Baseball and Rice
I actually had fun watching baseball today. And it was ON TV, not even live. What happened was that I was eating sushi and the Kura Sushi Revolving Sushi Bar. I was eating alone because I was just there to have some sushi and bring some home to my parents. And I just randomly picked a comfortable spot next to this elderly couple and they seemed nice so I sat by them. But what was interesting is that I ended up smack in front of the Flat Screen TV. Usually I despise TV’s in restaurants and places like Gas Stations. But I was enjoying myself watch the sushi revolve and so I had nothing better to do than look at the TV. There was a baseball game on the TV. I can’t remember what teams were playing. But one of the players was really dirty. I deduced that he had tried to slide into home base or maybe he was looking for his chewing tobacco in the dirt. Regardless, it made the game more exciting seeing someone with dirt all over him. Then the game focused on the pitcher. This was cool because most of the time when I go to Baseball game in person I seem to look at everybody all over the field. But on TV you are pretty much forced to look at the pitcher. One cool thing was that the catcher was giving intricate and amusing hand signals to the pitcher, in his groin area. I knew catchers did this but the actual signals eluded me.
At first I thought the hand signals were for specific types of pitches. But after a while I got the idea that the signals were just for fun and to encourage the pitcher. At one type the catcher gave a signal WITH JAZZ HANDS. The whole thing was fun. Another entertaining thing was trying to figure out which comes first in the stats, “BALLS” or “STRIKES?” It only took me a minute or so to figure out which one was which because the one number got up to three and the guy was still batting. Don’t ask me which one comes first now because I forgot already.
One thing that I noticed was that neither team seemed very enthusiastic. I know this isn’t Pro Wrestling or anything but a little more excitement might have made the whole game more entertaining. One guy struck out and kind of just walked away like, “Well there you go,” sort of attitude. The most energy I noticed on the faces of players was when a player was on a base trying to steal another base. That really got my attention. One dude looked like he was trying to catch an early bus on a rainy day in San Francisco. Man he ran fast.
The whole experience made me change my opinion of TV’s in restaurants. Maybe these TV’s have a function to entertain people, especially if they are dining alone. But one thing that I realized was that the TV definitely gave me something to do, so I didn’t need to initiate a conversation with any of my neighbors to have a pleasant time. I just talked to my servers from time to time and watched baseball. And when I was bored of that or it was a commercial, I just watched the Sushi travel like little sailboats on winding river. So maybe all this visual entertainment comes at the expense of social interaction.
Overall, I’d say that the TV and Baseball game at the restaurant was more of a guilty pleasure. They detract from the purity of the place, yet at the same time make the environment a little more casual and light.
I love experiences that challenge or contradict opinions that I have. There is something noteworthy anytime one gets a chance to reevaluate his or her behavior. Does this mean I’m going to seek out places that have TV’s? Not necessarily. But I think I will be a little slower to judge whenever a restaurant decides to have a TV in their bar area.
-Tyler