Baseball and Basketball

- March 03, 2017

My Thoughts on Basketball:

Basketball is a beautiful sport that anyone can play. No arduous or expensive equipment is needed. All you need is a hoop and a ball. You can play with up to ten people or you can shoot jumpers in the park by yourself. Not only is it fun to play, but watching a game is a revelation, too. It is the visual equivalent to jazz, the fluid, improvised motions, the creativity, the teamwork all work together to present something that is part ballet, part tap-dancing, and part sport.

Baseball Thoughts:
I grew up a Red Sox fan and have never stopped watching the game of baseball.

I love how baseball slowly builds up, exhales, creates drama. . . every game is like a Shakespeare play.

Baseball is also a work of live performance art. I deeply admire the slow movements of the game, the beauty of watching a tall right fielder slowly loft to his left to snag a lazy fly ball.

I also love the uniforms, the regional cultures that help inform a team's identity, the hats, the logos, the managers, and the ballparks. Yes, the ballparks-I think baseball is the only sport that has varied playing surfaces from town to town. Imagine if the NBA, the Boston Celtics built a high mound/hill right around the three point line, and that was just the way the playing surface was. Imagine if the L.A. Lakers had hoops that were three feet shorter. . . it’d be ridiculous and hilarious. That’s the way baseball is, though. Sure, it is always 90 feet between bases, and 60 from the mount to home, but everything else is fair game. There’s a flagpole in the field in Houston. There’s a giant wall in Boston. Anyways...

Here’s some dude musing on the connection between baseball and spirituality (below picture):

“As a practicing Buddhist, I try to live in the present moment at every moment. A slow baseball game allows me the opportunity to meditate between pitches, compose my soul with the personnel changes on the field, calm my feelings with foul balls and intentional walks, and generally muse about life, its vicissitudes and joys, throughout a well-played game. And how I miss the doubleheaders!”

-David Glidden