seriously // without thought

The crowd at the ball game
is moved uniformly

by a spirit of uselessness
which delights them —

all the exciting detail
of the chase

and the escape, the error
the flash of genius —

all to no end save beauty
the eternal -

So in detail they, the crowd,
are beautiful

for this
to be warned against

saluted and defied —
It is alive, venomous

it smiles grimly
its words cut —

The flashy female with her
mother, gets it —

The Jew gets it straight - it
is deadly, terrifying —

It is the Inquisition, the
Revolution

It is beauty itself
that lives

day by day in them
idly —

This is
the power of their faces

It is summer, it is the solstice
the crowd is

cheering, the crowd is laughing
in detail

permanently, seriously
without thought

--William Carlos Williams "The Crowd at the Ballgame"

The final lines of Williams' crafty poem about baseball reminds us that baseball is a freedom from, and a call to, (serious) thought. Games are one way of passing our time, but some require more thought than others. Baseball is set apart in its limitless potential for thoughts. What pitch is coming next? Will the manager bring in a lefty to face the right-handed batter? Will the Yankees defend their title? Why can't Pedro Alvarez hit the ball at night? 

Sure, this type of thinking can be applied to other sports, but the difference between baseball and say, football, soccer, or hockey, is that there is time to think. The game's leisurely pace allows for one to apply as much or as little thinking as one likes between pitches or innings. It will take some time for the world to wake up and realize that a game is best enjoyed sitting down, not blowing horns, whistles, or waving flags--as is the case with the World Baseball Classic's fanatics.

There is no secret of the love affair between writers and baseball over the years. More importantly, however, and more underrated is the role of the play-by-play announcer and the color commentator. In fact, these characters are an indispensable part of the viewing experience for me. I would rather listen to the play-by-play of a baseball game than watch it on TV or in-person. You might say that having the play-by-play facts alongside of the anecdotes and colorful musings of a former ballplayer allows one to adequately navigate through life with purpose. 

One could argue that the play-by-play part of the mind informs the body of the sensory details of the outward world, while the interpreting mind of the color analyst adds the story behind the facts. He brings humor, surprise, gives meaning to the game of life. In some ways these Platonic and Aristotelian views of the world give a ballgame its real meaning. Without them, I'm somehow not nearly as interested. The more ballgames you take in alongside your favorite commentators the more prepared you are to talk about the game, to really see what's going on in front of you. Yet one cannot rely on these gents to be unbiased or always entertaining. 

At some point, the dedicated fan will be watching a game and can become overwhelmed with passion as to the story that is unfolding. The commentators can become a distraction to all of the layers of stories happening simultaneously. Each player a background, each pitch a million metrics changing at once. Each rotation of the ball churning the thoughts of thousands of spectators thinking. 

For the beginner fan, the child, the game is predictable. Until the newborn has been dazzled by the infinite possibilities that could happen within a game (numbers, location, outcomes...),