The Intimacy of Baseball

What makes people devote so much of themselves to a sport

From the crack of the bat to screaming my lungs out to the smell of a $17 beer, I love baseball, and I will never stop loving baseball. My idea of a perfect weekend involves eating an overpriced hot dog in a crowded ballpark while cheering on a team of men who won’t ever know who I am — and I’m fine with that.

Personally, I grew up a Chicago Cubs fan, a rite of passage I inherited from my mom. Even though I wasn’t as devoted as I am now, I remember 2016 like it was yesterday. I don’t think a single person the day the Cubs won was a White Sox fan, despite my small town being predominantly South Side supporters. There’s even a picture my friends took of me “praying” at a small shrine dedicated to Anthony Rizzo in the Water Tower Place.

But what really got me deep into the sport was a player: Trea Turner, the shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies. I love the way he plays, even if he isn’t your stereotypical Gold Glove shortstop. He is incredibly fun to watch. I remember asking my friend who he was, and my life was changed that day. 

It’s gotten to the point where everyone who has ever known me will never be able to hear Turner’s name without thinking of me.

I finally got to see Turner in person for the first time in late April. It was a dream come true for me, and I felt my heart racing when I saw him practicing before the game. 

However, there was a two-hour rain delay before the start of the game. I started to think I was bad luck to the teams I loved dearly, no thanks to the fact that five days earlier, I watched the Cubs lose to the Arizona Diamondbacks after a similar rain delay. 

The Cubs won against the Phillies, though, and Turner played like he’s never seen a baseball before. I didn’t know whether to be happy for my hometown team or upset that I had just watched my favorite player lose. I still don’t know how to feel, and this was almost a month ago. 

The Phillies did end up winning the next two games against the Cubs, taking the series. Turner had redeemed himself, and I was stuck thinking about my baseball experiences.

I have been rained on twice,  watched the Cubs lose to their biggest rival, watched my favorite player perform poorly, skipped two Easters, cried watching Moneyball, and I’ve ruined my favorite pair of shoes by standing in a puddle of beer for the whole nine innings.

However, none of these unfortunate experiences outweigh the positive experiences I’ve had.. 

I remember watching Shohei Ohtani (the modern-day Babe Ruth!) hit his first homerun in Wrigley Field. I have seen all my favorite players in real life, a group that includes Turner, Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager.  I’ve seen the Cubs win a World Series in 2016, and I’ve even met Patrick Wisdom outside Wrigley Field while I was on my way to watch the theatrical re-release of Spider-Man!

I have the privilege of talking to other people who love the sport as much as I do: Bree Delio, Justin Agustin and Chris Garcia. Agustin was the one who introduced me to Turner.

Delio is a content creator who posts specifically about baseball, and Agustin and Garcia are two of my closest friends. I asked these three how they initially got into baseball, and everyone gave me a different answer. 

“In high school, I had a boyfriend that passed away … so, for his 17th birthday, right before he passed, I got him tickets to go watch the Chicago Cubs in 2016, which obviously we didn’t know they were going to win a World Series that year,” Delio said. “But that game, it was my first time going where I could remember it.”

Delio also mentioned a beaded necklace that he bought for her before the game. The necklace has “Go Cubs” spelled in square letter beads surrounded by the team’s colors — red and blue. 

“I’ve always kept the necklace. Obviously, since he passed away, I was always like, ‘Okay, one day I’m gonna get on the field, I’m gonna make this happen, and I’m gonna bring the necklace with me,’” Delio said. “That actually happened recently. I brought the necklace, I got a picture with it. I was like, ‘I finally did it!’” 

Justin Agustin’s love for the game started when he was young.

“I was born and raised around Wrigley Field for the first years of my life, so the atmosphere of baseball surrounded me from an early age,” Agustin said. 

However, what I didn’t know was that the absence of cable also played a key role in his interest. WGN was one of the only channels Agustin had access to, so Cubs baseball had a huge influence on his entertainment as a child. 

