For Love of the Game

A low-key and laid-back J Squared column today.

No one on base - Take yourself out to the ball game

With my personal goal to pay more attention to Major League Baseball this season, plus going to most of the Orem Owlz home games with my wife this summer, I've had the idea to write generally about baseball for a column sometime this term. And today happened to be the day.

I had a really tough time figuring out what to say exactly. But after a long time of thinking I came up with the theme of feeling like one of the few baseball fans left in the world. Baseball is still very popular, but often I feel like it's not "cool" anymore. The commentators in the ESPN podcasts I listen to talk about baseball as almost an afterthought. And other sports writers and editors here at The Daily Universe only had complaints when it came to baseball. It sort of frustrated me.

Even after I came up with my main idea, I still had a hard time explaining why I love baseball. A lot of the ways I came up with to describe baseball's appeal were applicable to other sports, so they didn't work. In the end, I wish I could say more somehow but I think what is there will be enough to get the point across.

(Recently I'm working on being more concise. Most of the time, in conversations and articles, I feel like I'm not expressing myself exactly the way I want to, which means I tend to ramble. I'm trying to not do that as much.)

Thankfully, I've already had a few supportive responses. Donny, one of my bosses at my other job, is a big baseball fan and liked my article. And whoever was the first to comment on the Daily Universe website makes baseball a big part of life for him and his family.

I know baseball isn't going away any time soon. But I felt like defending it against anyone who forgets it or ignores it.

Here are two entertaining letters to the editor (they were responses to Thursday's letter about "celestial sandwiches"):

The Snack Zone truth

Abuse of alliteration