Why we love baseball
I was having a discussion with one of my best friends the other day, and we got on to the topic of being passionate/having a passion. She ended up asking me why I love the Red Sox, and I found it kind of hard to answer. It’s like asking someone why they love their family… you can’t explain it, you just do. She thought it was weird that I have a passion for watching other people perform their passion; she thought that you should have a passion for something that you create. I suppose I have a passion for writing, I mean, I kind of religiously maintain this blog. But, I still think that I have a passion for the Red Sox, and that all you baseball fans out there have a passion for your team. I told her that baseball brings people together in a kind of way that nothing else can, it provides you with some kind of excitement that nothing else can, it’s life changing. Some of the relationships you have with people wouldn’t even be existent if baseball didn’t exist. I told her that most of the time, I’d rather stay home and watch a game than go out on a Friday night. It’s just not the same when you watch it the next day. There’s a kind of anxious feeling that you get… when the count is 0-2 on Dustin Pedroia and there are two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning and you’re down by a run. Even if it’s not a playoff game, it’s still exciting. Whenever I get a boyfriend, (that is, if I can find it within myself to put up with the guys at my school) I’ll go out to dinner with them on a Friday night… it just has to be a nice sports bar where I can watch the Red Sox game, or Sports Center for updates (they don’t have NESN down in FL). If not, I’d be constantly checking my cell phone for updates about the game. I told my friend that you live and die with your team, and she thought that it was a little extreme, but for me, and I’m sure for a lot of you, that it’s true. So granted, we’re all passionate about our teams, but I still think that we can have a passion for our teams too. I downloaded Robert Lovett Crawford’s, the vice president of RSN, song ‘I’m a Member of a Red Sox Nation’ from his blog ‘It’s a Kind of Family, It’s a Kind of Insanity’ and I think we can all agree that “we live and die with [insert team's name pride] for eternity]. From the types of people that I’ve met on this site, I can deduce that defining characteristics of us all is loving our teams. I’d be willing to bet that your friends associate you with loving your team almost immediately when they think of you. If baseball didn’t exist, I think that a lot of people would be really different.
elidreesox
I think non-fans of the game have a hard time understanding why we are so passionate about the game. Baseball is a lot like life. It ain’t over until it’s over. There’s no clock, no timer. The batter can foul of 20 balls before he gets a hit and that’s okay! A batting average of .300 is good! And that means you get out approximately 7 out of 10 times at bat! It’s a game that we can play at home – maybe not well but we can do it. There is the same feel in the air when you attend a Little League game. There is something magical about baseball. You can be in a crowd of strangers, someone will mention a game and before you know it there are a bunch of people sitting around and talking. It brings us together – in the office, in the bar, in life. And anything that gets people talking and listening to each other isn’t such a bad thing. Would life go on without baseball – sure it would. But it would be a much duller life. I for one am glad that I have the Red Sox in my life.
http://werbiefitz.mlblogs.com/
I think it is easier for James Earl Jones to answer that with his little speach from Field of Dreams. I don’t have it off the top of my head, but remember it eloquently explains it.
Greg
Red Sox Ramblings: http://thevendahhh.mlblogs.com
AHHHH that was beautiful!! And so true. Seriously, I’m not planning to date yet, but when I do, we are going to a sports bar, or even better, a game! Everything you said is so true. You got it. Baseball is so special, so unique. It’s amazing.
http://kaybee.mlblogs.com
Great post, Elizabeth. Women are always asked why we love baseball – I know I am – and I explain it in much the same way you and Julia did. There’s no clock. Anything can happen. A game is like the best, most suspenseful novel because the ending is unpredictable. I also love that there’s a game within a game (a pitcher versus a batter, as well as a team versus another team). And baseball – or any sport, for that matter – is an escape, an entertainment. It takes us away from the daily grind. My life would be very different without it.
- http://janeheller.mlblogs.com