I'm Beginning to Get It

Even someone as clueless and indifferent to baseball as me can't help but get somewhat sucked into this big Red Sox/Yankees playoff thing. I went to a dinner party on Saturday and we all ended up watching the game and the mood went from gregarious to angry, desperate, and frustrated. Then last night I was out with a friend to get a pizza and the TV was on in the 8th inning. We had to walk to the cash machine after we ordered the pie and we stopped at a group of people smoking beside a cab with the radio turned all the way up to get a score update. We stopped outside a bar and stuck our noses to the glass to watch a little more of the game. We weren't the only ones. Back at the pizza place we watched through the 10th inning. And I started to see why people like baseball so much. For a team sport, it is excruciatingly individual. At any moment, one individual from each team has the entire pressure on him. It's a pressure cooker. Players can be heroes or complete jackasses but when it's their moment the whole weight of the game is on them. I've always thought baseball was incredibly boring -- just a bunch of standing around, and this artificial separation of defensive play and offensive play with no hope for the defense to intercept or turn things over and change the direction of the game. I still am not likely to devote much time to baseball but I now see how it can hold you spellbound and hopeful, building up the tension and wondering whether a player will do something masterful or bungle his chance and crush everyone's dreams in a split second. It's not basketball, for sure, but I think in its own way there's something kind of neat about the game.

Comments

[B]

The stakes change everthing, and that is the exciting part. walking across 2x4 1 foot off the ground is much different then 100 feet in the air. Same 2x4 though....the playoffs are more fun because the players take bigger risks and most of the time they pay off. hmmm might be a lesson here!! batter up?

[anthony]

having moved to boston recently, i find it actually disturbing how into baseball some of these people are. i don't mind excitement - but please, be excited about it the same way i'm excited about Sarah Michelle Gellar. Well, OK, not *exactly* the same way - but have some distance - realize it's not real.

I think it would be neat if we could get 5% as many people interested in public activism.

I'm being a crank again. Sorry, tired. I love everyone, really. Ok, fine, I don't.

[CM]

Basketball is all about speed. The ball goes back and forth; scores get into the triple digits. Players have to act on instinct. Baseball is, like you said, all about tension. The showdown between the pitcher and the batter is like a game of rock-paper-scissors. Both of them are trying to guess what the other will do next. To me, this is fascinating, but I find basketball boring with its constant running around.