I’m not a big fan of major league baseball. The local team known as the Minnesota Twins is an under-funded, mid-market, dome-playing bunch and usually the team doesn’t perform well. But this year, as a new outdoor ballpark is being built for the team across town, the players have decided to lead their division. It’s a fun way to run out the summer – watching 20-somethings rip off singles and come-from-behind victories in an effort to make the playoffs.
That’s what happened on Saturday, Aug. 16. It was a classic, bottom-of-the-ninth inning, bases loaded, single that scored the winning run for the Twins and kept them in the fight for first place.
Good baseball isn’t just about how the team performs on the field. It’s who you go with. I have a small group of friends, most of whom are new acquaintances to me, who just happen to know how to have fun no matter what the sitch. We’re a Seinfeld-esque bunch, I’d say – complete with loads of sarcasm and self-deprication to keep us all laughing.
At the game on Saturday, we managed to develop our own sign language, examine wart faces, sing badly during the seventh-inning-stretch, and make great imaginings about the foul balls bouncing off inattentive fans’ foreheads. It was all in fun and made the game’s three-plus-hours go by in a flash.
That’s how good baseball is meant to be played…with great friends.
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