I don't love baseball in particular so much as I love playoff sports in general. During the regular season, I almost never pay attention to any of the major league sports. The only exception is when I'm traveling and I'm stuck in a hotel somewhere. I'll go to bed with ESPN on. The rest of the time, it's always miraculous to me when I tune into the sports radio channels at the end of the season and these men just talk so intelligently about the character of what has transpired. I don't have a clue about what has been going on all year, and in two hours I know everything. I always wished politicians were as forthcoming as sports announcers and coaches.
The wonder of sports is that when you pay attention, you always know what's going on even though you never know what to expect. There's nothing quite like the spontanaity of a wining play and instantly millions of people know the exact same thing at the exact same time. Of course we all experienced that moment last night under an occluded moon.
What I like about baseball in particular is its precision and its ability to create drama. It's like no other sport in that regard, as the possibilities narrow, drama increases. Every moment you play the odds. I never understood that as a kid. I didn't play until I was 13 and really didn't understand any of the nuances. I was a football kid. Tactics, speed and power. I was also a basketball kid: style, interconnection, spontenaity. Baseball is strategy, probabilities, execution.
Now the season's over and I'm going to try and resist buying an $80 Red Sox jersey.
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