This Sporting Life

Welcome, sporting reader, as I describe a couple of contrasting sport(s) experiences here in the US. The last couple of weekends, we've wandered down to Stanford (still difficult to believe there's a world-class university on the doorstep here; I suppose it's a bit like living in Oxford in some ways) to catch a contrasting pair of fixtures: first, the men playing baseball, then, the women playing softball.

And very much contrasting they were. The baseball is a bit like an afternoon at the cricket: it's a fairly social atmosphere, with people dropping in and out at will, and neighbours catching up with each other. There's also plenty going on to distract you from the tedious business of the game itself: the distribution of mini-balls on a Stanford strike-out, the competition for a gift card for the local Gott's Roadside restaurant for guessing the name of the first run scorer, the t-shirt toss (free t-shirts for the kids), and Cardinal Confidential: sticking a fan on top of the stand and asking them lots of hard questions about the team. Finally, of course, there's the 7th Inning Stretch (which is just a baseball 'thing') with the ritualized playing of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".

In the game itself, we sat with the home fans and Stanford ran out fairly easy winners, at 7-1.

Then we have the softball.

Well that's a completely different kettle of fish: it's a cross between a girl guide's camp, and a fight between opposing hen nights outside a nightclub on a Saturday night. There's a lot of singing and chanting from the two dugouts, giving it that feeling of a guide camp. However, it really seems like this is serious business, especially if the fans are to be believed: we sat with the away fans, who seemed particularly engaged and keen to win. The chance of a strikeout was accompanied by shouts of "Come on Chi; GET 'ER!" and other such pleasantries. You got the feeling that after another couple of shandies, this could have turned nasty.

Stanford's opposition were from Utah, and appeared to be wearing cast-off Arsenal shirts:

In a game dominated by the DEEE-fence, Stanford squeaked home with a 1-0 victory. We made a run for it before the Utah fans trashed the place.

Of course, this was early Spring in California, so despite taking some precautions, I still managed to get mildly sunburnt. It's a trial, reader, it really is.