My son plays youth baseball and I watch all his games and we always watch a few MLB games every season (Go Mariners!!). Many people have told me that Baseball is boring and wonder how I get through them. I think most people are not deeply focused on the game if they don’t have a stake in the game, they might watch it mixing it with their social life– I hypothesize that people find Baseball boring due to lack of knowledge of the game, lack of stake in the game or watching the game with boring people.
I find it exciting because I watch every pitch and pay attention to everything on the field (I play book most games and I have to do that, else I will have some confused parents on the bleachers). Paying attention in detail has developed my interest in the game and I instinctively do it even when I am watching a live MLB game in the stadium– I rarely miss a pitch unless I am getting out of my seats to buy my favorite seltzer.
Watching with intent, I am able to see the reactions of the players (on the youth teams) and am able to get a sense for the personality of the players on the team; how they react when they make an error or when the opposing team make a good hit– do they get frustrated and show it in their body language? do they brush it off and focus on the next play or do they let it carry through? There are subtle signals they emit– as a parent I watch for these signals in my son and his peers and I chat with him about these on the ride home (never during, that is why they have a coach). It can be a huge mental coaching moment if you are able to pick up these signs and have a conversation– the reality is most of the youth players will stop playing baseball after high school, however the mental toughness and the resilience they learn will last a life time. Baseball is not the only time or sport where you have this opportunity, there are plenty of them, however for me, it is uninterrupted 3 hours of observation opportunity which I want to make best use of and is very gratifying to see the progress in the mental resilience they demonstrate.
As Yogi Berra once said ‘Baseball is 80% mental and the other half is physical’– might as well follow the pareto principle and focus on the 80%.