On June 30th, 1995, future Hall of Fame, Eddie Murray got his 3,000th career hit against the’s Minnesota Twins’s Mike Trombley in a 4-1 Cleveland win at the Metrodome. Murray became the 20th player to reach that milestone and the third in franchise history to do it wearing a Cleveland uniform.

I was lucky enough to have been at the Hubert Horatio Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis on this day in 1995, when Eddie Murray hit Trombley’s 1-0 fastball in the 6th inning for his 3000th hit. Murray’s single to right is one of the many memorable moments baseball has given to me over the years.

I try to analyze what it is about baseball that I like so much. Why it matters so much to me. Why I keep coming back to it over the years.

It is has something to do with the exciting, historic moments I have seen in person. Moments like the Game 7 of the 1991 World Series or Eddie Murray’s 3000th hit. Or the historic moments I have watched live on television: the Cubs finally winning the World Series in 2016, and the Red Sox breaking the curse in 2004, and Kirk Gibson’s 1988 walk-off.

But it has just as much to do with smaller moments in less important games. Like seeing a rookie get his first big-league hit or a pitcher get the first win of his big league career. Or a great or surprising play in an otherwise forgettable game that gets the crowd buzzing.

It also has something to do with a great at-bat, or a hustling run to first, or a batter tipping his cap to a fielder that just made a great play that just cost the batter a hit.

It has to do with the people you watch the game with, the conversations you have, the weather, the beer, the hotdog, the uniforms, the moments when you are so engaged in enjoying the moment that time becomes timeless.

It is the 1001 reasons that the Arts and Sports matter. It is creativity, effort, passion, history, finitude, and timelessness. It is the Infinite breaking into the mundane. It is love and mystery and being in the moment. It is joy. It is baseball.