Chris Garcia attributes his love to his family and a specific player, Derek Jeter. When Jeter, arguably the greatest shortstop of all time, was retiring, Garcia attended a White Sox-Yankees game in Rate Field. 

“I kind of just started to love it after that, after Jeter was gone, unfortunately. But Jeter got me to care about the Yankees pretty consistently,” Garcia said. “It was really my family and Derek Jeter who connected the bridge for me.”

Back to Turner, I would say that finally seeing him is my most cherished baseball memory, even if he didn’t play his best. I had supported him through that wretched 2023 season when he struggled for most of the year. I cried tears of joy when he finally broke the slump in early August. 

Finally being able to support the player so close to my heart in person was a surreal feeling. I could see the concentration on his face, and I could scream his name and cheer for him the way I would’ve loved to during his 2023 slump. 

Delio’s favorite memory made her feel a similar way. She explained to me that last year she was struggling emotionally and went to go see the White Sox play the Cubs in Wrigley Field. During the game she saw signs she believes were sent by her boyfriend who passed away. 

“I look down, and Jake Arrieta is throwing out the first pitch,” Delio said. “His favorite player on the Cubs was Jake Arrieta. It was the first time he ever threw a pitch out of Wrigley Field since he had last played with us, so that was just crazy to me. 

“There was a walk off that day, and Patrick Wisdom, number 16, which was my boyfriend that passed away’s number, he hit the game-tying home run. I was like, this is the weirdest coincidence in the world. It’s just little stuff like that I would say I absolutely adore. I always love finding little things that make me feel like I’m still on the right path.”

Agustin’s favorite memory involves the 2016 Cubs World Series win. He was outside the stadium the night the Cubs won. 

“Being outside the stadium was a surreal feeling full of joy and relief … That moment was the culmination of years of hope, heartbreak, and unwavering love and loyalty,” Agustin said. “It wasn’t just a win, it was a lifelong dream come true.”

Agustin also joked about the people in his high school who hopped on the Cubs trend after they had won, saying that when Lane Tech was playing “Go Cubs Go” in the hallways the next morning, people he knew that were bandwagoning were wearing Cubs gear; this is something I also noticed in my small town filled with White Sox fans. 

Garcia told me a story about a game he watched in a cornfield. Cornfields are usually boring or scary in my opinion, but this cornfield is from Field of Dreams — another baseball movie I cried while watching. In the movie, Kevin Costner plays baseball with the ghost of his father and other famous players. 

Unfortunately, the Yankees lost that Field of Dreams game that Garcia saw. 

“At the time, I thought it ruined the whole game for me because I hate to see my team lose. Especially on a walk-off, and especially to the White Sox. But you can step back from that for a second. It’s just one of the best experiences in my life,” Garcia said. 

A notable part of his story was when he recalled a home run that Giancarlo Stanton hit. He told the story in awe, almost like he was still there witnessing the home run live. 

“It’s dead silent because we’re waiting to see the ball go out. The ball clears the stands, obviously, but you can hear a little whoosh as it hits the corn stalks. That was so cool. So you hear that, and then the stadium explodes. That’s easily the best memory I have of baseball. Nothing touches that,” Garcia said. 

Finally, I asked the three what they love about baseball overall.

“I just think it’s the perfect game,” Garcia said. “It’s so intricate and complicated, yet it works so seamlessly… it’s a perfectly crafted game to me.”

But Garcia said something else later on, after telling me stories of his grandma meeting Lou Gehrig and Jackie Robinson in a supermarket and on the subway. 

“To me, baseball’s a more intimate sport anyways.”

And I think that’s what it’s all about. All these stories and moments that hold special places in people’s hearts have one thing in common: baseball. 

Baseball is intimate, whether it’s watching your team break a 108-year curse from outside the stadium, sitting in an Iowa cornfield just to watch your team lose on a walk-off or bringing a necklace onto the field.

At that moment, you’re surrounded by other people who you have most likely never met before in your entire life, but you all have something in common. You are all cheering on a group of men who won’t ever know who you are while surrounded by the smell of an expensive beer and hot dog, and there’s something so special about that.

Header photo by Gabriella Burkhead