So, on 22 March next year I will be attending my second ever Major League Baseball game. The 2014 season opener, Dodgers versus Diamondbacks, in my hometown, Sydney!
I just bought tickets – wow, expensive! I got cheap seats, rather than the premium seats going for $499(!).
I’m really excited about this. I love sport, and even through the very limited exposure we get here of US sports, I enjoy both baseball and American football. (Never managed to follow an ice hockey game though – the puck moves too darn fast.)
I am, however, frequently perplexed and frustrated that none of my closest friends like sport. Yes, they’re all sciency/science-fictiony/fantasy geeks. I just don’t get why none of them like sport at all. You can be a science geek and a sport geek – there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that! But when I see my friends and say, “Did you see that awesome game last night?!” the response is never “Yeah! Wasn’t it fantastic! I can’t believe that play that Player X made!” It’s always, “Huh? Who was playing?”
I really, really hate being the only sport nut in my inner circle of friends.
Whilst it is cetainly possible (example: you) to “be a science geek and a sport geek”, I’m guessing it’s rare. Personally, my experience at school conditioned me to think of people good at sports as The Enemy, and ever since I’ve been pointedly anti-sport at anyone incautious enough to believe that, just for being Australian, I should be enthusiatic about such things.
Where are they playing? Is there an actual baseball stadium that they’re using? Are they repurposing a cricket ground?
They’re fitting out the Sydney Cricket Ground for the game. There are no purpose-built baseball stadiums in Australia. There are some baseball fields in parks, but nothing you could use for spectators.