Bit by the Baseball bug

The baseball bug, I'm a bit happy to announce, seems to have (finally) hit me in decent time this summer. For about 5 summers of my life now, I've been wanting to watch baseball a bit again, as I did when I was a boy, but because I have no TV, I always forget, and next thing I know it's September, and it's basically too late. This summer, finally, the bug hit me in decent time, as I write. It's August 2nd today, and I was hit by the bug before July was over.

Of course, the problem I'm having now is my search for a team to root for. I'm just not sure I can handle the Yankees: I followed them as a child and, I'm a prick, and don't want to do anything like I did back then. I don't want my family's team or my geographys team! I want a new team with new uniforms and new vibrations. Some group of players not connected to that dress code dictator known as George Steinbrenner.

So who is a man to choose? Well, these past few days of watching, I've had my eyes on a few clubs. First, I thought I would be interested in following the Kansas City Royals, because I did watch them win the World Series in 2015, but then I realized maybe they're not so good this year, and i also wanted a team with at least one very real power player. This desire led me, for a game, to taking in the great Mike Trout, as he played with the Anaheim Angels. For the few summers I've tried to get into the sport again, I keep hearing Mike Trout is the greatest player of literally all time. So I thought maybe the Anaheim Angels would be a good time. Then of course, I started to realize they're all the way west in California, and California gets so much good stuff already, I can't also let them get my baseball brain. My baseball brain is one that is all sorts of steeped in that weird and old America, when the east coast and the Mid-west reigned supreme, when cities like Chicago and Philadelphia and Baltimore were the biggest names. So I said forget the Anaheim Angels,and sadly forget Mike Trout, I'll come back east.

It was then that my attention began to focus upon baseballs newest team, them being the Washington Nationals. Almost instantly, I realized that maybe I have found the perfect team for me. Oh yes it's true, so much of modern America drives me absolutely crazy, and so it might seem bizarre to choose this team that is a bit nationalistic for my favorite--- but I also think this team is pretty interesting because, strangely enough, but Washington DC is actually a bit of under appreciated city in some very real ways. Yes I know it has the White House but, culturally speaking, DC has always seemed to be a strange no mans land. It's the political capital of the country but beyond that, nothing seems to happen there. I can't remember any good bands who came from there, for example (maybe Black Flag?)....and, I don't know, with all of this in mind, it just felt like the right city to root for. Especially once you remember that this a new team and, maybe for that reason, the fans are more passionate, and also new just like me. There's also the added bonus when it comes to the Nationals, that one of her starting pitchers, is now being widely hailed as -- just like Trout on the Angels--- as the greatest pitcher ... Of all time! This is the man known as Max Scherzer. I am watching a game he had on July 2nd right now, versus those awful Red Sox, on YouTube. He doesn't seem like the greatest pitcher of all time here -- but ok I'll believe you….

Of course, I'll admit there is a part of me that fears that a new interest in baseball might just turn me into some sort of boring old sod, but maybe I don't really care at this point. It's the only sport I have childhood memories with, and that I understand all the rules for, so it seems like the obvious choice, If I want to watch a sport. But alas, some sports haters might ask (and I know there are a lot of those out there) why watch one at all? After all, are not the great lot of them little more than gatherings of macho jocks who ruined life for most of us in high school? Feminists don’t watch baseball, some might say, liberals don’t watch it (it is considered rather conservative audience), and certainly artists and creatives and theatre geeks don’t watch it. So what are you doing?

Well, yes it is true that a lot of sports are centered completely around macho jocks -- but it’s also true that I can’t help but think that baseball is … a bit different from the other sports. If we are going to make it political, I will say that I believe baseball is far more democratic, and if we are going to make it about not being a macho jock, then I also think baseball is much better than the other three most popular sports in the US, that being hockey, basketball, and of course, the dreaded football. Baseball isn’t really a fighting sport, as anyone can see. It is more of a contemplative, and slow paced sport. Many of the games -- numerous people complain -- go on for far too long. In addition to that (and this is my favorite part, I think) a baseball player is actually not really synonymous with being a certain height or of a certain weight class. Over the years there have been many types of ball players, from the thin to the short, to the aggressive to the laid back. For this reason, I have always said that baseball is a sport that is far more representative of how varied mens bodies actually are, than any of the other sports. Something like basketball sells a facade that all men must be tall. Something like football sells the facade that they all must be jacked and sweaty linebackers. Certainly, I’ll admit there is something sexual about a jacked, sweaty footballer -- but there’s also something..well, a bit stupid about him too. Especially the way his face is hidden behind that helmet. How well can you get to know a team of players who always have those helmets and all those pads on?

For me, it is impossible to get to know the footballers, but this isn’t a problem wth baseball. With this sport, not onyl is everyones face and body plain to see -- but there’s also this very enjoyable and, in my opinion, intimate relationship, with the pitcher. It is a position that I simply do not believe exists in any other sport. It is far more intimate than soccer or hockeys goalie, certainly more intimate than any position on the basketball court, and also one that beats footballs most glorius quarterback who, even if he is the prize boy of the sport, is still hidden behind his mask, and is always moving a bit too much to realy get to know. With baseballs pitcher position, we have none of these problems. Here we have a man who is exposed for all to see, in a uniform with no pads and no “armor”. The only thing he carries is a baseball glove made of leather and the ball itself. Like all the other ball players, he might as well be out for a stroll, instead of participating in a game that, in some stadiums, regularly draws an attendance of 40,000 plus people. Some people might find this bizarre. They adore having their athletes suited up in all sorts of armor. Personally, i do not. I find the down to Earth and naturalness of the ball player, and the ball stadiums themselves, to be, in fact, the most alluring element of all. My love for this sport seems to all lie in the fact that, in a way very similar to soccer, which is beloved all over the world precisely because it is easy to set up a game anywhere, baseball is a game of dirt, grass, and men, and little more. Yes, its a bit more difficult to set up a baseball field than it is a soccer field, and you need the gloves, and the wooden bats, but its still far more down to Earth than the other sports here in the US, and thats why I love it. In every single game of pro ball i watch, i can also always see the shadows of a neighborhood, street game hiding within it. I can always sense some faraway farm town in a place like Iowa, or also a place like Latin America, where beisbol is fairly popular, right alongside the obligatory soccer.  

So, you see, with this sport, I am able to get just the right mixture for me: It is very American, which i enjoy actually (since I think pre-World War 2 America was very different than post WW2),  but it also actually has enough flavor from our neighbors in Latin America, to make it feel a bit international and widespread, too. Football does not have this at all -- if anything it seems the most lunatic patriots on Earth are obsessed with it -- and, as for old basketball and hockey, I just find something gruesomely depressing about watching a game that is as indoors as often as my sad self is. Half the fun of any baseball broadcast is the beautifully manicured green grass, the blue skies, or if its a night game, the sensation of being under the gorgeous lights, but still outside, with a nice breeze on your face. Baseball diamonds are like little nature reserves cut into the heart of even the USA’s biggest cities. They are also some of the oldest and most historical landmarks in our country and, since I was a fan even as a kid, I actually managed to see a few of them, which I feel says something strong about baseballs connection to this countrys culture. I was never even really trying to go to stadiums -- it just sort of happened accidentally. I’ve been to Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, Tropicana Field, and about 4-5 minor league parks. I’ve never been to a single football stadium or basketball one.

And in addition to all of this, there is the biggest fact of all, sometimes, which is that baseball, more than any other sport, seems to have always garnered the love of writers -- probably, one imagines, as a direct result of the fact that most of the men playing don’t look like beasts, but men, and the game is natural, as I keep stressing. So ya. Baseball.