Why I Like Baseball

AN ONLINE JOURNAL OF BASEBALL ENTHUSIASM, by CECILIA TAN

Category: Baseball Fans and Fandom

  • February 15: Home Stretch

    Apologies, but though this piece was written on February 15th, technology conspired to keep it from appearing until February 24th… -ctan It has been a long, cold offseason, but this year I’ve done everything in my power to try to stave off the pangs of withdrawal. There’s still a few weeks before exhibition games begin,…

  • November 12 2000 : Care Package

    My mom is the absolute greatest, you know that? Okay, well, you know how when you went to summer camp or to college, these packages would arrive from her, and they’d be full of things like cookies, or books, or photos, or other nifty things that made you feel wonderful and loved and comforted and…

  • October 31 2000: Withdrawal Symptoms

    It’s hard to believe, but the huge empty hole I felt when last year’s season ended doesn’t seem to be quite as huge or as empty-seeming this year. Yet. Part of this may be the fatigue I feel after following the season so intensely since March, especially given how exhausting the Yankee run became, as…

  • June 21 2000: Tough Night At Fenway For The Yanks AND Me

    Man, Red Sox fans can be obnoxious. I always thought it would be worse for Yankee fans if the Sox lost. But no, the average Sox fan greets a humiliating loss like Monday’s 22-1 rout, or the surprising three-home-run wallop of Pedro yesterday, with a kind of morose resignation. It takes all the energy right…

  • June 19 2000: It Worked! Yanks Wallop Red Sox 22-1

    Well, last night my team was down, and all kinds of drama, humiliation and heartbreak loomed potentially on the horizon. We were out of first place, suffered an unbelievable loss 17-4 in which our ace got shelled for 9 runs in the top of the first inning and came out of the game after only…

  • April 23 2000: Balancing Act

    I close my eyes, listening to the game on the radio. I’m imagining I’m there at the ballpark. Let’s see. My butt is firmly planted in a molded, hard-plastic seat. On my right thigh rests my scorecard, on the left my gloved-up left hand. But, wait, where will I balance my hot dog? Where can…

  • Mar 24 2000: Autograph Hounding 101

    Well, there’s one surefire way to get an autograph, and that’s to buy something pre-signed. But where’s the fun in that? The point is not to have the autograph, so much as to have the record of having been there, in the same place at the same time, as the player himself. That’s why people…

  • Feb 29 2000: Offseason Blues: Part 2

    So my brother Julian calls today, and we’re talking about our trip to Tampa next week. “I’m thinking about bringing some baseballs,” he says. For a moment I’m thinking, will we need gloves and bats, too? Then I realize, oh, for autographs… “But there’s a problem,” he tells me. “If we want these to be…

  • Feb 16 2000: On “Diamond Girls:” Female Baseball Fandom

    So, I never really thought about the difference between female baseball fans and male baseball fans, until the whole Derek Jeter thing. Let me explain. Growing up as a kid, I was a tomboy, and was always doing this that the “guys” did: I ran cross country track, and played the sousaphone (tuba), and I…

  • Feb 15 2000: Why I Like The 1999 Red Sox (No Really!)

    OK, OK, I’ve talked before about being a Yankee fan in Red Sox Land. It’s tough, let me tell you. I go into the copy shop where I do thousands of dollars in business a year wearing my Yankees cap, and they give me s**t about it. The give me the evil eye in the…