The tension and the stillness in the air when you don’t know if the baserunner will hit the bag before the ball comes in. The amazement and disbelief that gives way to wild excitement when a fielder makes a “circus catch.” The suspense that runs throughout a rubber game. The thrills of the game of baseball are evident, but what about the romance? Here are the top 5 reasons why baseball is also the most romantic sport.
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#5 Billy Beane said so in Moneyball.
Brad Pitt’s Billy Beane sums it up in Moneyball when he asks, “How can you not get romantic about baseball?”
Moneyball is about manager Billy Beane who has to assemble a baseball team on a meager budget. He puts together a team of characters who his critics call “flawed” but who eventually clinch the games by just going out there and giving in their best.
Billy Beane defies all conventions and makes winners out of people who everyone else had given up on. In doing so, he embodies romantic love’s true ideal—love follows no rule, but only demands that you show up, always.
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#4 It embodies equality, and we want to believe that everybody can find true love.
Analyze the game and the players, and you can’t fail to notice the egalitarianism. Anyone can play baseball; all you need to do to play well is practice a lot. You can build up strength and speed and improve hand-and-eye coordination with lots of practice.
Take a look at some of the stars of the game: Jonathan Broxton and Prince Fielder look like they survive on a diet of burger, fries, and coke while Willie Keeler looked like just another skinny guy but is still regarded as one of the best bunters in the game.
We all like to think that true love is waiting out there for each one of us regardless of how we look or how much we earn.
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#3 Baseball brought together Jake and Lynn in Major League.
Major League exemplifies all that we love about the game—the thrills, the grind, and eventually, the triumph of the underdog. But what made our hearts flutter was how Tom Berenger’s Jake, the catcher with bad knees but a go-getting attitude, gently and subtly woos Lynn, played by Rene Russo. Jake wins over Lynn and also breaks his team’s losing streak, and we can’t help getting teary-eyed over the vintage charm of Jake’s courtship.
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#2 The movie Bill Durham is the perfect blend of baseball and romance.
Baseball brought together Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Robbins in Bill Durham and they formed an intriguing love triangle. The film is as much about pitching and completing home runs as it is about steamy, sensual romance. And after the movie, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins took their on-screen partnership to real life and commenced a decades-long relationship.
Bill Durham is the ideal date movie to take your beau to if you want to give him or her some ideas.
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#1 It embodies endurance and steady, burning passion—the qualities of great and everlasting love.
Unlike basketball and football, the baseball season runs through a long and grueling series of 162 games. The greatest players have one quality in common: “endurance.” They have to remain motivated throughout the long season and perform consistently.
What do we crave for in love? Certainly not a May-December romance where the passion fizzles out even before you can spell l-o-v-e. We are all for that enduring, everlasting kind of love that burns with a quiet but steady passion.
Baseball is a favorite national pastime in the U.S. The craze for the game is equally palpable whether you watch a bunch of kids practicing in their backyards or two professional teams fighting for their homers at the grounds. We probably sense the romance inherent in the values of the game and in how it is played, and we can’t help but go weak at the knees.
