For love of the game

This is a superb email, hilarious the first time you read and it really pure and sweet when you reread it. It was written by an African journalist after seeing his first baseball game in 2002. To protect the innocent, I've removed the names:


Re: the game at Fenway

Hi L----,

at the end of the day, I found baseball a very exciting game, though for the life of me I still can't understand the first thing about its rules! Yeah, I still have to go to a few more games before I master the rules.

I guess what hit me first was the atmosphere at the ballpark, I mean you have all these people decked out in all kinds of Sox fan-wear, all of them abuzz.

The singing of the anthem, the description of various aspects of this
historical Park (running commentary kindly availed by C--------).

Then of course where our seats were added to the excitement: we were seated just about twenty yards away from the Cleveland team's dugout, apparently that's prime time real estate in terms of ball park seats.

Well, what can I tell you, this hotshot pitcher Pedro Martinez stepped on the mound and the crowd was wild with cheering.

And boy, can that guy hurl a ball!

I sure would hate to be the guy doing the opposing team's batting against Martinez. Martinez hurled in a few superfast pitches and the Cleveland guy either missed, fouled or didn't attempt to hit the ball. (Of course being the ignoramus that I am, I was waiting for a home run, though I had by then gained my new status as a die hard Sox fan - complete with a sox cap on my head!)

Apparently, Martinez pitched three guys out, then it was Cleveland's turn to pitch. That is when I learnt that Boston has another super hotshot ball player, that is Norma Garciapparra.

Jeez oh man! Garciapparra succeeded in making me completely love baseball.

You know, the guy stands there with his bat, tapping the toe of one foot after the other at first base, tugging at his sleeves waiting to whack the bejesus out of the ball, and you feel like the guy is got all this energy coiled in him, like some kind of depressed spring. And when he hits the ball, boy, does it travel? The guy took one clout at the ball that could have knocked it through the sound barrier!

L----, I really was loving it, every minute of it.

But after a couple of innings, rain interrupted everything, and we had to go back to L----- H----- (I was informed later that the Sox won the game).

Notwithstanding the wet interruption, I together with S---, T--- and
C----- felt we had a marvelous time, we participated in a great American tradition, we ate hotdogs and frankfurters, we toured the shops in the stadium, inspected all the sox-related merchandise, and (I) was hooked to the excitement of the ball park.

Cheers,
XXXXXXX


According to my friend who received the email, the writer became such a fan that he would sometimes be able to download feeds of Red Sox games after he was back in Rwanda.

I love this game.