FanPost

50 Reasons to Love Baseball

This list is in no particular order, I just wrote it because well I have no life/anything better to do on a Saturday. So without further ado, the 50 reasons I love baseball.

1. A hot dog at the ballpark is better than steak at the Ritz. -Humphery Bogart

2. Anyone can be a baseball fan, old, young, rich, poor, absolutely anyone.

3. What is better to do on a summer afternoon than going to a ball game with your friends or family?

4. You don't need to know everything about the game to be able to follow the game.

5. The rivalries. Let me elaborate. I know that every professional sport has its rivalries, heck, even middle school sports have rivalries. But its just as fun if not more fun to go to a ball game against the say, the Yankees or the White Sox, and cheer against them as much as we cheer for our team.

6. There are 162 games in every season, and that's just in the regular season. That's 44.3835616% of the year that we can watch our favorite team play.

7. The play off push towards the end of the season. The time when we insane fans have a the magic number as our computer background and can't help but scream at the television as if the players can hear us from where ever we are.

8. The last couple of days before the season starts as the excitement builds. (By the way, 16 days until spring training, and 48 days until regular season 8)

9. Pretending to be an umpire. The fan knows best, after all!

10. Putting off doing something until the inning is over, but the inning seems to last forever. (Maybe that's just me.)

11. When you are at the game, you feel so much closer to the action than at other sporting events.

12. It's a game of 'if's. IF he hits this home run, we're screwed. IF he gets this out, we'll win. IF player X out performs player Y, then that was a terrible trade. IF he gets this RBI we will win the World Series.

13. You can be an optimist, even if your team if down 0-10 in the 8th inning, you can tell yourself that the 'impossible' can happen.

14. Every game is original. No game can happen the exact same way, even if the score and pitchers are the same, there is always a variable in the equation.

15. Arguing with the person next to you who is cheering for the other team. Let's be honest, fan fights are fun (not saying that punches should be thrown, just the constant arguement over who has the better team.)

16. The feeling when your team wins the World Series. I personally haven't seen the Twins win the World Series, but I can imagine that it would (will) be (when the Twins win this season:)

17. Baseball parties. My favorite party I've had was when I had friends over, we played a game of baseball by the little league field behind my house and then watched the Twins beat the Blue Jays. It was simple but it was great.

18. Spring Training when you can preview the up coming season.

19. Starting with a clean slate. A player can be coming off the worst season of his career, but that doesn't matter when it's a new season. The BA of .211 doesn't mean a thing in the next season. Everyone starts with a .000 average. Every pitcher has a 0-0 record with 0 ERA.

20. Watching pitchers try to bat during interleague play. Half of them just don't even look right with a bat in their hands.

21. Making signs to take to the ball park. Spending hours making the most creative sign that you can with glitter, a creative slogan, and of course 'Circle Me Bert', is one of the best things to do the day before a game.

22. Come backs in the final innings.

23. Extra innings, especially when there are at least four or more.

24. Walk off home runs. Especially when the club house empties and there is a swarm at home plate.

25. Post game pies in the face. It's hilarious to watch the interviewer distract a player as his teammmate sneaks up and shoves it in his face.

26. Going on fan sites and arguing over pety things that secretly don't matter because we all cheer for the same team. (Not that it's a bad thing 8)

27. Decking out in your favorite team's gear. My friends and I have been known to wear our favorite player's shirt, Twins hats, Twins shorts, Twins socks, Twins bracelets, and anything else red white and blue to school on game days.

28. Shut outs are on this list because who doesn't like seeing their team win while the other team doesn't even score a point?

29. The beauty of a perfect game.

30. Complete games because it proves the pitcher can defy the common belief that pitchers shouldn't throw more than 100 pitches.

31. The bromance of the pitchers and catchers when they hug it out on the mound. It always makes me smile 8)

32. Nick names for the players. (Cuddles, Jim Jam, Pavstache, Sweet Drew, etc.)

33. Pick the Stick. That just makes you cheer even more for a certain player and it's a great thing to do with friends.

34. Making fun of stupid mascots. Honestly, half of them don't make any sense. Is the White Sox's mascot suposed to be dryer lint?

35. Trying so desperately to get the TV to tell the manager that what ever he did was stupid and that you could manage better than him.

36. At bat and warm up songs. I posted some that I'd like to hear played in an earlier post, but I like them so much because they tell you a little bit about the players. They don't only pump up the player, they also pump up the fans.

37. Celebrating hits with complete strangers. High fives all around on a homerun!

38. Watching players defy all odds and doing what stats say they can't.

39. Rookie hazing. So wrong, but so funny.

40. Watching new call ups try to prove themselves.

41. Signing legendary vets like Jim Thome and watching them play for your team.

42. Post season mindset of we have to do it and we have to do it now.

43. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". No other sporting event (that i'm aware of) has a classic song about it that is sang at every game.

44. Home town heros. These are the guys who grew up in the backyard of their team's ballpark. Joe Mauer is the first one I think of when I think of them, but I know there are others.

45. Catching a home run or foul ball.

46. Making up stupid songs and singing them at the top of your lungs (example from a game my school went to in 5th grade: "Joe Mauer! We don't need a pretty flower! We want to see some power!") Lame, I know, but it's kind of fun.

47. Being noticably louder when your favorite player comes to bat. I scream at the top of my lungs at games, and to my friends' dismay, I get louder when Joe Mauer comes to bat.

48. Booing the other team when they take the field. It's a classic.

49. Making fun of the Yankee's roll call. I decided next time when I go to a Twins game against the Yankees, I'll (try to) get people around me to do roll call to make them mad. I think it's stupid, but they are very fun to insult.

50. Winning! Baseball is always fun, but it just makes it all the more enjoyable if your team wins.

What about you guys? Any that I missed?