by Nicole Hogsett

Created on: April 26, 2009

It was October 4, 2006. I was nineteen years old and hadn't been to a baseball game in at least eight years. Once a summer, for a few years, my dad would take me to a baseball game. We stayed for, at most, five innings and then left. Baseball, back then, eluded me. I didn't get it and didn't care to. On that night all my feelings about baseball changed.

My dad had been lucky enough to get tickets to the first playoff game against the Dodgers. Our seats were literally in the last row of Shea Stadium. According to Wikipedia, there were 56,979 people in attendance that night, and you could tell. The stadium was shaking and the crowd was cheering as the Mets beat the Dodgers 6-5. It was infectious and I was hooked.

That game, as I remember it, encompasses all that is great about the game. Baseball is, and always will be, considered the national pastime for many reasons. There is a sense of community being at a baseball game makes you feel, that is rare to achieve anywhere else, even other sports arenas. For the stretch of a game, no matter how different you and the 50,000+ people sitting around you might be, you are all fans, there to cheer for your team and watch a game. The passion people exhibit at a game, whether it is positive or negative, is a testament to how this game affects so many people, and really makes them feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. It is the quintessential summer game, in that when you are at a game or watching a game from home, it still feels like an escape from everyday life and troubles, the way that summer tends to make people feel more carefree in general.

One of the most important reasons baseball is, and always will be the national pastime, has to do with history, both of the sport and of the fans. Baseball has been a comfort to many during difficult times, and the one thing that you can constantly rely on in an unreliable world. And for most people, a love of the game comes from a parent, grandparent, sibling or someone older, who takes the time to teach the game to them the same way they were taught by those who came before them. Just watching a game on television you can see the stands filled with children, teenagers, parents and grandparents, all together, all with one common interest. That's what baseball does: it connects us to our past and offers us a way to connect with our future. That's why it will forever be the national pastime.

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