I asked someone recently if she liked baseball. She said she’d been to a game once but found it really boring. Her friends assured her, however, that it was an exception and that games are usually more exciting.
I told her they were wrong.
Unless you’re a fan, baseball can be excruciatingly dull. But baseball has unduly been singled out (ha!) for being humdrum. The same can be said of any sport that the viewer doesn’t know anything about. For example, I watched the 2000 Super Bowl at a friends’ house. It was quite the exciting game, I’m told. I wouldn’t know; I feel asleep sometime in the middle of the second quarter.
It’s an obvious point, but the more you know about the nuances of any game, the more interesting it can be. If your knowledge of baseball is limited to understanding that hitters are trying to reach base and score a run and the other team is trying to prevent them from doing that, then you’re bound to get a thrill from a 1-0 pitcher’s duel. If, however, you know that a certain hitter prefers high fastballs, you’re on the edge of your seat when he’s facing a 1-2 count with runners in scoring position against a reliever who throws high heat.
Saturday’s game, in which the Tigers beat the Mariners 2-1, was more a fans’ game than an all-out rockin’ good time. The only unqualified excitement came when the Mariners’ manager was ejected from the game for arguing a strike call. Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing a live game as much as I always do, and only wish that a certain toddler had a more game-time-friendly nap/sleep schedule so that we could both go to games more often.
I mean, what is it with two-year-olds and their chronic inability to sit still for three-and-a-half hours and stay up until eleven?!
