Baseball

I’ve been watching baseball recently. My dad was a big Mets fan, but after 1994-95 season was canceled because of the strike, he swore it off. He hasn’t watched a game since. I’ve always felt he blamed the players more than the owners - he was never a fan of unions, but that’s another story, I guess.

So I’ve been watching baseball recently. After my father stopped watching it, I kept watching for a few years. I’d taken to supporting the team from Atlanta. They were particularly good at the time, so I kept watching - but mostly just the playoffs. Back then, there was no MLB-TV. Also, I was a child, so I wouldn’t have been paying for a service like that even if it did exist. The team from Atlanta won the 1995 World Series, and then that’s around when the Yankees started to dominate (again) and it just got boring - especially because I knew a lot of folks who were suddenly massive, life-long Yankees fans.

So. I’ve been watching baseball lately. It’s a very different game to what it used to be. The National League has a DH now? There’s a pitch clock? What’re these oven-mitts base-runners wear now? And what’re these rubber thumb-ring things batters are using? Why do so many players wear silly-ly large necklaces while playing? Probably the most ridiculous thing, for me, is this pitch-call communicator? What? What happened to catchers signaling with their hands? It’s been 20-odd years since I last really watched a game.

I’ve been finding myself caring about how the Mets are playing. Feels weird.

It feels weird to care about the Mets.

Anyway, have a nice life.