I am trying my best to enjoy the NFL playoffs and the college bowl season, the latter of which just got a WHOLE lot more enjoyable since Texas pulled out a win at last. But there are certain things I miss about baseball season that can’t be replaced with winter sports.
Obviously there’s the game itself, with its infinite poetry and grace and also its vulgarity and simplicity and all the other facets. There are also a lot of little, teeny-tiny, random things besides the action on the field that I just looooove, and miss terribly in the winter.
Dear seeds, I miss you!
Seeds: There’s just something comfortable about how acceptable it is to spit things when I’m at a ballpark. I don’t eat sunflower seeds anywhere else, but I sure do enjoy them at ballgames. Nobody objects to anyone having seeds - as long as everyone shares, and no shells accidentally end up in anyone’s hair or beer.
Eyeblack: Scientists have wondered whether or not it actually works, but it looks delightful. Yeah, football players do use it too, but I associate it with baseball more strongly. And deliciously. (I DO know a lot about sports. Really. But when nice-looking things appear in front of my eyes, I appreciate them too!)
Grady Sizemore.
Chatter: Baseball’s slow pace allows for a lot more yammering from fans, players, coaches, and umpires. In no other sport (to my knowledge) can it really be called “chatter,” but it’s the perfect word for all the baseball phrases that float around ballpark. One of the great joys of going to a game early enough for batting practice is hearing all the chatter uninterrupted by other noise.
AM radio: This is where I reveal how weirdly old-school I am at times, even though I love stats and other new-fangled things. I love few things more than listening to ballgames on AM radio. That hum that accompanies the broadcast…it just sounds like comfort. Even though I grew up listening to one of the crappiest teams in baseball (the Royals), I love that old-school hum and tone of an AM radio broadcast.
The excited little feeling when I realize the Royals are on TV: Some days I forget to check the TV schedule until the mid-afternoon, and it feels great when I find out that a game will be on TV, and - better yet - I’ll actually be at home to watch it live. I warned you: These are LITTLE things I miss about the season.
Fans who have scorebooks: One advantage of going to as many baseball games as I do in a year is that I get to meet a lot of really great fans. I love the ones who keep a scorebook, which I guess is another weird old-school thing for me to love. Every scrap of information that goes into a scorebook will be available right after the game on the Internet, but these awesome fans still bring their scorebooks and tiny pencils to the park, carefully marking every batter and baserunner.
Parents keeping their little ‘uns at the ballpark event though bedtime has passed: Here’s another thing that I adore about being at bunches of games. At any close night game, you can find parents who are struggling with their desire to see the rest of the game even though they know their small child should be getting home. It’s especially amusing when only one parent (often the father) is with the child, and they ask people in nearby seats what to do:
Dad: “The game is close and I’d love to see what happens, but my kid needs to get to bed.”
Nearby fans: “Does your wife like baseball?”
Dad: “Yeah, she likes it pretty well.”
Nearby fans: “She’ll understand. Stay until the game is over!”
Dad: [sigh of relief]
I always get the feeling that the dad is going to stay at the game no matter what the fans around him suggest, but he has to ask so it seems like he wanted to get the child home and into bed on time. It’s sort of adorable.
