People who know me know I watch a lot of baseball games. Lately I have been lucky enough to be able to go to a couple of games in person. In addition to enjoying baseball I also get to meet some new people.
We are all God’s children and he loves each of us. My experience has shown me how unique people can be despite having a common interest. I want to high three completely different fans I ran into recently enjoying the national pastime. Each of people I highlight chose to go to the game but the diversity of the crowd provides a great life lesson.
Fan #1. I first met this fan was when she required everybody in her row, including me, to stand up to let her by. We she got to the end of the row she stopped right in front of me and bought her granddaughter Cotton Candy. She had flagged the vendor down in typical stadium fashion but instead of following the normal custom of handing her money down the row while the Cotton Candy was handed down in the reserve direction she walked both items down the row.
Odd but as the game worn on you could tell she didn’t go to a lot games. But despite not knowing all the ballpark customs she appeared to have a great time.
Fan #2. This is really a group of fans. This group of millennials sit near me and also bought concessions except they went to the hallway for each of the items. Several times. I never got up and down so much in my entire life. Some the group came about 3 innings late and other left about 5 innings early. They sat backwards in their seats at times to talk to the people behind them. For this group of 9 it seemed to only be a social event. When Mike, my son, pointed out how it seemed they viewed the game as a social outing I said “yeah I get the feeling they are just looking at the games as a bar with a $20 cover charge.”
Like fan #1 they appeared to have a great time and didn’t bother me in the least (well OK the one guy could have used a hair wash).
Fan #3. My favorite fan. I didn’t notice him until my son pointed out how “MLB needs more people like him.” He was a father of three who in addition to his children had what appeared to be his wife and mother-in-law with him at the game. His team was losing but in the bottom of the ninth he put on his rally hat and cheered with all his heart. His team was down by 5 when the inning started but as they tried to come back he got more and more energy.
His team ended up losing by 2 runs but Fan #3 left the game with a smile on his face.
He was never annoying. He gave out positive encouragement to his family to cheer on the home team. Even looked at my son and said, “hey Boston,” Mike was wearing a Red Sox hat, “it’s possible, start cheering.” All while holding a two-year-old. I told Mike, “he is making sure his youngster will also be a big fan.” It warmed my heart.
This family also appeared to be having a great time.
Seeing these three types of fans all enjoying the game I love in 3 unique ways all different from me made me appreciate diversity. These fans were from different generations, nationalities, and social class. But it wasn’t just those typical ways of thinking about diversity that made me appreciate them. It was the different approaches they took to the situation.
They gave me quite the life lesson in how to look at things from angles besides my own.
