Baseball Season-Opening Day is Almost Here!

Perhaps this will come as a surprise to some, but I have to admit that I really like Baseball.  And by like I don’t mean watching it on T.V. or listening to baseball on the radio…I don’t like that.  I mean that I enjoy going to baseball games. 

My husband enjoys listening to games, in fact while we were going to school in Colorado, it was nearly impossible to hear a Padre game on the radio, but somehow he managed to find a spot that he could drive to atop a certain hill to hear the fuzzy radio broadcast…a little quirky…but I still find that sort of charming because it shows he is devoted.

Anyway, back to baseball.   It isn’t so much the crack of the bat or the roar of the crowd; for me it’s the food and the atmosphere that keep me going back for more.  It all started when we moved to San Diego after college and I began going to many games and slowly caught on to the world of baseball.  I probably asked many very dumb questions in the beginning, and I have to admit I didn’t get it for awhile.  What happened though was that the Padres ended up going to the World Series during my second year as a Padre fan, and somewhere in the midst of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire hitting homeruns and the Padres having one exciting game after another baseball seemed to click for me and I was hooked. 

 It wasn’t always smooth sailing though.  I was nearly banned from baseball for life during the 98 series for commenting that more people were wearing white than any other color (in my defense I am visual person and that was interesting to me)!  I also foolishly tossed my commemorative World Series towel after the fourth game (now I know we save those things).   The thing I have learned about baseball in the last decade is that baseball suits me.  I like baseball because for 9 innings I have to sit still, and that is good for a hyper person like me. There is something almost therapeutic about sitting in the stands watching the game and zoning out-so to speak.  I like that my husband buys me food and drinks at baseball games.  I love to bring my good friend with me because over the course of the game we solve all of our problems and everyone else’s too, and by the 9th inning are better friends.   I like it when her husband comes to the games because he and my husband watch the game and drink beer and by the end of the 9th inning are better friends too.  I like that even the world’s best hitter sometimes strikes out, and that sometimes the rookie makes the play of the game. I like that someone can pitch a no hitter and become a king, and that there are stats for every single tiny thing that happens over the course of the game.  There is probably even a stat somewhere that says more people wore white to the 98 series than any other color.   I like that baseball is a game of failure, as a sport it probably most mirrors life.  I mean who really makes it on base every time?  Who always makes the perfect play?  It doesn’t happen that often, so when it does it is all the sweeter.  Happy Opening Day!