Time, love, and baseball

[cosmolinguist]

I've always liked baseball, and (as with most things I like) never really understood how other people dislike it.

I often hear that it's "boring" and "slow," and I understand that, really. But whenever I find myself watching a Vikings or Timberwolves game (I feel invested in the teams from the same state as I am), I remember how annoying I find football and basketball because, for all their much-touted action, the action still takes up less of the time than referees blowing whistles, penalties, strategic time-outs to pscyhe out the other team, time-outs that actually might be useful to one's own team... Things just drag--especially near the end of the game--and it annoys me to no end. Especially near the end of the game.

And yes, I realize that baseball looks old-fashioned and slow-moving, but that's okay because it is and that's one of the things I like about it. People write cheesy, romanticised thing about it, probably more often than they do about football or basketball. I know; I did a speech on love of baseball a couple of years ago, for which I collected bits of drama, prose, and poetry about the subject. And I remember one bit, the end of a poem, went, "Baseball is precious, baseball is timeless, baseball is forever." (The whole speech wasn't that cheesy, naturally, but since love and baseball can both be cheesy I thought it was important to have some of that.)

I don't know if baseball is actually timeless, but I do know that baseball has no clock. It does have time, though. Like an avant-garde jazz piece, baseball's sense of time is not immediately evident but, like a good avant-garde jazz piece, it is there. Ever played catch with someone? If you're good enough not to drop the ball more often than you catch it (read: better than me), maybe you notice a rhythm to it. Baseball is a many such simple things, repeated much and often. It may move slowly, but it moves steadily. (More or less.) And still has time for commercial breaks.

In baseball, events don't collide, they flow into one another. This isn't even a matter of politeness, I think, so much as aesthetics. Or maybe it's just me who thinks it's beautiful that at any moment, the most amazing thing could happen. Some tihngs you build up to, true, like pitching a no-hitter or hitting for the cycle, but the more mundane things can show up at any time, at any point of the game. The most important part of the game is not delineated by the shot-clock or the two-minute warning or the blue line or the red zone. It could be anything, so you don't notice at the time, but when everything's over you realize that the double play in the third inning won the game, or that the manager really should've taken his starting pitcher out sooner. I know this is still duller than dirt to some people, but I'm glad I'm not one of those.

Comments

[kratkrat.livejournal.com]

Have I told you lately that you rock? You DO!!

I need to meet you in real life at some point. We could go to a baseball game!!

[cosmolinguist]

Thank you. :-) It is good to hear I have friends who understand this weird love of mine.

I'd love to meet you and go to a baseball game. I'm fairly certain that the last time I saw one was on the day Kent Hrbek's number was retired, and all the kids under 12 got a replica jersey, and I got one, so that's been a while.

(Also, I've never seen a game anywhere other than the Metrodome anyway, which is atrocious, etc. It'd be nice to see some outdoor baseball some day.)

[stealthmunchkin.livejournal.com]

You do rock. And even though I will never understand the attraction in watching *any* sport (I can just about feign interest in grand prix racing, but that's about it) that entry is still wonderfully written :)

I miss you already, BTW

[cosmolinguist]

You do realize that if I'm there for the summer, not only are you going to have to put up with me talking about the AL Central Division standings but also I'll bother you a lot about how unfair it is that I can no longer watch/listen to the Twins games. It's one of the bigger sacrifices I think I'll be making. :-) (Which might mean either that I like baseball too much or that there's very little downside to visiting you. I think both are true, myself.)

[dawgdays.livejournal.com]

Sign up for the MLB internet broadcasts. They cost, but you can watch the "local" coverage from pretty much anywhere.

[cosmolinguist]

I thought of that, actually, after I said that. It depends on how much of a baseball geek I really turn out to be.

