Wednesday, April 2, 2014

His and Her Baseball Love

Continuing with our A-Z Blogging Challenge...

 http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

In our house, there is only one sport that we watch or talk about. The best game ever! The game above all games! The one and only - America's pastime! What's that sport? Baseball, of course! 

How did this sport get to be so big in our house? Here's the story of how each of us fell in love with the game. 

Amanda - Growing up in a sports family meant I watched A LOT of sports. My mom and dad watched football every Sunday. March Madness was just that - madness - in our house! My mom went crazy over Michigan State and Notre Dame football during the college season (still does!). My sister and I grew up playing recreational softball in our hometown. We would go to high school wrestling matches and baseball games to cheer on our neighbors. Sports were everywhere it seemed!

And I can clearly remember - it is one of my favorite memories - spending the night at my grandmother and grandfather's house watching the Atlanta Braves play baseball. The Braves were my Nana's favorite team, so they were also my favorite team. We would watch the games and she and I would talk about Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Chipper Jones, and all the Atlanta greats that played in the 90s. We would eat snacks and hang out. During commercials we would talk about what was going on with me at school or with her (many) church groups. Now that she is no longer with me, I find myself wanting to watch some Atlanta baseball so I can feel that connection with her again. The Braves are no longer my favorite team, but they will always hold a special place in my heart.

Nothing beats being at the ball park!
Sean - When I was growing up, we were not watching sports. In fact with the possible exception of the Olympic Games I don't think any of my family ever watched sports on TV. I did play T-ball as a child and I had a lot of fun playing, but never progressed to playing softball or baseball as I knew I would have more strikeouts than anyone in history. When I moved to America I realized that sports were an even bigger deal than they were in Australia. I wanted to find at least one sport that I would enjoy either watching on TV or in person. I tried watching American football, but it was way too boring and slow for me. (Check out my blog post about Rugby here). I have never enjoyed basketball so that left baseball or ice hockey. I went to a few ice hockey games and enjoyed them but it was nothing compared to how much I enjoyed going to a baseball game for the first time. I'm not sure if it was the atmosphere of the crowd, the aroma of all of the foods on the concourse that wafted down to the seats, or the fact that I understood the basic fundamentals of the game from my T-Ball days, but this was what I was looking for. Since then I have been to 6 MLB games and many more minor league games. It's a great time and is something that every visitor to America should do at least once to get a true sense of America's favourite pastime.
      
One of the first baseball games that I attended at Harbor Park in Norfolk, VA.


Which sport is your favorite? How did you come to love it more than the others?


Happy Baseball Season!

16 comments:

  1. Hey there! I am married to a sports freak. So, getting a taste of sports and loving every bit of it. Loved reading about your family :) www.mutterntochter.wordpress.com

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  2. Soccer is the sport that everyone in my house loves. My husband is a high school soccer coach, and 3 of my small people play travel soccer. If there's a soccer game on television (especially European teams), they're all over that.

    TaMara
    AJ's AtoZ wHooligan
    Tales of a Pee Dee Mama

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  3. My lovely wife and I are HUGE Yankees fans. So much so that we even have a toaster that burns the NY logo onto the toast. Our puppy has a Yankees jersey. Of course (if you check the scores) opening day wasn't that great for us, but there are 161 games left.

    Happy A to Z-ing. See ya 'round the web: All Things Kevyn

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  4. I grew up a pretty rabid Red Sox fan but wasn't into any other sports. My parents weren't sports-watchers, although I liked ABC's Wide World of Sports and the winter olympics. But now I love NFL, CFL and college football. I am over the moon with the Seattle Seahawks amazing Superbowl win. I'm also a 49ers fan. Not much into baseball or hockey but I like the Red Sox and the Mariners and the Vancouver Canucks for hockey. College football the UW Huskies and Cal Bears, CFL I like the British Columbia Lions.

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  5. I am not a big baseball fan, but I love the movie A League Our Own, which is about how the women's professional baseball league took over for male dominated baseball during World War II. I highly recommend watching the movie because it will appeal to baseball lovers, but I liked it because it was a World War II era movie, and Tom Hanks was in it.

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  6. Grew up a Reds fan, moved to Arizona and was there when the Diamondbacks won the World Series, now a Texas resident and, until they traded my beloved Ian Kinsler, I was a serious Rangers fan. So, although I am sportin' a Rangers t today - I'm still bummed...so we'll see. I added the Tigers to my MLB at bat feed just in case! At least we still have Elvis!

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  7. Baseball was one of the sports I actually can follow. I used to play catch with my dad, and loved spending that precious time with him when I was a child. He worked out-of-town a lot, so those times were special.

    One summer, Eddie Feigner came to our city and my dad took our family to go see him pitch. It was a pretty big deal. I recall this event vividly because I ate a pogo at the game, and it was bad. This was my first experience with food poisoning! Ugh.

    My dad, however, saw Eddie Feigner a few times, and even got his autograph on the programme at the last event. In fact, we were just talking about this last week, when we went through an old box of mementos from my dad's life. (My dad is now 72.)

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  8. Love the post. I didn't like Rugby either or baseball but love football. Either ways, sports bind people and love ur post.
    Cheerz

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  9. Coming from the other side of the world (and a country obsessed with Rugby), I've always thought that Baseball was one of the most puzzling parts of your culture! LOL. I went to a few games when I was in Canada for a year but sadly it was the novelty of beer sold to you at your seat that was my fave part of the experience. Personally I find that you cant beat a good game of basketball :)

    Great to find you. I love the A-Z for introducing me to blogs like yours!

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  10. Great post and hmm, I have never really understood baseball!

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  11. It's not at all popular here in Belgium, even non-existent. Sounds fascinating though.

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  12. I am originally from NY and grew up with parents who were rabid Mets fans, and in their later years when they were in poor health and with less money, watching all the games on tv brought them much enjoyment for free. My brother bought an engraved tile on the path which leads to the new ballfield with their names that said World's Greatest Fans.

    My childhood memories are entwined with those of watching games on tv or in person with my father especially, and I miss him greatly. I married a Yankees fan and my kids grew up as such, but now that we are moving to California in a couple of weeks I am thinking of following the Dodgers so that I may watch national league games again as I did in my childhood.

    Thanks for reading my ramblings, and letting me relive some very special memories :)

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  13. I am guessing Sean from your comment "I realized that sports were an even bigger deal than they were in Australia" that you didn't come from Victoria :) We only moved here a couple of years ago and they are mad about AFL.. We have been to one game - it was fun to watch but I don't need to do so more than every couple of years ;) I too grew up not watching much sports - sometimes the cricket or tennis if the weather was too hot to do anything other than flop in front of the television.
    Regards
    Anne from Ballarat

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  14. I'm not really into sports. Like my kids say, I'm more in the "yay, team, do the thing that gets the points" group. However, I do enjoy very much the College World Series. Our Alma Mater won the last College World Series at Rosenblatt park and the first CWS at the new Ameritrade Center.

    I know that I wouldn't enjoy watching a game in person. I am much more comfortable at home thanks to allergies, shyness, and old lady issues that make lots of things inconvenient.

    I'm glad that you've both come to love American baseball. Have a great week!

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  15. I LOVE football. My entire family does, and every weekend we have a party at my parents to watch the Ravens game. I wouldn't have it any other way. I also played softball growing up too!!

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  16. Would love to go to a baseball game, however like when i went to see American football many years ago I needed a commentary from the chap next to me Chicago Bears v Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Won!!

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