A little patience, amply rewarded

Optional:

At least one friend who's a baseball fan (optional, but highly recommended)

A pair of binoculars

A portable radio (to follow the play-by-play)

Watch a game on TV for twenty minutes to grasp the layout and see a few innings. While the time for a full game is highly variable (there's no time limit), you should plan on spending two-and-a-half to three hours.

2torial #0542: Learn2 Understand Baseball Have a ball at the ballgame! If you find someone who loves to go out to the ballpark, ask them when they saw their first game. Chances are they were taken as a kid and never forgot the great feeling of eating a hot dog, on a warm summer evening, with thirty thousand other people in the stands watching the local team. This is the essence of baseball. It's a quieter feeling than the crazed rowdiness of a football game, and it unfolds at a slower pace than the frenzied action of a basketball game. It's a feeling of anticipation, an emotional tension that builds in the crowd and then releases in the crack of a bat that clears the bases, and wins the game. A baseball game has its own pace. Some are a thrill a minute, while others are a thrill an hour. Rest assured, the thrill is coming. The beauty in baseball is in the details: the full count, the double play, the sacrifice fly. These are particular scenarios that happen in a game. They're exciting because they're opportunities for one team to leap ahead of the other team. In these crucial moments, teams make plays that can decide the outcome of the game. You may have to wait for them, but that makes it more exciting when they do happen. Step 1