Baseball is a Live!

Well, well, well....maybe baseball is back from the dead. I just lost a buck. To myself.

For most of my life I've held a degree of apathy for the sport of baseball.

I played little league when I was growing up and I liked it just fine. That was until a '6th grader' who had a full mustache and stood at 6'5" 250 threw a fastball about 146 MPH into the center of my back.

I never played again and I buried my glove in the backyard.

I retreated into the safety of playing video games where the only damage people could do were with their words over voice chat. Fortunately, I was better than most at that so I was just fine. More than fine really. A monster whose sole purpose was to pwn noobs at Halo 2. Sadly even then I knew this was my peak in life. We all carry our own demons.

Eventually I got older.

I went to St. Joes and started to get to Phillies games regularly enough. Hot dogs and beer are great. I enjoyed when I was at a game. 3 Hours passed by fast enough thanks to the debauchery and affordability of dollar dog night.

I got older.

I got an accounting job with the third party concessions provider at Citi Field. I then got a job with a competitor at Camden Yards. When my wife and I wanted to start a family back in Philadelphia I then got a job back with the first company this time at Citizens Bank. All three of those jobs had two things in common. I loved the staff I worked with including the MLB team staff themselves. All were great people who enjoyed what they did. The second thing they had in common was I typically worked 12 hour days as the lead accounting and finance individual responsible for the books. During a 10 day homestand I could be looking at 11 straight days of mind numbing work.

Family, friends, and complete strangers would say to me "Man, that's awesome you work at the ballpark! Do you get to see the games?"

No, not really. You see as someone who was working from 7AM to 7PM for half the year I felt a bit different. While happy fans were streaming into the stadium I was walking through the throngs back to my car which had baked in the sun all day.

I got older and older.

My son got old enough to play 'coach pitch' baseball and I said sure, let's see if he likes it. Worst case scenario he gets to make some friends and tires himself out running around.

Turns out, it's been pretty fun. Now it was a slow start for him at first but he was on the younger side as his birthday is in August. I often now think of a conversation between Bill Simmons from The Ringer and Malcom Gladwell about youth sports. Turns out kids who are younger are statistically weeded out of youth sports because of the simple fact their skills can't progress at the same rate in their brackets. They are physically limited by the growth of their bodies and the 'year' of the bracket they fall into for competition. So kids born January to March will always hold an edge. Luckily I can worry about that years from now.

With my son playing baseball and having a good time it has started to heal over the old wounds of my work days where I attempted to shut baseball out for good.

That's why when my wife recently suggested just the two of us going to a Phillies game I said, yeah sure let's do it. My mother in law was going to watch the kids for the weekend anyway as we had a wedding to go to Saturday so why not go down to the ballpark for a nice Friday night out. I of course being a degenerate said "Plus after the game we can hit up the Live! Casino right next door."

That Friday I happened to find myself sitting in a bar eating lunch near my office. On the giant TV hovering over my head was the MLB Network.

It was quickly apparent that this is glaring part of the problem for baseball. My God, what a boring, awful production. More and more obscure stats for players flashed on the screen. Who gives a fuck! No one gives a fuck! Not a one!

The whole thing is not tailored to the casual fan. And oh by the way, baseball is currently desperate for casual fans. In between the barrage of useless stats hitting me in the face were cutbacks to the MLB Network crew in some of the most awkward set designs I could imagine.

Haha what the fuck! I know I'm biased towards Football as the #1 sport and their studio shows aren't perfect, but come on, no one looks cool on high top stools! They only work in bars because it's dark as shit! We all look fucking dumb and keep sliding forward off the chairs and have to prop ourselves up with our feet like little children!

Anyway, that night I made it to the Phillies game and my wife and I had a great time. Food was fine, beer was cold, and most importantly for me, the game was fun.

I realize it's an well known fact at this point but the seeing it firsthand clearly the pitch clock is doing wonders. The game moves with a tempo I never experienced during my time at the stadiums. The game my wife and I were at wrapped up in a quick 2 hours and 20 minutes or so. After dinner, drinks, and a quick Phillies win we walked over to the Live! Casino with a bounce in our steps.

Live! Casino is actually pretty nice inside in case you're ever in Philly. It's a lot nicer than 95% of the decrepit AC casinos at this point. I say that as someone who went once a week in college and loved it. Sadly in 15 years not a dollar of my lost money or anyone else's has been spent to renovate.

After I lost a few bucks at one of the tables due to people not understanding how to play Black Jack I decided to get a drink with my wife at the center bar.

This part of the story clearly doesn't pertain to baseball but is important. What happened next is an affront to the service industry, Philadelphia, the Constitution, and all free spirited individuals.

I walked up to a bartender and said "Hi how's it going, I'll take a Ketel One and soda, and a Miller Lite please."

She pulls the beer from the fridge and goes to get my vodka soda. She returns, in approximately 5 SECONDS with my drink. I've never seen service so fast. I was instantly suspicious.

"Is there liquor in this?" I asked in a normal tone.

"Yes." she responds in a curt tone complete with eye roll.

I tasted it, my wife tasted it, and guess what? There was no liquor! She clearly just filled up a glass with ice, soda from the soda gun, and spiked a lime in there with total resentment!

I complained to another bartender, explained what happened, and asked for another drink on the house which I got without issue. But what the fuck!

How hateful do you have to be attempt to dupe people out of booze? Also it's not your booze it's the casinos, so why are you bogarting it? I'm convinced she was actually a lizard person without a soul. My wife also overheard another couple complain later, this was not an isolated incident or a genuine mistake.

So Live! management, get on it and regain the publics trust you are risking every day this continues. I mean the stack of money I ended up taking off the blackjack table after helped sooth my ego, but like, still do it.

That brief detour aside the whole point here is that for me baseball is once again fun. I had turned a blind eye to baseball and I'm happy that I've come to an understanding that as a fan it can be quite enjoyable.

Turns out, and I'm sure for real fans they've always known, there is great energy out there. Especially for a young team like the Phillies who clearly have a good time together and are loyal to one another. Even one who just recently moved on.

Baseball is back for me at least. We'll have to see if other casual fans get the memo.