[kratkrat.livejournal.com]

I've only been to a few stadiums, and two of those don't even exist anymore (The Vet and Three Rivers). But if I could only take you to one that I've been to, it would have to be Pac Bell. That is a gorgeous place to watch a game!! I'm not really even a Giants fan and I love that park. In a way, it's almost better to be sitting high up... you can see the San Francisco Bay, look across the bay to the Oakland Hills, you can see the Bay Bridge, there's McCovey Cove behind the stadium (into which Mr. Bonds will from time to time deposit a ball)... and amidst all this eye candy there's a game going on! It has one of those unusually-shaped outfields that can make for some interesting action, too, my favorite part being the deep, deep, deep point in leftcenter, a spot 421 feet away from the plate. It is where triples are made, and I even saw Fernando Vina leg out an inside-the-park home run when he hit a ball there. Of course, if you sit close to the field you miss some eye candy... but this is made up for by being close to the field!!!

It's a great park. If you ever get to San Francisco during the baseball season, you should go. I know I am looking forward to getting back to northern Cali, and games at Pac Bell will be on my list of things to do when I get back.

[cosmolinguist]

Thanks for the recommendation. :-) It's probably not something that would've occurred to me to visit otherwise (but then, the same could be said for California...) but you make it sound lovely and I'll have to check it out if I ever find myself in the area.

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

Your love of baseball makes perfect sense to me. And having read this, I can appreciate the game itself just a little more.

But I don't watch baseball any more. Because it's no longer about the game.

When already way overpaid players go on strike demanding more money, I want to tell them, "You greedy bastards have no fucking clue what the game is about."

When parents of Little League players swear at coaches and berate them for not making their kid the star of the team, I want to tell them, "You're ruining the game for your children, you moron."

The kids who play sandlot baseball, with no audience, no money, and nothing on the line but bragging rights, for no reason other than because they like the game; they're the only ones left who truly understand baseball.

[cosmolinguist]

I agree. I still remember first hearing about the imminent strike in '94--the idea that baseball could be taken away from me so abruptly horrified me; I think I thought it was one of those inalienable rights all people should be guaranteed. And there are certainly distasteful parts about the game--my romantic attitude about it is enough to make me sigh and roll my eyes and hate people like Barry Bonds. Good pitching and good defense excite me, but final scores indistinguishable from those of football games have never done anything for me.

But, again, it's always nice to hear that I make sense and am appreciated. :-)

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

Any time a baseball score gets into double digits, something has gone horribly wrong.

And of course you're appreciated, silly. You're among friends here. And people choose their friends.

[cosmolinguist]

Well, yeah; ones friends are a biased group. :-) But just because you people like me doesn't mean I make sense.

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

It's fortunate for some of us that we don't have to always make sense in order to be liked. :)

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Baseball is a dull sport - but that's part of the joy about it. If stadium beer prices were reasonable, then it woudl be a great time. Sit in the sun, drink beer, chat with your buddies, and passively take in the game.

WRT: your comparrison. Sure, baseball is exciting when compared to football (anything is really), and yup, basketball is way too much back and forth, and none of the first 42 minutes matter.

But what about hockey?!??!?!

[cosmolinguist]

To answer your question, here's what I said about hockey in my journal recently:

My dad even watched hockey games--more than two seconds' worth as he was channel-surfing--last year when the Wild were in the playoffs and doing so well, and he knows nothing about hockey. Which is why I know nothing about hockey, even though it's kind of cool-looking. (I watched the playoff games with him too.) But sports, like other geek hobbies, are only fun for me when there's someone around to get me interested in them, and just as no one's ever wanted me to play RPGs, no one's ever wanted me to watch hockey with them, either.

So, I plead ignorance.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Yes yes, I read that. But watch hockey for heaven's sake!!! Conferance finals are now, and the Stanley Cup will be soon. If you want, I can talk you through a game (via AIM or somesuchwhich)

[cosmolinguist]

I was about to say "But, it doesn't make any sense!" until I got to the part at the end. That'd be cool, even though I don't think it's feasible as my internet connection is unstable and takes up the phone line...but more importantly, the computer is far away from the TVs. Weird, I know.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

well maybe you'll buy a phone card, and I'll talk you through half a period... ;) or you'll just have to come to Toronto.

[(Anonymous)]

your lame and pretentious

[stealthmunchkin.livejournal.com]

And *you* don't know the difference between possesive 'your' and 'you're', the abbreviation for 'you are'.
You're also the most unimaginative anonymous troll I've ever seen on anyone's journal. 0/10 must try harder.

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, but s/he's kinda cute nonetheless. More to be pitied than despised, you know.