How did you become a baseball fan?

I was never really a baseball fan. But my dad liked it so I tried to.

But what really got me into it, is where I live they have a summer league. Some towns have a team. I think there is 8 or 9 teams total. And they attract some of the best college players in the country. Because there are a ton of scouts that come to this thing. There are a ton of MLB players who came through this league.

Anyway. It's every summer. And each game is at a highschool or middle school park, with almost no bleacher sitting. The idea is that you bring a lawn chair and just park wherever you want. You can bring food, drinks. Some people bring beer. They sell food like burgers and hot dogs.

There are at least 4 games every single day 6 days a week from about begining of July to late August.

And the best part? Admission is free.

So about twice a week me and my father go to a game and it's fun to just sit there. It's not crazy and hectic like an MLB game. It's got this quaint small town feel to it. And it is the highlight of my summer.

I sometimes joke that being a Cubs fan is hereditary, but it feels like it's true - my siblings and I all have various amounts of enthusiasm for different sports (and for the idea of being a sports fan at all), but we all bleed Cubbie blue because of my dad's love for the team.

There is a story I find amusing about my sister and being a baseball fan - my dad likes to take us to games from time to time, and during my sister's freshman year of college, he had a string of games quite close together where he could get exactly two tickets and she was the only one of us available to go, so she went to a bunch of games that year. Her friends noticed and whenever they had a question about anything baseball-related, they'd think "oh she's a big baseball fan, I bet she'll know". Before that year, she was a very casual sports-enjoyer at most, but solely in order to answer her friends' questions, she ended up becoming very invested in the Cubs, which has now stuck with her.

I essentially ran the 30 teams through a random number generator and ended up settling on the Texas Rangers by chance

This is about the dorkiest thing I’ve ever heard — I love it.

I was raised in a baseball household. My dad played in college, and he passed down his love of the game (if not his skill). My uncle moved to NY and worked for the YES network for a time in the late ‘90s early 2000’s, and he used to send me Yankees gear. A string of championships, a cool uncle’s influence, and Derek Jeter made fandom easy. (20 years later that fandom isn’t quite so easy, but without a home-town team I don’t feel like I have a good excuse to jump ship!)

It’s been 10+ years since I’ve played baseball, but I still watch a lot. I’ve been feeling an itch to get back into it though. Anyone here play in an adult hardball league? Softball doesn’t fill the void for me.

I watched the anime "touch," got hooked on the duel between batter and pitcher and tried to get baseball going in France in the late eighties, early nineties.
I have two teams, the Mariners because I loved my time in Seattle, and the Red Sox because red is my favorite color, and I spent some time in Boston.
I used to follow the Reds as well, but that was getting too many teams, though their current success mashed me happy.

I grew up with baseball in the Milwaukee area during the 80s and with frequent Cub Scout trips to Milwaukee County Stadium. I enjoyed watching all sports but baseball was easier for me to follow and understand (and play!) than football or basketball. I didn’t play in any youth leagues because I was tiny and uncoordinated but I played plenty of pickup games and video games.

I don’t watch nearly as many sports anymore but baseball is still probably the game I’d be most likely to watch in person today.

I grew up in a Mets/Jets/Knicks household, because my dad has made extremely poor life choices. My attention is completely lost from football or basketball, but there's some kind of vibe with the Mets that keeps me watching them.

(hubris, the vibe is hubris)

My dad sat six month old me down in front of a Cubs game on WGN in 1982. Apparently I stayed awake and fixated on the TV for the entire three hour affair. It must be genetic. His dad was 4F and played minor league ball through WW2.

I was listening to a show on NPR in 2010 about why Roy Halladay was so good, and living near Philly I put a game on within a day or so of that as he was pitching, and watched him pitch a no hitter, and that was it, I was hooked.

I was 9 years old at my aunt and uncle's in Seaforth, ON. My parents had taken me to a Bluejays game the previous year but I have no memories of it. Next thing I know, it's the bottom of the 9th and Joe Carter is at bat.

And with his walk off home run to win the world series, I along with my parents and aunt and uncle all explode in excitement. None of us baseball fans but all together watching "Canada's team".

This is my first sports memory and really the earliest memory I can remember with any clarity.

I have been hooked since and the Jays have been punishing me with their woeful play since. I did get to their first playoff game in over 20 years back in 2015 and playoff baseball (even without the Jays most years) is still one of my favourite things to watch.

For me, it was moving within reasonable distance to a MLB team and having the time/money to go often. I was lucky enough to see Ohtani pitch is first game as an Angel. I've moved away from the area so I only get to go once a year, but there's something special about going to the park.

Apologies if this response is too late! I was out last week.

I got into baseball as a kid, stopped following it in the mid-90s and started following again in 2019. The past several years have enriched my day-to-day greatly.

When I was a kid in the 1980s three things got me into baseball:

1. I played a lot of whiffle ball. Eventually, I played Little League.
2. In the mid- to late-80s, my babysitter's husband would bet us nickels (that he provided) on Braves games. This was in 86 or 87 when they were very bad so he usually won his money back. The Braves were on TBS every day, so it was easy to become a Braves (and Dale Murphy fan).
3. I had a TV in my room with basic cable, so I watched a lot of Braves (and some Cubs) games.

In the mid-90s, I lost interest. Baseball seemed slow. Over time, the steroid scandals pushed me further from the game.

Cut to 2019. I do a fantasy-type contest with two friends (we are a team) where we end up picking 10 different sports all year long in a big contest (300-500 teams). The top teams can wind up winning thousands of dollars. I was tasked with inputting our baseball picks, and one of the teams we'd selected was the Phillies. Bryce Harper had just gotten there, and they were hyped. However, I bungled it, and picked the Nationals for us. They proceeded to start the season 19-31.

Mistakes happen, but this year, our picks in other sports all did really well. My mistake looked likely to cost my friends hundreds of dollars. I felt horrible and started following each Nats game closely--each win mitigating my mistake slightly. Over a long and fun summer, they turned things around and eventually won the Series. My mistake ended up netting my friends and I about $2000 each.

That year got me really into the Nats. I've stuck with them through the rebuild, listening to games on MLB radio while doing chores around the house and watching games when I can. I'm in Texas and don't know any Nats fans here, but I look forward to listening to games while cooking and doing dishes in the evenings.

Whenever I'd go to my grandparents house their was usually a baseball game that would play. He watched the tigers since his father's is from that area. So when the games would come on I would watch it with him and began to enjoy the sport.