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I Tried Liking Baseball, Honest!
Jun. 4th, 2014 02:31 pmI have grown up loving one sport: Canadian football. For 32 years, it's been kind of a passion for me: Canadian football in general, my Winnipeg Blue Bombers in particular.
But when Internet radio became a reality, and I discovered that I had all sorts of radio options open to me, I decided that maybe I should give baseball a try. So many of my blind friends were into it, just about everyone I knew enjoyed it to one degree or another, so I thought it was time I did too.
So, in 2003, I embarked on a campaign to ... well, to understand it, first, then to like it. I engaged the help of my brother. I had him explain the fundamentals of the game to me. I had him listen to a few games with me, so I could ask questions. Finally, after a week of this, I could finally say that ... I was really no farther than I was when the whole exercise started. I still didn't get it. Football was so logical, so easy-to-understand (in my mind, anyway), and baseball was this uncharted wilderness of bewilderment.
All right, I told myself, I spend half my life riding on Handi-Transit vehicles, and the other half waiting for Handi-Transit vehicles, so I decided to use that time to listen to games. Surely it would eventually click, right? So I listened religiously to our baseball team's broadcasts. By the end of the season, I felt I knew Paul Edmunds, the play-by-play guy. As for baseball itself, well, my mind finally, after all that effort, was able to work its way around ... around the fact that baseball still confused the heck out of me. Not good.
I kept at it, for the 2004 and 2005 season. I could tell you who the regular game sponsors were, who tended to win all the trivia contests that the radio station put on, I even knew lots of the names of the players, coaches, and radio producers. But the game itsle still remained about as clear as a teenager's face.
By now, the novelty was beginning to wear off, or, more accurately, the novelty had long since worn off and the sheer bloodymindedness that kept me at it was beginning to show cracks. After three years' hard effort, baseball to me was still spurts of ten-second action-like stuff, interspersed with 5-minute play setups where the announcer had plenty of time to read War and Peace several times in a game.
I didn't totally give up on it. During the playoffs if my team was doing well, I was even somewhat half-kind-of-interested. But, I fear, it's no use. I doubt I will ever be a baseball fan. But it's not for a lack of trying.
The question is, with Canadian football in mortal danger of nonexistence at the moment, what's left to turn to?
But when Internet radio became a reality, and I discovered that I had all sorts of radio options open to me, I decided that maybe I should give baseball a try. So many of my blind friends were into it, just about everyone I knew enjoyed it to one degree or another, so I thought it was time I did too.
So, in 2003, I embarked on a campaign to ... well, to understand it, first, then to like it. I engaged the help of my brother. I had him explain the fundamentals of the game to me. I had him listen to a few games with me, so I could ask questions. Finally, after a week of this, I could finally say that ... I was really no farther than I was when the whole exercise started. I still didn't get it. Football was so logical, so easy-to-understand (in my mind, anyway), and baseball was this uncharted wilderness of bewilderment.
All right, I told myself, I spend half my life riding on Handi-Transit vehicles, and the other half waiting for Handi-Transit vehicles, so I decided to use that time to listen to games. Surely it would eventually click, right? So I listened religiously to our baseball team's broadcasts. By the end of the season, I felt I knew Paul Edmunds, the play-by-play guy. As for baseball itself, well, my mind finally, after all that effort, was able to work its way around ... around the fact that baseball still confused the heck out of me. Not good.
I kept at it, for the 2004 and 2005 season. I could tell you who the regular game sponsors were, who tended to win all the trivia contests that the radio station put on, I even knew lots of the names of the players, coaches, and radio producers. But the game itsle still remained about as clear as a teenager's face.
By now, the novelty was beginning to wear off, or, more accurately, the novelty had long since worn off and the sheer bloodymindedness that kept me at it was beginning to show cracks. After three years' hard effort, baseball to me was still spurts of ten-second action-like stuff, interspersed with 5-minute play setups where the announcer had plenty of time to read War and Peace several times in a game.
I didn't totally give up on it. During the playoffs if my team was doing well, I was even somewhat half-kind-of-interested. But, I fear, it's no use. I doubt I will ever be a baseball fan. But it's not for a lack of trying.
The question is, with Canadian football in mortal danger of nonexistence at the moment, what's left to turn to?
