The main sport I follow is baseball. I do enjoy it, but actually watch it more in person than on TV, unless a team I like is in the playoffs. That said, I’ll freely admit that baseball can be kind of boring, the game is really centered on pitching battles, and it can be tricky to actually watch that action unless you’re real close or watching the pitching MPHs and descriptions. The strike count itself can be interesting and I enjoy the fielding, stealing, and all that. But all and all, there’s really a lot of down time.
I think for me, that’s actually one of the perks. I enjoy the excitement of a good game and all and like playing softball, but I’m not really a sports guy. What I can do is go to a game, have some ballpark food, and talk to people I like for a few hours while having a low-key source of entertainment available. If my team starts doing really well then I get the euphoria of the crowd and get into it, that’s fun too. But I’m basically okay with having a mediocre team so long as they aren’t actively terrible. The stats and such are fun too, but I’m not a fantasy baseball player so that’s not really my thing. So, perversely, if my team ever got really good for multiple years and the ball park was full of shouting people constantly, I’d probably get bored of baseball. No real risk of that though.
There are actually probably a lot of things I don’t do because I don’t take much pleasure in sitting around drinking. I don’t object to it (within reason), but doesn’t do much for me. I’m thus much more of a coffee house than a bar guy, I like sitting down and being able to hear the conversation thank you very much.
Picture of Camden Yards by dvwtwo used under a creative commons license.
This blog sums up my feelings as well. I actually enjoyed the more crowded and active O's vs. Boston games less than when they were playing teams no one cares about.
Posted by: Kevin | November 18, 2008 at 10:25 AM
Cool, glad to know it isn't just me. Course, the Boston games can also be annoying because they tend to out cheer us.
Posted by: Greg Sanders | November 18, 2008 at 05:02 PM