Curve Ball!!

It started some 2,3 months back.
An idle afternoon, me and my colleague get down talking. She is a baseball fanatic and first base coach for her son's team.
I say, "Teach me baseball. It's kinda hard to follow".
She starts about bases, pitcher, home run etc. After 2 minutes, I lose her.
Then she says, " The best way to learn is to go and watch a game. I'll arrange tickets for a minor league game"
"OK" I say and proceed to tell her about cricket. She gets shocked that it is played over 5 days. I assure her that there is a shorter version too. But I say that it's a game of strategy and the 5 day version is exciting too.
A disbelieving look.
True to her word, she sends a mail to all of us for finding out the number that would be interested in coming to a game.
Families (wherever present) included. Some 10 of us sign-up and including friends and families the number comes to more than 20.

It's a game between our local team, Schaumburg Flyers and some team from Fargo, ND.
That Saturday evening has me going to my first baseball game. I am the only foreigner there in a sea of natives (atleast nobody else there had my skin colour). I get stared at, but nobody says anything. My colleagues ask me to tell them whenever I can't follow the game. The colleague who organized this, deputes her son to me, who is more than eager to clarify my doubts.
I enjoy the atmosphere. It's a massive family outing there in the stadium. Ofcourse, the crowd can't match the boisterousness of Chepauk crowd, or for that matter any cricket ground in India. Anyway, I've only been to Chepauk. But we don't go to stadiums in families. A sea of males and a very few interested females form the crowd in our country.
My friend and her son are very helpful. Sometime into the game, the home team pitcher fails to latch on to the ball hit by the striker and I react involuntarily. She notices that and becomes happy that I am getting the hang of it. Then I get a googly.

She asks me, " Isn't this game interesting?"
"Yeah"
"Isn't this more interesting than cricket?". Right then and there! Everyone around is looking at me expectantly.
I offer a diplomatic laugh, more of a guffaw. I may be brave enough not to let down cricket but I am not going to be make fool-hardy comparisons.
Just a laugh, and no more.
A guy, husband of an ex-colleague offers me a way out saying, " He enjoys this company and crowd". Wholeheartedly, I agree.
Mentally I list out the ways in which baseball comes second to cricket.
First, the fielders, all of them, wear mitts. No such sissy thing in cricket. Ofcourse the wicket keeper needs it as he is catching more of a bullet than a ball.
Second, the fielding positions seem standard, with no great strategy needed.
Third, the probability of bat meeting the ball is less in baseball, given the shape of it.
Fourth there are coaches standing beside the bases to tell the runners to run.
Ofcourse, I can add a few more, but I don't know baseball well enough.

To be fair, I think cricket can take a leaf or two from baseball.
Cheerleaders, for instance. Imagine cheerleaders break into a routine waving their tassels at drinks intervals, when a new batsman walks in, at tea, etc..
:-))

Coming back to the game, the home team loses, and everyone leaves quietly. Three hours of fun, it was, though. Looking forward to see another game of baseball.

P.S.:curve ball or curve-ball (kûrvbôl)
n.
Baseball. Any of several pitches that veer to the left when thrown with the right hand and to the right when thrown with the left hand.
Slang. Something that is unexpected or designed to trick or deceive.