Thanks, X. Coming from you that's a true compliment. I'll tip up a shot of Maker's.
But it's genetic. My dad listened many a times on a small transistor radio to the Yankees games (because the NYC signal made it down this far)...and Richmond even had a Yankees farm club for many years...before pulling out (almost in the middle of the night) and leaving the city without a team for a year. Braves swooped in and stayed til 2008...when they left the city...without a team for another year. Dad took me as an infant to games and we watched them every Saturday afternoon on TV together (along with the tennis matches that the major networks used to air LOL). I've been to Spring Training 3 times and had R-Braves season tickets for 20 years. I kept The Book for my HS baseball team and had to overhear our coach get yelled at by opposing coaches, umpires and parents about it but he was adamant that I knew my stuff. And back in the day before spreadsheets (much less having 'an app for that') I had the stats posted by their locker room before the next day's practice. To this day, when I need a 3-digit code, I'll pick 3-6-1 because it's my fav DP to watch.
But I haven't watched any MLB in probably 5 years...much less an entire 9-inning affair in probably 10. To keep the Addiction alive, I'll trek on down to the local American Legion games or a HS contest. Have also enjoyed a college game or two here and there...but I intensely dislike the tink of aluminum bats....and so it's a bittersweet fix. Not sure what I would have done if I'd had a son. That wanted to play.
Ah, the good old scorebook. Back in the day when I was an up-and-coming sports writer, we used to write game stories just from the scorebook. Amazing what a well-kept scorebook page can tell you. In fact, I covered the Oklahoma City 89ers AAA team in 1979-80, went to spring training camp in Clearwater, FL, in the spring of 80, and on several nights was the official scorer at home games. Topaz will appreciate this - Oak City was the Phillies' top farm club, and several of the guys on that team participated in the 1980 World Series, won by the Phillies, of course.
Your favorite twin killing depends on a hustling #1, not always a given.
One play I always liked was an early hit to right; most right fielders I saw would hum a liner back to the infield, often to third, in effect daring the other team to take the extra base later in the game. Baseball has all kinds of similar games within games every night.
And I would wager if your imaginary sons wanted to play baseball, you would be right there, keeping scorebooks and questioning the ump's visual acuity. Gently, of course.
I could keep telling stories of staying up late in rural Arkansas listening to Dodgers/Cardinals on KMOX (St. Louis station) on the car radio; listened to many Koufax-Gibson pitching duels while swatting mosquitoes in July and August. And I kept a stats book in which I would recalculate every Dodgers' numbers whenever I could find a new box score. But this post is long enough already. Don't give up on MLB, especially with the Nats turning into a powerhouse. Ol' Davey knows his stuff. And I hate aluminum bats and the DH; not the game I learned to love back when Jackie Robinson was still playing.