As I mentioned on Wednesday, I am trying out some theme days for my blog.  Today, I am excited for my first Fun-in-the-Sun Friday! 🙂

I have made no secret of the fact that I hate winter.  I am a spring and summer girl through and through.  Last week, I mentioned that my two favorite things about the warmer weather of spring and summer are beaches and baseball. (I bet you would have never guessed the first one from looking at my site!) 😉

Spring Training is well under way in the warmer climates, something that I have been looking forward to since October.  🙂  Someone asked me a few days ago if I had always been a baseball fan.  In some ways, I have. In others, not so much.

I have always liked the Phillies, but I haven’t always been an avid baseball fan. I followed the team, but I didn’t watch a lot of televised games.  Still, even before my baseball craze took over, I always loved going to the games.

I love pretty much everything about live professional baseball games:

• The game and being able to see the determination and concentration on the players faces (Let’s be honest, the tight pants aren’t all bad, either. 😉 )
• The passion of the fans (other than the obnoxious few).  I love watching them, making up little stories about their lives (sometimes the writer in me just can’t be silenced). 😉
• The indulgent (unhealthy) food
• The smell of the fresh-cut grass
• The heat of the sun on my face
• The joy on kids faces when a player tosses them a ball

The list goes on and on. 🙂 But, as much as I loved going to baseball games, I rarely got to more than one game every year or two until, about five years ago, Coca-Cola Park, a brand-new stadium, was built less than 5 miles from my house.  It was to be the home of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the new Triple-A affiliate for the Philadelphia Philles.  With the games so close, we started going fairly regularly.

At first, I became more of a Pigs’ fan than a Phillies fan.  Then I noticed that players that I regularly rooted for we making their way up to the Phillies.  Occasionally, a Phillies player would come to rehab at Coca-Cola Park.  Suddenly, I found myself watching Phillies games on television whenever they were available. (A disagreement between Comcast and DirecTV means a lot of the games are blacked out in our area for DirecTV customers, even though we are only an hour from Philly.)

Over the first two seasons the Iron Pigs were in this area we found ourselves going to more and more games.  Soon, I was watching Red Sox games on TV with my husband (who has always been a huge baseball fan).  Before long, I started watching any game that was on–regardless of team.

So, to answer the original question, I have always liked baseball, but it is only in recent years that I could tell you the number of days until spring training started, or the first preseason game (1, unless you count the game against Florida State the Phillies played on Wednesday), or until Opening Day (34 for both the Phillies and the  Pigs–and yes, I already have my Pigs tickets), or the number of days until the first game of my 18-game season ticket plan (43).

Are you a baseball fan?  What is your favorite team?  Have you been a fan as long as you can remember, or did something else get you interested?  For those of you who are not baseball fans, what is your favorite sport?

The Dancing Dirt Dudes have added another thing
to love about baseball in the Leigh Valley 😀