Baseball. Stay with me.
Earlier this year I was hanging out at my favorite bar and got into a friendly yet spirited debate about baseball. Okay, the guys I was talking to were friendly (and I believe deeply amused), I was super fired up and getting mad at the dude in the Yankees hat for no other reason than he was a Yankees fan. Seriously, the Yankees suck. Just stop.
While everyone else seems to have switched to the believe that football is the new American past-time, I still adore baseball and refer to it as such. Football has a larger percentage of American-born players than baseball does, and is followed by more people, but there is something in the spirit of baseball that still better embodies a grand sport with such history.
Complaints I've heard about the sport include: it's too slow, it's boring, it's not as cool as football. There's not much substance in their criticisms, but to be fair there's not much substance in my defenses either. I think with things like sports fandom it's about the feelings it elicits; something about baseball speaks to me and keeps me engrossed. Maybe it's the fact that the best players aren't always the most physically fit or the ones that look like they'd be a great player. Obviously genetics play a huge role in any sport but baseball requires much more finesse. You have to see the pitch, predict the pitch, decide to swing, to hold back, make the sacrifice bunt, run the bases, know if you need to slide, know when to stay, the pitcher has to be able to throw an entire repertoire of pitches, the catchers has to do a whole slew of things the least of which is catching. There is so much going on; so those people who say it's too slow clearly aren't seeing all the little things.
The best part of baseball though is going to the stadium. I love watching my team (go Twins!) on TV, but other than that it can be hard to stay glued to the screen. The stadium is a different story altogether; I don't care who's playing, I'll choose one side to root for and watch. If the game itself ever gets boring there's an even better show going on right around me: life. People from any group you can think of are there, from the uber wealthy to those who can only afford the nose-bleeds, from small kids to old men, from the girls who are there to look cute to the super fan who looks absolutely ridiculous and knows it. It's a microcosm where all these different folks come together to do one unifying thing. Football brings together fans and divides them based on team, but I don't know anyone that just goes to football games even if they don't specifically support one of the teams. The atmosphere at the stadium is much more tense as well. I'm sure there are plenty that would argue with me, and that's fine. But is there a song about taking oneself out to see the Packers lose? No, I don't think there is.
So buy me some peanuts and a nice cold, overpriced ballpark beer and I'm happy. This baseball season I've got myself a season ticket to watch the Bees play and I'll be at the bar watching the Twins hopefully turn the season around. I don't care if I ever come back.
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