How I got into baseball might be of interest to other noobs

I see a lot of people asking how to pick a team or how to get into baseball so I thought I’d share my experience.

I got into baseball around May last year. Shortly after finally getting around to watching Moneyball, I turned on Disney+ and decided to check out ESPN, which had been recently added to the service.

I noticed that a baseball game was playing and decided to check it out for a few minutes. I got engrossed in it, quite unexpectedly, and the rest is history.

How I chose my team

The first game I saw was a Cardinals game. I’ve always liked the cardinal, as in the bird, so I chose the Cards as my team based on that.

Coming from a football (soccer) background, I did do some research to see if any team reflected my sociopolitical beliefs, but from what I can tell, US sports teams don’t reflect religion/politics, etc., like football teams do, so I stuck with the Cards.

That said, given I didn’t grow up with a particular team, I’m happy to take an interest in other teams if they have players I like - Shohei at the Dodgers, Harper at the Phillies, Elly de la Cruz at the Reds, etc.

How I watch games

During the baseball season, ESPN shows one live game per day on the Disney+ app, so that’s how I watch.

Choosing the Cardinals wasn’t a good move from the perspective of choosing a team I can watch live on a regular basis, as ESPN seems to favour the Dodgers, Yankees and Red Sox, but I’m happy to watch anything!

YouTube has also been a great resource due to the volume of daily highlights that the MLB channel makes available. There are also lots of classic games available to watch and video essays that examine different facets of baseball.

Learning about the game

I’ve learned about the game in a number of ways. Firstly, I’ve watched quite a few games and listened to the commentary.

Secondly, I’ve listened to podcasts. There are plenty out there, but I highly recommend Effectively Wild.

Thirdly, I’ve read some books. One I particularly recommend is The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn. It focuses on the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s before they moved to LA. Apart from being quite informative about the sport, it’s also a decent social history of America and the prose is excellent.

I also read The Dummies Guide to Baseball to get up to speed on the rules, basic tactics, etc.

Finally, I got MLB the Show 25 for the PS5. That’s the closest I’ll come to ‘playing’ baseball as it isn’t particularly popular in my country, and playing a sport, even on a video game, is a good way to pick up the rules.

Anyway, I hope this is of interest to newer noobs than I. I’m no expert and still have a lot to learn, but I thought my experience might serve as a starting guide for others.

Happy to answer questions if anyone has any.