The first baseball game I’ve ever been to was in 1988… I was 18 years old, spending the summer at my AFS sister’s house in Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Brewers were part of my education. (I also attended Summer Fest where we twisted to a Chubby Checker concert, caught a 17lb salmon on lake Michigan, ate my weight in donuts, read my first book in English – Misery, by Stephen King -, learned to play ‘quarters’ and got grounded for staying up all night at a party around a bonfire with cute on their way to college boys. It was a great summer.)
I don’t remember much about the game if I have to be honest… it was hot and sunny and a great atmosphere… and the uniform were cute… but I wasn’t keen on the chewing/spitting thing…
I don’t think it counts as another game but a few weeks later we were part of a baseball crowd filming scene for the movie Major League… so much fun… and where my major crush on (a young) Tom Berenger started.
We’re somewhere in the middle there.
Ahhhh those were the days…
The second match was in Atlanta, Ga. in 2010… where I had the biggest hotdog known to men. Mr M and I were on a solo holiday through the back roads of Georgia in a Mustang convertible… and Savannah… so wonderful. (Can’t really fit three boys in the back seat of a Mustang… and they kind of cramp your style too)
The third match was once again with my American sister, this time in San Diego a year later… what a fabulous ground! And her husband was able to properly explain all the rules and various acronyms and the boys tried desperately to get on the big screen doing whatever they were asking the public to do.
So much fun.
Can you imagine trying to get on the big screen snogging your husband at a cricket match??? You hear ‘quiet please’ if you dare sneezing… and it only gets mildly exciting on the last 6 balls on the 5th day of the match.. just saying…
Aaaaanyway, I’ve just bought tickets to see the LA Dodgers at their very old stadium for two weeks time… (it’s the third oldest continuously used baseball ground in the States, I’ll have you know) and I can’t wait.
I can’t say I know the rules all that well… I’m ok with the basics… some dude chews some tobacco and pitches (which actually is like throwing but with a funny leg up kick type move) to another dude who’s also chewing and has to try to hit the ball with a bat. Good if he hits it and makes it fly. Bad if he swings in vain. Or strikes out. But you don’t want the ball to be caught or you do, depending which side you’re on and at the same time people ran around a diamond stepping on square pillows on the floor.*
That’ll get me through the night.
I’m all set. Just give me a hotdog, a mexican wave, and put me on the big screen smooching my husband.
Life goals.
PS any inside tips for impressing my boys with knowledge and trivia? Fire away.
PPS when you step back you come to realise that sports rules are actually really surreal… definitively invented by men who like to complicate very simple things like throwing and catching a ball, which is basically what a lot of sports are all about….
while you're ahead... 
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