April 1st, 2007

Baseball, much more than the theater, has a democratic audience.

At the game, I feel free and talk up the guy in the seat next to me wihtout thinking twice and the row before me; we swap stats, differ on Piazza as an A, boo equally hard at Bonds' homerun in the first. Chat about pre-season stats and possible trades.

Racial and econimic factors dictate that we most likely would never ever talk to each other on the BART, as that would undermine another set of recognized rules that everyone seems to inherently understand and abide by. The idea that we could be more than ballbark friends (assuming we each repeatedly showed up at the same games in the same seats) is unlikely.

In this way, baseball is an amazing democratic institution.

Oakland 8
San Francisco 5