Picking a Baseball Team to Support

Series Summary

Baseball is a sport played with a bat and a ball. In baseball, there are two teams of nine players each, and the goal of is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged ninety feet apart at the corners of a diamond. Offensive players take turns hitting while the defense tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out in a number of different ways. A player on offense can stop at any of the bases and try to score on a teammate's hit ball. The teams switch between offense and defense whenever the team on defense records three outs. One turn on offense for each team makes an inning, and nine innings make up a professional game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game is the winner.

Baseball is a sport of intricacies and stats, a sport where die hard fans can find no limit to their knowledge of the game, because each game is truly unique, and each night, you may see something that has never happened before. In this free video series, a sports journalist and devoted baseball fan will teach you how to become a baseball fan, from choosing a favorite team to cheering for them at the games. You'll learn the best ways to learn about the game, how to enjoy yourself at the ballpark, and how to interact with the players. With these tips, you'll not only learn how to be a baseball fan, but also how to fully understand and appreciate the game, in turn making you a better fan!

Video Transcript

"And right now, I'd like to talk about choosing your team. And it doesn't always have to be geographic, for me, it was. I grew up in the Bay area, you're seeing the Athletics here on my chest. And I fell in love with them, when they had the Mark McGuire-Jose Conseco- Walt Weiss days. It was a fun time to be an Oakland A's fan. You get out there in mid-afternoon and they just, they just play baseball for the best reasons possible. They just went out there and absolutely competed it both day in and day out, and I fell in love with that. But it doesn't always have to be geographic. You could be living in California and love the New York Yankees or you could live in Boston and love the San Diego Padres. So it doesn't always have to be geographic. What you need to find in choosing a team, is something you feel passionate about. It could be their uniforms. You may not want to admit that out loud, but it may be their uniforms. It could be the fact that you think that their number one starting pitcher is the sexiest man alive. And again, you may not want to admit that you to husband, but that may be a reason why you would want to root for that team. And those teams love the fact that they have people all over the country rooting for them, because that means they're going to sell more jerseys, sell more hats. They're going to sell more tickets for when you're vacationing out there. So, they love that. And I think that you don't, don't tie yourself in, just because you live in Tampa Bay, you have to be a Devil Rays fan. If you want to be, that's great, because it's more convenient for you. But you know what? There's also so many ways to watch the games now. So choosing a team doesn't have to be controlled within your tiny environment that you live in. You can watch it on MLB.com. Cable now has the Extra Innings Package, which I had last year, and didn't miss an A's game, even though I was living up in Maine, which is about as far aways as you can get from the Bay area. So I think it's very important that you realize, you have to have a passion for something about the team. It could be a player, it could be a uniform, it could be the broadcaster. It doesn't matter what it is, but find a connection with something, and stick with it, and really, and really see it through. "