Balls?

Last night, I went to see the Phillies play the Nationals, and this time there were no rain delays. The Phillies won (surprise!), and there were plenty of fellow fans, many of whom I suspect were from Jersey, to cheer them on. My seats, however, were with friends from work, that is, guys from Montélimar and Toulouse.



I encouraged them to complement their first baseball game viewing with some overpriced beer and hot dogs (next time, a half smoke). More importantly I had to explain all of the rules of baseball to them, in French (except stuff like "fly ball" and "RBI"). It was an interesting experience on two levels. First, I realized that I was explaining all the règles du jeu without really thinking about it--that is, I felt fluent. Moreover, I kept thinking how it felt good that I, a 20-something female, was explaining the ins and outs of a sport to a couple of 20-something males.

One of them followed pretty well because he knew a little bit about cricket. He asked a lot of questions, and I answered pretty much every one. It made me think back to when I was a golf caddie, and, not any more petite than I am now, no one asked for my opinion. There were a lot of other issues, such as people asking "Can you carry that [bag]?", but I didn't mind being mum on putting advice because I didn't really have any to dispense. I could carry clubs, check yardage, and banter, but I've never been much of a golfer. As someone who played softball for years and loved the lumbering old Vet, though, I was happy to spout off about strikes, errors, force outs, etc. Dontyouevah is also available to advise on football and basketball. No good on hockey or curling.

"Fascinating" photo from my Flickr.