Learn To Love Baseball: Why You May Be Missing Out
With the World Series swinging into action, sports writer Steve Brenner tells us why we may be missing out on America’s ‘beautiful game’.
With the World Series swinging into action from 22-30 October, it occurred to us that maybe we should care more for this major sporting event from across the pond. So we asked sports writer Steve Brenner, who lives and works in the States, to tell us why we may be missing out on the ‘beautiful game’…
“‘The only real game, I think, in the world, is baseball,’ famously said the ‘Sultan of Swat’ Babe Ruth, the most famous name to grace the baseball diamond, and a 15 stone slugger that knew the sport’s simplistic winning formula: atmosphere. Action. Hype. Hotdogs and beer.
“It’s easy for us Brits to see this as just cricket gone wild. But watch how an outfielder can launch balls like bullets so pin sharp and accurate it could only have come from a bionic arm. Even the thud of the ball finding the catcher’s mitt is so reassuringly safe it stirs something in the pit of your stomach. And when the smack of leather on wood rings around the stadium, and that ball sails high and proud into the packed stands before the place goes wild. It’s what makes sport worth it.
“If there’s anything that makes a weekend trip to Boston’s Fenway Park or New York’s Yankee Stadium worthwhile, it’s knowing that it’s the perfect de-stress from the nine-to-five. Under normal conditions, a regulation nine-inning baseball game will last 2.5 to 3 hours. That said, the longest game in professional baseball history lasted 33 innings, with eight hours and 25 minutes of playing time. Forget watching the clock or counting down the minutes: baseball finishes when it damn well finishes.”
“With the standard baseball season running typically from early April to late September, icy, boozy relief from the American heat is never more than an arm’s-reach away. When there’s a beer in one hand, fill the other with the greatest snack options a man can get, from chicken and waffles, tacos and empanadas, build-your-own nacho bar, barbecue smoked ribs, and made-to-order, multi-topping pizzas. The best news is that a hotdog at the New York Mets stadium costs just $6.25 (400 bucks).
From the November 2014 issue of FHM India.
Spotted a mistake, or your photo used without permission? Report a correction
in your inbox