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I am an enormous baseball fan, and Ibis is right on about how much fun ity is to spend an afternoon (I much prefer going to day games and watching night games on TV) watching a ball game and drinking overpriced beer. I've been to football games (American football, natch) and basketball games before and haven't found either too terribly interesting.
I have no interest in sitting inside and watching a game, so I found watching the Celtics play basketball to be sweaty, smelly and uncomfortably hot. Watching the Patriots at Gillette stadium was better, but there are too many periods of inaction during the game where I wished I was home so I could change the channel or play with my rabbit during the downtime. Plus, football and the average football fan piss me off more the more hyped the game gets. The NFL is getting to the point where I feel I should boycott it on lack of restraint.
But, if you get a chance to go to a baseball game, minor or major league, go. Baseball doesn't translate to TV as well as football, basketball, and, I would assume, hockey, which I loathe. In those games, all the action can be captured by the camera at once. Going to a live baseball game, you can see the infielders put on a shift, and the outfielders position themselves. You can tell what kind of hitter a guy is without having the announcers tell you, just from watching the defense set up for him. You can watch the players in the dugouts and the relievers in the bullpen, watch the manager give signs, and, most importantly, you can heckle the opposing team. If you sit behind home plate, you can heckle the batters, but I much prefer to sit along the third-base line and give the guys on the bench hell. Some guys will give you shit in return (David Wells was hilarious when the Yankees used to come to town), usually in a good-natured way.
There's no place I'd rather be on a summer afternoon than in the stands at Fenway Park. If you've never been, go, especially if you can go to Fenway, Wrigley or Yankee Stadium- the old ballparks are still the best. The new, retro ones are kinda cool, too. I especially like Coors Field and Camden Yards. Don't ever go to fucking Dodger Stadium, and not just because the goddamn Dodgers play there. It sucks. AA and AAA parks are a lot of fun, too. You can usually sit wherever you want, and it'sa MUCH cheaper. I go see the Sea Dogs a dozen or so times a year, and they have a nice ballpark.
Okay. I must stop. This is what happens when I get going about baseball. |
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