take me out to the ball game

What is it about professional baseball players that I find so fascinating? It's not just their physical beauty. Some of them are not that hot, I will be honest. But even those who I may have not found particularly attractive at first, once I see them make an amazing play, they become insta-Greek gods in my eyes. The guy on the left over there is the catcher for the Seattle Mariners, Jeff Clement. The guy on the right, the captain of the Red Sox, Jason Varitek, also the catcher. I'm currently watching these two teams battle it out and I can't decide which man I find more attractive. I linked to this essay 3 reasons why smart women love baseball on my old blog, but it still rings true to me. Even more so as now I'm 100+ games into the season.

I jumped on the bandwagon last fall during the American League Championship Series between the Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians. I admit this freely. At the time I was chatting with my friend Amber who is a born-and-raised Red Sox fan since birth, being born in Massachusetts and all. She was watching the game, and was quite distracted. Since the game was being televised nationally, and there was nothing else on, I decided to tune in and have her tell me about baseball. She told me all about the Boston players, telling me about their history with the organization, explaining some of the more complex rules to me (still don't quite get balking). It was an awesome bonding experience for me with her and solidified our friendship. Then, the most random thing in the world (to me at the time) happened. The Red Sox closer, Jonathan Papelbon, DANCED IN HIS UNDERWEAR ON THE FIELD! That was it, that solidified the deal and I became a Red Sox fan. There was no going back after that. It was just so bizarre and awesome and random all at once, the expression of joy from him.

I think had things gone differently, if the Red Sox had not gone onto the world series, I would still be a fan of the team, so I don't consider myself a total bandwagoner. If that's a word.

Now that I'm more than halfway through the season, and having watched nearly every game (only about 3 have been blacked out, the rest I watch on my satellite service because I paid an exorbitant amount of money for the privelidge - don't get me started on that one), I find that the most appealing part of the game is not so much the sex appeal of the players but enjoying the physical prowress of the players. The amazing hits, the backhanded catches, the diving for balls, poring over the newspaper stats the next day, all of it is just fascinating to me.

If someone had told me a year ago that I would even regularly open the sports pages, let alone have it be the first section I open every day, I would have told them they were nuts. I have two brothers who were both sports nuts. Being the only girl and the middle child, I felt it was my duty to be as contrary to them as possible so I made quite an issue over hating all sports. Now, my brothers wonder who the hell I am when I mention that I need to get home to watch the game, or I talk to my nephew about sports. I've caught my older brother looking at me and just shaking his head when I start talking about baseball.

I haven't quite gotten to the point where I'm watching SportsCenter. Yet. I'm sure by next season I'll be well-versed in baseball. And I don't mind one bit. I don't know which part scares me more, the prospect of getting MORE obsessed with baseball, or that I don't mind knowing that it is happening.