It’s almost time for peanuts and cracker jacks. America’s pastime is back on Thursday for the 2024 season, and even though many Americans have tuned out of baseball, some USC students are ready for the season to begin.
Austin Enoux said even in another city, he follows the sport.
Austin Enoux: Not in L.A. but I do and for Detroit ... it reminds me like when I was a kid, and we used to go to the baseball game.
Junior journalism major Dylan Luden has played and followed baseball for years. He’s both an Angels and a Mets fan, but he mostly just loves the game.
Dylan Luden: I just love the, you know, like the team aspect of it, where, you know, not one person can really carry the team - it’s the team aspect. You can see it in professional baseball too. Not one person really carries a team. It’s a whole collective unit compared to some of the other sports.
Luden countered the idea that baseball is boring by saying that every sport has slow moments. He likes to watch all the players on the field - there’s always something going on in the game. And in recent years, MLB has reacted to the critiques of the sport.
To make games more watchable on TV, the MLB instituted rules including pitch clocks, shortening games.
Luden: I think after last year, no, just because of you know, the rule changes, I think, got more people into watching baseball. And you can see that, you know, like attendance numbers rose, viewership rose across the board last year, because of the rule changes. They made the game faster.
So what does Luden suggest someone who is on the fence about watching baseball do?
Luden: Supporting your local team would be step number one. And step number two would be to actually go and see a game, because baseball is the cheapest sport in terms of ticket prices. So that’s another thing too, if you want to go watch a game, it’s going to be probably your best bet to save money compared to you know, a basketball game, hockey game and NFL game, just because of how many games are in season, and experiences unlike any other.
Right now, you can get tickets to Dodgers Stadium for as little as $15 and Angels tickets for just $1, if you’re willing to make the drive out to Anaheim.
Opening Day starts at 3:05 p.m. Eastern Time when the Orioles play ball versus the Angels.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Marie Louise Leone.