BASEBALL: A game played with a bat and ball between two teams of nine players each on a large field having four bases that mark the course a runner must take to score.
When I was about 4 or 5 years old, I used to spend time with my grandparents in Boston. My grandfather was a very big Boston Red Sox fan, which, of course, had an impact on me. I used to sit with my grandfather in the kitchen listening to the Red Sox games on the radio .... yes, this was before games were so easily available on television!!! He would drink his beer while his parakeet sat on the edge of his glass drinking it, too! THAT was my introduction to baseball.
I, of course, became a Red Sox fan and would follow them whenever I could. When I was 17 years old we returned from England and visited with my grandparents in Boston. I went to my very first ever Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park. What an experience! We saw down the third base line towards left field. It really didn't matter "where" we sat .... I was excited to be there.
That was the only Major League baseball game I saw until ..... April 3, 2010 when I was very fortunate to have a friend, Zaid, who works for the Washington Nationals, offer me 4 tickets to see the Red Sox play the Nationals (pre-season). I, of course, snapped them up!!! Two friends of mine locally and a friend from high school who works at the Pentagon and lives up near D.C. went to the game. We had awesome seats and enjoyed the beautiful Nationals stadium --- AND saw the Red Sox win!!!
In 2004 Javy Lopez of the Atlanta Braves was traded to the Baltimore Orioles. At the time the Braves games were shown on TBS, so I was watching them. When Javy was traded to the Os, I found out I could watch EVERY Orioles game on two local stations (MASN and MASN2). I can also watch every Washington Nationals game on the same two stations. I chose to start watching the Orioles on an every day basis. Javy was traded to the Red Sox in 2006 and subsequently retired. To this day, however, I watch all the Orioles games.
The Orioles have not had the best of seasons since I started watching (finished 3rd of 5 teams in 2004 and 4th or 5th of 5 teams 2005-2010). This year they will again finish in 5th place. However, I'm one of those "stand by your team" people, and I continue to watch.
I also will watch other baseball games when the Orioles aren't on, and I watch the Red Sox whenever they happen to be on in my area. In other words .... I LOVE baseball!!!!!!
As I update my site this year (2011) .... we are ending the season, so all I'll be updating for the next month will be the playoffs and World Series, but next season when baseball starts back up, I'll periodically update this page with my thoughts and maybe some statistics of the Orioles and Red Sox (mostly Orioles because they are the team I can watch the most).
My goal next year is to get up to Camden Yards in Baltimore and see a game or two. Oh---forgot to mention, the Orioles AAA team is the Norfolk Tides who play at Harbor Park in Norfolk, Virginia (just 25 miles from my house) so from time-to-time I watch them play, and thus I've seen some of the present day Orioles play when they were in AAA ball.
