Baseball
I am not a big baseball fan. I love college football and college basketball, but I could live without baseball, well, at least without baseball on TV. I played baseball as a little leaguer, and later on even became a certified umpire to help pay the bills while in college. Even though I had some involvement with the game, it is far from my favorite.
The thing about baseball is that it doesn’t translate well to television. For most people – especially those who do not live in or near major league cities – you can only get baseball on TV. That was the way it was for me growing up. As a child in New Orleans, the closest major league team was the Astros, but my dad always told us that we should NEVER pull for a team from Texas. So there was no interest there on the part of brothers and I. I would catch a random Cubs game on WGN, and can recall seeing the Braves play on TBS, but I found it dull. It seemed so…slow!
When I was 18 I moved to Central Florida. Each of these little sun kissed towns had a stadium. Within an hour of my apartment I could see the Tigers, the Red Sox, the Braves, and a host of other teams. One night, out of sheer boredom, I went to watch a Tigers spring training game in Lakeland. I was almost sure after that night that I had fallen in love with baseball. The games were cheap and every seat was good and I went to several spring training games that year. But when the boys of summer headed to their own cities and I tried to watch them on TV, I quickly lost interest. No more baseball. Well, not until the next Spring.
Flash forward a few years and I found myself living in Atlanta. Again finding myself looking for something entertaining, I trekked over to the newly constructed Turner Field and found myself again amazed. It was (and is) a magnificent place to see baseball, and there was a genuine excitement in the air from the fans. You see, Atlanta is not a great sports town, in spite of the fact that all pro sports are represented. The Falcons suck, the Hawks suck even worse, and until the last couple of years, the Thrashers were no prize pig (but I sure loving heading to Phillips Arena for some hockey!). The Braves have been a successful franchise over the last 15 years or so and have managed to evoke loyalty among fans.
A couple of weeks ago, I pulled my son out of school and I blew off a day in the office so that we could make a 1:05 first pitch. It was a great day, filled with hot dogs and ice cold Coke and peanuts and nachos and thorough whacking of David Wells, not to mention a day with my kid. Baseball is such a great game. I cannot think of a better way to spend an afternoon in the summer. But I really feel like you have to be there to appreciate it. It just doesn’t do well on TV. But you know, maybe that is the way it should be. Maybe it should be boring on TV so that lazy suburban dwellers like me will leave their subdivisions and trek back into town to enjoy a game that is truly
America’s Favorite Past Time.
May 22, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Baseball… is that the one with the little white ball and the wooden stick???
May 22, 2007 at 9:22 pm
I love baseball and that is what induced me to get satellite TV. But then, I have to drive 250 miles to a so-called stadium for MLB. But when I go to a real game, it takes me about half the game to figure out what to look at when. I think I’d really like getting a chance to go to a number of games in one season. My son lives near the stadium so he gets to go. He is passionate about baseball.
May 22, 2007 at 10:39 pm
I’ve always loved baseball, but what I loved most about it was going to games with my dad. I’ll still go on the rare occassions I get the chance (that whole living in Louisiana thing…though I did catch a few LSU games this season), but it isn’t the same as going with my dad.
Good on you for pulling your son out of school for that. Sometimes you just need to do something slightly naughty. My dad would do that whenever there was a “businessman’s special” when I was in elementary school.
May 22, 2007 at 11:51 pm
A live baseball game in a good ballpark is about as close to paradise as I think I’ll ever get – at least until I die and/or the Second Coming of Jesus, whichever comes first.
When I went through some depression and major life changes in my early/mid twenties, the ballpark was my comfort zone – get a ticket or two, sit next to complete strangers, drink beer, watch a game, cheer, boo, wax philosophically between pitches . . . yes, there are few things better than going to a baseball game.
As for baseball on TV – I agree with you 100%. There are few things worse than baseball on TV (particularly local broadcast crews – the national FOX and ESPN broadcast productions are pretty good). I do not watch baseball on TV (that I don’t have cable or satellite is a big part of my reason). I listen on the radio all the time – baseball came of age in the radio era – and with a good broadcaster, baseball on radio is almost as good as being there. I have purchased the $13 MLB Gameday Audio package so that I can listen without static online . . .
May 23, 2007 at 2:58 am
LP,
I grew up in Atlanta (5th-12th grades) and go back a couple times a year to see my parents. I have said many time that Atlanta is not a good sports town. First, I think it is because of the large number of transplants who already have loyalty to other teams. Second, I think it is because Atlanta is not a blue collar town. Suburbanite, middle class fans can be fickle (myself included). Do you have any theories?
I’m a basketball guy (Ga Tech) but can’t deny the magic of emerging from the tunnel and getting that first glimpse of the grass either under the lights or during the day.
JK
May 23, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I heard about a TV station that showed afternoon games in the evenings for people who were at work. They showed every pitch, every hit, every single play, but they edited out everything in between. The entire game was boiled down to 45 minutes.
I used to occasionally (once or twice a year) go to Blue Jay games when I lived an hour from Toronto. Now I’m 2 hours away and haven’t been in over 5 years. I’m only a half hour from Buffalo and they’ve got a Triple-A (I think) team that plays in a beautiful stadium. Maybe I’ll take one or more of my kids there some time.
May 23, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Oh, hey: Lutheran Night at the Braves this year is against . . . the Astros!