Batter Up!

Since the baseball season started, I have been to two Yankee games (last thursday and yesterday) and I’m heading to Queens for a Mets v. Phillies game on Thursday. Baseball is the only (American) sport I follow with any conviction or passion so when a season comes around I can get cranky, moody, or delirious. Depends how the season goes.

Baseball is “America’s Pastime”–a great excuse to scream, drink beers, get tan and eat artery-clogging amounts of Hebrew Nationals. So, why do journalists and commentators and all these other yippity yaps in the peanut gallery going on and on about how boring the sport is. Nothing Ever Happens! Scoreless Innings! Et Al.

But I think there’s a secret reason people like baseball. However “boring” it may seem, I think it’s the speculation that makes the game worthwhile. Sitting in the stadium, sitting in front of the television, people are always discussing what’s the next play, what’s the next pitch going to be, who’s up, who’s on base…the questions are endless and the suspense is almost crippling.

A general hypothesis could be this: baseball is for readers, football is for TV watchers. I understand these massive generalizations, but football is quick animal. There’s a blitz, a passing game…even though a football game is roughly the same span of time as a baseball game, it seems like everything happens with no speculation. The game is happening to quickly to discuss strategy and options.

With Baseball, there’s imagination…trepidation at every turn, and with both the Mets and the Yankees playing their last seasons in their venerable institutions, this season will be a weeper.