brave
Proven by the sacrifices so many freely gave

Regardless of your views or those you dislike
Those founding fathers did get things right
The courage they showed 243 years ago
Still lights the sky with the rockets red glow

Regardless of your plans for this wonderful day
It all began with what that Declaration did say
So show your respect, stand up and take pride
Tis a fitting tribute to those who stood, fight & died!

There are a lot of folks who don’t like to divulge their age when birthday time rolls around. That can be understood. But there shouldn’t be anyone not aware or proudly proclaim the most happiest of birthdays to the good old USA as we all take time to celebrate the red, white & blue’s 243rd big day. With this year’s commemoration falling on a Thursday, many will be enjoying a four-day respite from their normal routine.

The Fourth of July is a truly unique American holiday in many respects. It is also one that’s minus other holiday duties of buying gifts, sending flowers, making telephone calls, or purchasing special wardrobes. It’s a time to enjoy the warmer weather we’ve all waited so long for, picnics, swimming, boating, baseball, and softball games, backyard grilling, and of course, the ever-popular fireworks to top it all off.

No doubt the members of the Continental Congress gathered on that July 4, 1776 day weren’t thinking about picnics, but the fireworks their brave action took severed the political connections to Great Britain. To be historically accurate, the Declaration of Independence wasn’t officially signed by its 56 signees until August 2, 1776, in Philadelphia.

The most notable among them were John Hancock, the Continental Congress president, and two men who would later become Presidents of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. If they were among us today, who knows how the trio would be celebrating. Hancock was known to enjoy a game of tennis. Jefferson liked to fish, ride horses and to walk, while Adams took pleasure in swimming. All these years later many of us will be enjoying those same activities.

In the days leading up to July 4, while flipping through the TV channels, I took the time to watch the movie “The Sandlot” again. That classic 1993 film reminds me of my younger days when a group of us spent the summer playing a game we called ‘speedball’ on the old Mountain Avenue School playground in South Williamsport. It was an almost everyday occurrence and surely contributed to my lifelong affair with baseball.

The movie featured a segment that the ‘sandlot crew’ would proclaim was the only time they got to play a night game. They gathered on their rag-tag field using the light provided by the community’s annual fireworks display to enjoy their own brand of baseball. As our own gigantic fireworks extravaganza lights up the sky hopefully, it will spark similar memories of past childhoods for you.

Baseball will indeed be the centerpiece of numerous community celebrations all around the land this holiday. There is an old baseball lexicon suggesting that Major League teams leading their division on July 4 will remain in that position when the season ends. Statistics reveal that to be true about 60% of the time. If the Wild Card is included in the calculations, teams in that July 4 position will reach the playoffs more than 66% of the time.

There has long been something special about the intersection of America’s pastime with America’s birthday as friends and family gather, and many great baseball memories were forged on July 4. Among them were the famous Lou Gehrig ‘Luckiest Man’ speech in 1939; a no-hitter thrown by the Yankees’ Dave Righetti against the rival Red Sox in 1983, and the day the Fourth became the Fifth when a Mets/Braves game in 1985 went 19 innings not concluding until 4:00 a.m. on July 5.

Despite the long association with baseball on the Fourth of July, this year’s schedule maker must not have been aware of the significance of the American pastime. Of the 30 MLB teams, six of them (Mets, Giants, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Orioles, and Astros) will not be playing. With the Yankees playing in Tampa Bay and the Mets having the day off, it will mark the first time since 1981 that The Big Apple will be baseball-less on our Nation’s birthday.

Consider the irony. Perhaps four of the country’s five most historical entrenched cities will not be celebrating the holiday with their fans. New York will be minus their two teams, Philadelphia will be playing in Atlanta, Baltimore’s Camden Yards, just a few blocks from where the Star Spangled Banner was written, will be silent and Boston’s Red Sox will be playing in Canada on this red, white & blue day. The Washington Nationals are the lone exception, as they will the Miami Marlins with an 11:00 a.m. scheduled start.
Perhaps given some extra time to ponder, those 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence might have penned in an additional line or two of instructions for the lords of Major League Baseball. Or maybe John Hancock would have just headed to the tennis courts.

Whatever your plans for the day make it a happy and safe one! Happy Birthday!