Switching gears

The time has come to switch gears at In the game. The World Cup is behind us, and some attention can now be paid to the rest of the wide world of sports.

One sport you'll be hearing a lot about from me in the months to come is baseball. Now, I know a lot of people (especially non-sports fans) think that baseball is slow and boring. I used to be one of those people, so I understand.

But then I met my husband - a baseball fanatic - and realized that I could either try to learn to appreciate (or at least tolerate) America's pastime, or fight about it for the rest of my life. And along the way to tolerance something strange happened - I actually became a big fan of the game myself. I even happily went to 2 baseball games on my honeymoon in California last year.

Baseball is a misunderstood sport. My theory is that because it is so complicated, people have trouble relating to it. Soccer and hockey are easy - take round(ish) object, put in net. But a million things can happen on every play in baseball, and there are more rules and exceptions than most casual fans will ever know.

So I'll be sharing some of the joys of baseball with you throughout the summer - the drama, the history, the oddities and the characters that make the game great. Though you may not discover a love of the game like I did, hopefully you will start to understand why millions of people around the world look forward to seeing the boys of summer return each and every year.