I am not a fan of baseball. Every so often when I am visiting the States, I have a tourist and a when-in-Rome kinda' attitude on the subject, and I go and check out a game. I always have a good time in doing so, not so good as to want to partake in watching more than one game every every seven or eight years, but a good time none-the-less. Tonight we went to a Red Sox game (is it just me or is Red Sox one of the weirdest name and logo in all of sports?).

Baseball as a sport takes a lot of flack from non-believers. It takes criticism for being too long, too boring, and too concerned with the most minute of uninteresting statistical pieces of trivia. I agree with all of those thoughts. I also find the strange conundrum that despite my disinterest in the sport, I don't think I've ever seen a baseball movie that I didn't like. The thought of watching a whole game on teevee seems intensely unappealing to me though. That's why taking a whole bunch of games and condensing them into two hours of entertainment (like thy did in Moneyball or Bull Durham or Major League or any other baseball movie) seems to be for the best.

The catch with being at a live game is that you notice that even the most die hard of a fan doesn't seem to be all that interested in the game a whole lot of the time. There's more concern with catching peanuts or participating in a wave or singing Sweet Caroline, the slow paced events on the field seem secondary to the theatrics and traditions going on around the stadium. I was most excited that our collector's cup, containing what would be an illegal amount of cola in some cities, had Carl Yastrzemski's name on it. To be honest, I didn't even know that Carl played for Boston and I couldn't recount any of his accomplishments to you. I can tell you though that he was referenced in a Simpsons episode when Milhouse wanted a card that featured the player with big sideburns.

We walked off the street amongst a giant crowd of tens of thousands and got a pair of cheap tickets in the standing room only section. We were sneaky enough to grab a couple of nearby folding chairs, and before the end of the game went up to actual seats. The baseball stadium surroundings and the fans were great, and the game wrapped up in true movie moment fashion. 3 - 3 tie, bottom of the ninth, the super-star fan-favourite player gets a home run to win the game. Then after running the bases he jumps into a crowd of awaiting team-mates and rips off his tam jersey to reveal a Boston Strong shirt. The crowd goes wild and we all head for the subway.