Status Updates From Foul Balls

“... a game doesn’t need to be perfect to be splendid.”

Baseball is the underdog’s sport, and on any given day virtually anything can happen, and that’s what keeps fans showing up to see even the least successful teams.

What makes baseball special is almost daily surprise.

The numbers define the game, but so do human factors.

The unfortunate thing for the novice fan is that the more you know about it the more attractive it becomes, and there aren’t enough teachers to go around.

To find baseball boring is to have missed drama and nuance, the laughter and the tears that come from joy and sorrow. It’s a shame.

For that matter, to have missed the anger and despair when a ball sailing over the fence beats your favourite team in an important game is equally sad, because the caring feels so good.

It’s hard to understand people who hate baseball, but easy to pity them. Never to have felt the surge of joy watching a ball sail over the fence or a fielder making a running, leaping catch is to have missed a great pleasure indeed.

Th game proceeds at just the right pac: the one detractors call boring. It is gentle and relaxed, Gill of spaces for reflection or conversation, quiet moments in which to relish a play just made or a confrontation about to occur. What’s the rush? The longer the game, the more there is to enjoy.

Baseball’s best moments don’t always happen on the field.

“... the game is still the same as the day it was decided to put the bases that magical ninety feet apart and the mound sixth feet, six inches from home plate.”

“Baseball is as eternal as green grass and blue sky, and has been passed down through the generations, both on the diamond and in the stands.”