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comment by Quatrarius
Quatrarius  ·  2302 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Take This Cheat Sheet To The Ballpark To Decide When To Leave  ·  

baseball is the most zen of sports - not "Zen" in caps, but zen all lowercase

you go to a baseball game because you want to sit outside for a couple hours and enjoy the weather / think about nothing in particular, and sometimes something mildly interesting happens and you get to participate in the group happiness of a stadium full of people entertained by a home run or a clever bunt or something

baseball is the game you take your kids and your grandkids to to eat some popcorn or peanuts or a hot dog or something, and get ice cream after the game

you can enjoy baseball on any level of understanding of it from "jack shit" to "nate silver", and that's okay, because actually going out to see a baseball game is not really about the game

that's why there are 10 thousand games per season and they play through the summer is because baseball is about slowing way down and enjoying little things in the moment you experience them

the "exciting" part of baseball is in the playoffs so if that's your goal just wait until then

there's an unaffiliated minor league about a half hour away from here with 4 teams and one stadium - they have a little plaza with food vendors and a playground, and there's a grass hill in the outfield that you can sit on and watch from, and they have little gimmicks to get people there like fireworks and a dog that gets the bats, and there's beauty in that experience that's really important

there's baseball happening in the middle there but the important part is everything on the edges





tacocat  ·  2302 days ago  ·  link  ·  

For the reasons you stated I find it to be the perfect background noise on television. I'm not alone in enjoying having the TV turned on to nothing important. For me it turns down the volume in my stupid brain. Baseball is perfect for this. The crack of the bat is all the information you need to know you may want to pay attention for a second. Or not because it's probably foul

galen  ·  2302 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Even playing baseball is fucking zen. Ok, fielding, at least. Series of physical movements--rituals--exercised thousands of times in practice, then finally put into play, but surrounded by plenty of empty space so you're forced to stay in the moment.

tacocat  ·  2302 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That's some expert spin. At least it seems so if you spent large portions of your childhood standing in right field and staring at dirt most of that time.