Embracing the National Pastime

We’ve been watching quite a bit of baseball these days. Maybe it’s because I’ve needed a diversion from things or maybe it’s because the Cubs and Sox are playing such great ball but whatever reason, I’ve been hooked. I have also been trying to drag Sophie along, hoping that I’ll bring her to her first game this year. I wouldn't say she's a basebal fanatic as her interest peaks and wanes, usually relative to how much she doesn’t want to go to bed.

She is all questions during the game and the questions can be pretty entertaining. “Why he wearing a mask?” “He’s the catcher and he wears it so that the ball doesn’t hit him in the face if he doesn’t catch it.” “Why he running?” “To try and catch the ball.” “So it doesn’t hit him in the face?” “Uh, sort of.” “Why he bending like that”. “So that he can pitch the ball”. This kind of banter goes on between us throughout the game. The real kicker came the other night: “Why he keep touching his penis?” Rather than get into a discussion of athletic supporters and cups, I decided not to respond to this one and just let it slide.

She doesn’t quite get the game but is starting to understand some of the major concepts about it. She equates getting a strike or an out with "losing" and anything else is "winning". So throughout the game, she constantly asks, "did he win or did he lose?" It’s a simple way of looking at the game but if it keeps her attention, and for now I’m fine with it.

Tonight we watched the Sox beat the Tigers. It was a typically awesome Sox game where they pull it out in the end. During the game, we taught Sophie how to high-five every time someone gets a hit. Since we’re in Chicago, we topped off the celebration with an Obama-bump. Well, when Jermaine Dye hit a 2 run homer to take the lead in the 8th, we did our high fives and then Sophie looked at me and called out an exasperated , “Daaad!” I had left her hangin' for the fist bump. “Sorry, I forgot.” I quickly followed up and she was o.k.
During the game, she also had a lot of questions about Tigers and Cubs and various other animals that she said didn’t belong in a ballpark but at the zoo. She seemed concerned that baseball might be dangerous with all of these wild animals running around. I tried to explain the whole mascot thing to her but I am not sure she got it. Tonight’s game was also tough for her to “get” because the Sox were wearing black. I guess most of the recent games we’ve caught have been home games. When she walked in the room, she immediately said, “You watching the Sox game?” I said, “of course”. “They wearing white?” I mentioned that the Sox were wearing black and gray. Sophie seemed dismayed, “but why aren’t they wearing white”. In lieu of explaining the home / away concept to her, I told her that their white uniforms were dirty. That seemed to suffice for an answer.

After the animal discussion, I had to ask “the question”. “So Sophie, who do you like better, the Sox or the Cubs.” She looked at me as if I was an idiot, “Daaad, the Sox”. It totally cracked me up. I am sure that there are plenty of friends who will be disgusted by her response but an equal number will think it’s cool. Either way, I hope to get more of her rationale on this answer during a future game. Maybe we’ll watch the Cubs for that discussion. The funnier part of this conversation is that Sophie, in turn, looked at Ileana and asked her the same thing. Ileana didn’t know what to say and I’m sure she didn’t want to get into a whole “we’re from New York and there are other allegiances that we argue about” discussion at this hour.

After the Sox/Cubs “discussion”, and seeing that the top of the 9th was over, Ileana told Sophie that it was time for bed. “But mom, we’ll miss the end of the game.” I just about peed myself. I’ll have to look at the schedule and see when we can get tickets to the next Sox game. I think Sophie’s ready.