Why Do You Like Baseball?

I have never been able to answer this question in any satisfying way. Why ask? You might as well ask why one likes grass, or people, or wheels. Maybe the questions you can't answer are the ones that most need to be asked. Each time I've been a question like that, it has made me meaningfully consider a thing I had previously taken as an entitlement.

As a journalist and as a teacher, I have been shown that when one asks any question, one often finds the answers to many others.

Starting today, I’m setting out on a 9-city baseball road trip to ask the question, “Why do you like baseball?” While asking that question of people who root for different teams in different cities, I expect to find the answers to other questions too. (I suppose I could have called this trip “Eat, Play, Glove.”)

Once when asked the question, “Why is baseball your favorite sport?” I answered that I like how its rules haven’t changed in 37 years.** (To further this point, half of Major League Baseball teams don’t acknowledge that rule change.)

I like rules, and as a teacher, I like to make rules. As a teacher, I've learned that all rules must be established before the game begins.

Rules for this roadtrip:

1. I will root, root, root for the home team.
2. I will read one book for each city I visit. It may be in that city, or on the way to that city.
3. I will write one blog post for each city. You’re welcome.
4. I will do at least one thing other than see a baseball game in each city. I will determine what that thing will be by asking locals what I should do.
5. I will do one kind thing for one person I do not know in each city.
6. I will stick to my budget. I have never done this on any vacation. Ever.
7. I will not drive any cars. I will hail a cab only when safety is a concern (I’m looking at you, Detroit.)
8. I will not buy anything to bring back. My ticket stubs are my only mementos.
9. I will not make the third out at third base.


My first and last stops on this trip will be Yankee Stadium. I am aware that in other parts of the country, I will have to endure home team fans me for being a fan of the evil empire. I will try to defend my choice without being defensive. I will allow them to try to persuade me that the new Yankee Stadium is not the greatest place to watch a baseball game that has ever been built. Tonight I will try to find someone that doesn’t agree with that statement.

TONIGHT’S GAME: Yankees vs. Tigers, Yankee Stadium

Book: Take Me Out To the Ballgame: A History of Basebal in America by Timothy B. Shutt
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**In 1973, the American League adopted the DH. If that doesn‘t seem significant, compare it with our other major American sports. The NFL tweaks its rules yearly, changing definitions or interpretations of what is or isn’t a catch, where the goal line is or isn’t , and whether one type of contact is or isn’t a penalty. Three years ago, the NHL overhauled not just its rules, but the lines on its playing surface. This has changed the game in hopes that the American public would latch on more to a sport that is more has become more offensive, more exciting. It is more exciting, but the NHL is still waiting for the American public to realize that. My favorite rule change is that last year the NBA acknowledged something that had already been accepted by players, fans, and referees since 1989: that if a player is on his way to the basket with the ball, he can take more than one step without being called for traveling. I choose 1989 because that is the year after I was called for traveling on my way to scoring what would have been my first 2 points in a junior high basketball game. Some say I wasn’t a good player. I say I was ahead of my time. Here’s hoping that on this trip, I can stick to my own rules as written, and avoid being penalized for traveling.