Hello Fellow Travelers!
Today's title refers a very old SNL bit that I would be very surprised anyone born after 1970 would get. During this long convalescence, I have been very heartened to learn that many things that I saw and didn't purchase are now priced-to-sell online. All kinds of things are on sale! I'll get to that later, right now my mind is on baseball and it's universal appeal amongst men. I know there are women who know as much about the sport but I don't know them so I don't know if they possess that multitude of facts and stats at a glance that for some reason are seared into the memory of a lot of men.
I have a weird proclivity for retaining pop culture factoids which is only surpassed by my near photographic recall of old movies and who played what in which film. I have no idea how to apply this knowledge to anything lucrative. Except for the occasional trivia question, I don't have any use for any of this information. Yet it continues to lodge in my brain without fail. Who broke up with whom and who went on to star in what movie last fall? You don't admire the person with that knowledge they're just weird! Jan knows! She has no earthly reason why she knows but she really does know.
Baseball and the history of baseball, season after season my father, my best friend's father, my spouse's father and his brothers can speak intelligently about any inning of any playoff game in any year! And that doesn't even address their vast familiarity with picks, careers, trades, injuries for their team and other teams in the league! They all see this knowledge as no big deal, just part of the "Man-Mantle" or something.
Baseball is also a universal language. Any man can talk to another about baseball. Age, country, circumstance don't matter when the "game" inevitably comes up. It's a safe topic, it's thoroughly male and 100% American! The great thing is you don't have to be American to talk to total strangers about baseball. I was forced initially to watch a few ballgames here and there. After awhile I relied on the Giants and the mellifluous voices of the radio broadcasters. I confess my knowledge of baseball is pretty thin. I'm not a "Gamer Babe", and I'm not really sure what a "Gamer Babe" is except she seems to always be attached to a "Gamer Dude". The fact that our team's post season went on forever (seemingly) was great for me. Especially those playoff games where the Giants barely squeaked by. They seemed to win in spite of themselves, I could relate to that.
I don't speak Baseball yet but I have discovered something that looks deceptively simple but is, in fact, as complicated as anything in life. One feature of my condition is I cannot speak which is inconvenient but makes learning anything new like Baseball faster and with a deeper understanding. It's great that our team won the World Series, it gave me lots of post-season time to watch them. It is a little sad too because no matter how much I learn or how many games I go to, I never will have the banks of history that come with being a lifelong fan. I have to start somewhere right?
PS - What is a "boiled wool" jacket anyway? Is it really a jacket or just a sweater on steroids?
Today's title refers a very old SNL bit that I would be very surprised anyone born after 1970 would get. During this long convalescence, I have been very heartened to learn that many things that I saw and didn't purchase are now priced-to-sell online. All kinds of things are on sale! I'll get to that later, right now my mind is on baseball and it's universal appeal amongst men. I know there are women who know as much about the sport but I don't know them so I don't know if they possess that multitude of facts and stats at a glance that for some reason are seared into the memory of a lot of men.
I have a weird proclivity for retaining pop culture factoids which is only surpassed by my near photographic recall of old movies and who played what in which film. I have no idea how to apply this knowledge to anything lucrative. Except for the occasional trivia question, I don't have any use for any of this information. Yet it continues to lodge in my brain without fail. Who broke up with whom and who went on to star in what movie last fall? You don't admire the person with that knowledge they're just weird! Jan knows! She has no earthly reason why she knows but she really does know.
Baseball and the history of baseball, season after season my father, my best friend's father, my spouse's father and his brothers can speak intelligently about any inning of any playoff game in any year! And that doesn't even address their vast familiarity with picks, careers, trades, injuries for their team and other teams in the league! They all see this knowledge as no big deal, just part of the "Man-Mantle" or something.
Baseball is also a universal language. Any man can talk to another about baseball. Age, country, circumstance don't matter when the "game" inevitably comes up. It's a safe topic, it's thoroughly male and 100% American! The great thing is you don't have to be American to talk to total strangers about baseball. I was forced initially to watch a few ballgames here and there. After awhile I relied on the Giants and the mellifluous voices of the radio broadcasters. I confess my knowledge of baseball is pretty thin. I'm not a "Gamer Babe", and I'm not really sure what a "Gamer Babe" is except she seems to always be attached to a "Gamer Dude". The fact that our team's post season went on forever (seemingly) was great for me. Especially those playoff games where the Giants barely squeaked by. They seemed to win in spite of themselves, I could relate to that.
I don't speak Baseball yet but I have discovered something that looks deceptively simple but is, in fact, as complicated as anything in life. One feature of my condition is I cannot speak which is inconvenient but makes learning anything new like Baseball faster and with a deeper understanding. It's great that our team won the World Series, it gave me lots of post-season time to watch them. It is a little sad too because no matter how much I learn or how many games I go to, I never will have the banks of history that come with being a lifelong fan. I have to start somewhere right?
PS - What is a "boiled wool" jacket anyway? Is it really a jacket or just a sweater on steroids?
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