For Love Of The Game

With baseball season just days away, many of us are excited about the possibility of seeing the new Yankee Stadium and perhaps even Citifield.

Sometimes, though, it can feel daunting, as though the game itself takes a back seat to the team and to the notion that you are watching titans and not humans.

So what's one to do to get close to the game? To remember why it is we're attracted to the game in the first place?

Here are some things to do throughout the course of the season:

Take in a minor league game. Not just an AAA game, where you probably already know the names of all the prospects, but AA and A games as well, with players not out of their teenage years, getting their first taste of professional ball. Many minor league teams have their bullpens just beside the first or third base line--if you go on a cold or damp night, when no one else is around, walk down to those seats next to the bullpen and watch the relievers warm up. Also--it's a great place to get a foul ball.

Go to a college game in your area. Sure, aluminum is a bit different than wood and it's a little harder to find information on the players, but you never know--you may very well be seeing the next Derek Jeter or Joba Chamberlain...

Find some friends and find someone's park or backyard, use some old tennis balls and play a sandlot game of baseball. You don't have to play only nine innings; play until the sun goes down or there's a thunderstorm warning. Just make sure to wear a helmet if your pitcher actually, you know, pitches.

Take a glove and a ball and go to the park with a friend, brother, sister, parent, cousin, child... and just play catch. There is nothing more basic than having a catch. Turn it into a game with your own rules or just toss lazy fly balls. Doesn't really matter. The beauty of baseball is that as long as you have a ball, you can play catch.

The one thing it's so easy to forget over the course of the season is that nothing is bigger than the game. Nothing.

No player, no team, no stadium is bigger than the game.

The funny thing is, though, the game is at its biggest when its at its smallest. The game is the best, the most pure, when there are no bright lights or giant LCD monitors or $500 lower level tickets.

In the end, baseball's a game. That's what's at the heart of it, that's why we watch it, why we're fans.

So while you're busy marveling at the new Stadium, make sure you don't forget what this is all about in the first place.