Saturday evening calls for breaking the week long boredom and "workaholicism". As i woke up from slumber on Saturday morning, I was pondering over possible places to hit for fun and I got a call from a friend asking if I wanted to take passes for baseball game in the evening. Well, I did not know a 'B' of baseball, however, the desire to go check out something different made me accept the tickets. He had three tickets that I collected before he left for a trip to Orlando. Now I called in my friends and we were four people all set to watch the game. As for the knowledge of the baseball, we all were in the same boat. As Indians, we are far too overwhelmed with cricket all the time. Next thing we did was to book the fourth ticket. We were to reach the stadium 'Marlin Park' at 7: 00 pm.
As I sulked in my bed sipping coffee at around 12:00pm, I decided to do a crash course on baseball. I thought that would be the only way to actually enjoy the match. I opened Wikipedia and went through the rules. I checked out videos on you tubes and a few highlights. I check my watch it was 2:30 PM already. I had spent good amount of time studying the game and was pretty aware of the rules by then. I grabbed my lunch and took a nap, before getting ready for the match.
We reached the stadium as expected at 7:00 pm and it was jam packed with people rushing in to support the home team - Miami Marlins. We were playing against Chicago Cubs. After getting pass a colossal queue, we reached the stand and settled down in our seats. One of my friends has also brushed through the rule book to understand the game. We sat such that we could explain the game as it proceeds. The match started and there I was screaming as the first Chicago Cubs player got out. As per the rules, the visiting teams gets to bat first in baseball. There are nine innings and in each inning the balling team has to get three players out. The team with maximum score after the nine innings wins. Like a six in cricket, there is a Home run in base ball, which gets the stadium on its feet.
The atmosphere in the stadium was electric. The fans were hooting and cheering on every ball. The vendors were selling bears and cotton candies all around. Kids were busy making the chicken moves and matching the claps.
All of us were extolling the exotic frolic across the stadium. It indeed developed a penchant for baseball within us.
Apart from enjoying the moment, I was also busy explaining the game to my friends. We did have to Google things like 'E' - Error & 'LOB' - left on base, however, we did end up grasping the game pretty well.
The match ended with Miami Marlins losing to Chicago Cubs but we had lot to be happy for. We found a new scope of ultra fun, which we might have never tried, had those free tickets not made their way into our lives.
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