"Baseball is like church. Many attend but few understand"
If you live in the United States one of the first things a person may ask when meeting you for the first time is "So, what team do you root for?". Sports is embedded in our culture much like religion. Legions turn in each and every Saturday and Sunday to watch their favorite football teams duke it out in stadiums across the land. There are certain dos and don't that one must attend to, rituals that have to be engaged in before, during, and after the game, not to mention the various foods we ingest while watching our sporting heroes.
Everyone has a sport that has a special place in their heart. For me it has always been baseball.
If you know me well enough this might come as a shock. At first glance you might think I'm a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan (I am) and that football is my sport of choice (I watch far too much football on the weekends). In my household growing up we watched football whenever it was on TV. However my best years as a child were spent playing America's pastime. It is a sport that I can say that I honestly love.
My earliest sports memories are playing catch with my dad in the front yard, taking fielding practice on dusty fields behind the local elementary school, even dreaming about playing on my high school team. Baseball has been in my blood from the moment I could walk. I still remember going to the store with my dad right before my birthday to pick out a brand new baseball glove. The glove, the bat, the ball...they were all magical to me.
Even today I become more excited about the start of the MLB season than any other sport. I even take off a day of work on Opening Day so I can watch hours upon hours of this amazing game. Some may say it is too slow, that the players make too much money (or cheat), but to this day I have never seen anything more beautiful in sports than the graceful arch of a home run as it makes its way over the outfield wall. And nothing else in sports compares to a crowd of 45,000 sitting in hushed silence as a pitcher gets closer and closer to a no-hitter.
At 162 games baseball is a long, difficult grind. Most likely the team you root for is going to lose more often than not. And even if they do have a couple of successful seasons, your team is going to fail for long stretches at a time, sometimes for 20, 30, even 100 years (I'm looking at you Chicago Cubs). Baseball, they say, is a game you fall in love with even if it is designed to break your heart.
Yet, every spring there is hope. Hope for something better. Free agents are signed to new contracts, young players are promoted, and the possibility exists that your team might just make the playoffs (most likely to lose in a wild card game because of the silly infield fly rule...even MLB isn't sure how to interpret the rule). Regardless of the outcome we still continue showing up at the parks to cheer on our teams.
Next time we'll look at how baseball differs from football...for the good and bad.
