I love baseball. It’s easily my second favorite sport behind hockey, and I honestly can’t get enough of it. The athleticism, the teamwork, all of it is great at its core.

This wasn’t always the case. While my first exposure to the sport was when I watched The Sandlot as a kid (good movie, I recommend it), my first real experience watching it was when the Blue Jays made the playoffs back in 2015. It was national news, with people all across the country whipping out flags and hats that they hadn’t worn in many years to celebrate their first berth since 1993. I hadn’t realized it was such a big deal because hockey often dominated the headlines, and I also didn’t know about their back-to-back championships in the early 90’s. Regardless, I knew this was important, and my family did as well. They were never big baseball fans, but when game 1 of the ALDS between the Jays and the Texas Rangers started, it was on our TV.

Admittedly, I was only slightly impressed. Sure, I was having fun with different aspects of the game and seeing how it all worked, but it didn’t grab my attention like hockey did. It was slower, more methodical, and there were times I was completely bored. Once the Jays went down 2-0, I figured it was over. Foolish of me to think, considering I had just watched the LA Kings complete a reverse sweep and win the Stanley Cup the previous year. It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

If you’re Canadian and reading this, you know that it wasn’t anywhere near over. Game 5 will forever stick with me, especially since I was watching it with my cousins in our living room. When Jose Bautista hit that home run in the bottom of the 7th, my house exploded. Not literally, but nobody sat down for the rest of the game. I’m pretty sure my neighborhood was watching it too, because I heard a lot of noise from next door and in someone’s backyard as well.

At any rate, the Jays’ run was over not too long after that, losing to the eventual champions in Kansas City during the next series. I did end up watching parts of that year’s World Series, and while it was interesting, my original complaint still held true. I felt that the game was too slow-paced for me, and I chalked up my previous excitement to the Jays’ run being something that all Canadians were talking about. It felt like a big moment, and it felt good to be a part of it, but it was over. I didn’t watch any games from the rest of that postseason after game 2 of the World Series, and I also didn’t watch any of the games during the Jays’ run the next year, either.

It took until 2019 for me to sit down and watch another game. Still not really understanding the statistics and terms (OPS and ERA come to mind), I was watching purely because I was wanting to see an underdog win, just like I had when St. Louis did the impossible and beat Boston in the cup finals earlier that same year. I’m talking about game 7 of the World Series that year, with the Nationals being the underdog against an Astros team that might be the best to never win a championship. I’m a sucker for these kinds of stories, and when Howie Kendrick donged it off the pole (that is proper terminology), I was pretty excited. The dugout’s celebration was also pretty epic, too.

Unlike my attempts at watching games after the first Jays run, I actually had a lot of fun while watching this game. mainly because of the tension, the excellent pitching performance from Zack Greinke, and the various clutch plays that were made. Things were, oddly enough, starting to click. However, even though I was more invested this time around, I still felt that the game was too slow for me. There were still many instances of what I’d call “dead time”, and I found it kind of annoying that pitchers took as long as they did to throw. Like, come on, just throw the ball!

The game being slow didn’t stop me from watching highlights, though. After seeing how good Greinke was in that game, I went down a rabbit hole of pitching compilations, as well as some highlights from previous years. There was something really satisfying about seeing a nice curveball fool a batter, just as it was nice seeing home runs fly deep into the bleachers. Eventually, I watched some full game highlights, read up on some of the history, and was more knowledgeable than I had been before. However, my main complaint was still there, even though it was gradually starting to die down.

When Covid hit, I had forgotten about all of that and was instead focused on family, staying healthy, and finally reading more of the Bible. Near the end of what I’d consider the worst of the pandemic where I’m from, I had caught up on my film backlog, and one of the ones that stuck with me the most afterwards was Moneyball. It’s based on the true story of Billy Beane trying to make the Oakland A’s competitive through the use of sabermetrics (a type of analytics), and it got me back into being interested in baseball, along with some more highlights I watched.

As I did all of that, I actually began to appreciate the slowness of games, and how tactical, as well as relaxed, it truly was. There was a purpose for it, and even though it felt like dead time to me at first, I began to understand that what I considered dead time was when the choices between life or death were made. Obviously some exaggeration there, but it was a time for players to plan their next move, especially the battery (pitcher and catcher). I understood this finally, and I respected it.

Not long after, later in June, I caught a game between the A’s and the Giants, which ended with a walk-off in the bottom of the 10th.

The rest is history. I ended up following the rest of that season very closely, cheering for a few teams and eventually settling on the Braves, who miraculously won the World Series that year against the aforementioned Astros. If you’re wondering why I ended up choosing them as my main team, I’ll talk about that at a later time.

If I had to say something intelligent at the end of all this, it’d be this: give things, including people, second chances. Sometimes, the first impression you get of someone or something may not be the best. You may have some complaints, or even frustration over how they’re presented to you. It may even drive you away and you might not want anything to do with them. In some cases, it’s fine to abandon them entirely if all they do is drag you down or waste your time.

However, just because you start off on the wrong foot doesn’t necessarily mean that the door isn’t open for another try. I gave baseball a second try after finding it super boring, and I ended up finding a new hobby once I relaxed and took it in for what it was and is. The pitch clock they’ve installed this year has also gotten me to watch way more games than the last few years, since they go by much faster. We’ll see how this affects the playoffs, but for now it’s been a godsend.

The All-Star break ends tomorrow, which means more fun awaits. I hope the second half of this season is as good as the one that just ended.