Play ball, America!

‘This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.’

— Terence Mann, from “Field of Dreams”

It’s not just Cubs fans crawling out of the ivy on Wrigley’s brick outfield walls.

Baseball devotees from sea to shining sea are celebrating this World Series, even though 28 of their 30 teams can only wait ‘til next year.

The best-of-seven faceoff between the Cleveland Indians, who last won a World Series in 1948, and the Chicago Cubs, who haven’t sniffed that rarefied air of ultimate victory since 1908, pits more than a couple of longtime lovable losers against one another. It puts baseball on a stage that all of America can not just admire, but help them remember.

Sports pages, websites and TV channels will continue cramming baseballabilia down our throats for the next week or so, as if to sustain us through a long winter until spring ball blossoms again. That’s OK. Our appetites, thanks to these Indians and these Cubs, are duly whetted. But the bigger game at hand is the revival of an American tradition.

Younger Americans enthralled by the legal violence of the NFL and the speed of the NBA might, just might, now smell the leather of a new mitt and feel the cleats digging into base paths for the first time. They might begin to see the beautiful geometry in baseball, starting with 60 feet 6 inches and concluding with 27 outs. They might, just might, dig through Dad’s collection of movies and learn why “The Pride of the Yankees,” “The Natural” and “Field of Dreams” aren’t just the three best baseball flicks of all time, but a sports film trifecta. Who knows? Maybe when they see that famous photo of white pitcher Steve Gromeck and black slugger Larry Doby hugging after the Indians won the ’48 World Series, or they consider why Cubs fans couldn’t be too dejected after losing the ’45 Series because their country had won the war, maybe they’ll have a deeper understanding of shattered color barriers and broken hearts.

This World Series is much, much more than a desperately needed pre-election distraction. Through the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs, it’s a powerful reminder that no matter how far down you might get, it’s possible to climb up to the very top.

Let’s plunge into our national pastime and remember all that once was good and could be again.