Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Baseball, or Not?

Okay, here's the thing: all my life, I've never been much of a sports fan. I always say that if I were to follow a sport, it would probably be baseball. But truth be told, I've just never paid much attention to sports.

When I was in school, it used to amaze me how classmates of mine (many of them getting F's right and left in their classes) apparently carried a comprehensive sports database in their head. They might not know what 7 times 6 was, but they could tell you all about who pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948, and that included reeling off a mindnumbing list of stats, earned run average, strikeouts, games won, innings this-and-that...

No, I never paid attention to sports, except for one stretch in the mid-to-late nineties when I followed the Green Bay Packers because I was working at that time for a wholesale sports merchandise distributor, and if the Packers won a game, we'd have to be in to the warehouse in the middle of the night to get an extra shipment of tee-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, and car flags out to the stores by the time they opened in the morning.

Anyhow. Baseball. If I were to follow a sport, it would be baseball. And if I were to follow baseball, being originally from Wisconsin, I'd probably be a Brewers fan. (Though over here in Iowa I'm surrounded by Yankees fans and Cubs fans and even Twins fans.) Which is not to say that I can name you even a single player who is presently playing with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Every year around this time, I get the lazy idea that this is the year I'm going to start following baseball. And every year, I never do. However, just last night, I tuned in the local TV news, and saw that the Brewers won their first home game yesterday, "more excitement and better players this year," blah blah blah.

Do you think I'm going to follow baseball this year? Or not?

I'm already trying to find out if some TV station around here carries Brewers games. (Probably.) Or I do believe I know of a La Crosse radio station which carries their games. Given my uneasy relationship with TV (no satellite, no cable, nothing but the aerial on my roof; and last night must be the first time since the Pope's death that I've even turned that damn box on)— I say, given my uneasy relationship with TV, I may well prefer to listen to baseball games over the radio. Baseball is the kind of game you can picture in your head.

2 Comments:

Blogger Caltechgirl said...

mlb.com used to have all the games from all of the teams on streaming audio. Check there. The Brewers webpage should also have details on when and where the games are broadcast.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 1:55:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm a follower of baseball stadium food. At least I'd like to be. I watched a documentary on the FoodChannel touring the best stadium food in the country. Suddenly, I feel a calling to visit a minor league stadium (Ripkin Stadium) in Maryland where they have tables and fresh crabs overlooking the field. Not that I particularly like crabs, but ... it all looked so festive!

Thats the part of sports I like ... that its an event/party. Meeting, chatting, snacking, a band, chatting, snacking, etc. Once in highschool (where I rarely missed a football game with good weather) my Dad went to a game with me. He seemed honestly confused that I didn't watch the game. He was stunned when I told him gently "Dad, I don't even have any idea who we were playing." Because thats not the point of following sports. The idea is to belong to a group of people who are also following the same team, a created community.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 11:50:00 AM  

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