Watching a baseball game

Kishore

(September 2002)

Couple of months back I happened to watch a baseball game live at a stadium. The following is my thoughts and experience. This is second time I attended a live match, the earlier being a cricket match I watched back in India[1].

Watching this game was a team event for us as our manager sponsored this match. For the promotion our manager it was a party for us. This is a unique experience. I would not have watched a game live otherwise. Around 30 of our team members gathered together and went to the match that is to be played in Oakland, CA. It was a baseball match between Oakland A's Team and New York Giants.

We circled around for sometime before we reached the right gate at the stadium. We reached the stadium just before the game started. I have seen the baseball games being telecast on TV, but watching live is different.

Learning the game

I know a little of the game 'baseball' because we used to play it when I was a kid in school. But I don't remember all the rules. So first thing after coming to the stadium was learning the game. Knowledgeable colleagues gave a quick lesson on the game. They taught us the rules and how to understand the score board and what means a win in the game. Once we were acquainted it was easy to understand what is going on in the field.

Fun watching the game

The day was not very hot and we were comfortable in our seats. As the game is in progress, I took time to understand all the things that are going on and compared this experience with my earlier experience [1]. I saw the giant electronic score board which features profiles of the players and everything. A running commentary, the crowd and the noise made it unique experience.

It was time for our lunch and I was surprised to see long queues at the numerous food shops in the stadium. It appeared like more time spent is spent in these lines than watching the game. We searched around and found at last one food shop which served Vegetarian stuff. We quickly got in line and managed to snatch couple of things to eat and it certainly was costly food. A burger costs $5 compared to otherwise $1 or $2 in a regular shop outside the stadium. We returned to our seats to watch the game. We were lucky to return early whereas others had to wait longer to get their share of food.

Watching the home runs and win of Oakland A's team was fun and as the last game approached we made our exit. We left early so that we can get out of the stadium faster. But we were already late. The crowd has already started and by the time we got into our cars and tried to get out it was Stop and Go situation. It took 1 hour to just get out of the parking lot into the highway.

Electronic score board told us around 33,000 people attended the game that day.

Summary

Having never watched a baseball game live earlier this certainly was a unique experience[2]. I certainly feel such experience will remain in our mind for quite a long time. I recommend that everyone should experience such an event once.

Related Articles:

[1] Mad Crowd: Watching a cricket game
[2] Each Experience is unique