From the history of the game to kiss-cam and hotdogs. We’ve listed everything you need to know about America’s favourite pastime – a baseball game.
History of the game
You may have heard the story that a young man named Abner Doubleday invented the game known as baseball in Cooperstown, New York, during the summer of 1839.
According to legend, Doubleday laid out the dimensions of a diamond and originated the game of baseball – a distinction that’s made the town a pilgrimage site for baseball lovers and home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The museum’s collection runs the gamut from Joe DiMaggio’s locker and Brooks Robinson’s glove to Babe Ruth’s ‘Called Shot’ bat from the 1932 World Series.
Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball and the first to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
NY Yankees
The New York Yankees are the most famous team, having won more World Series championships than any other Major League baseball team.
The Yankees play from April to October every year with training starting in early Spring and a trip to the home of the Yankees at the Yankee stadium in Bronx is a unique experience.
Soak up the electrifying atmosphere and buy tickets to a game (check out the 2015 schedule here), or do one of the daily hour-long, year round guided tours of the on-site museum, the dugout, press box, clubhouse, field and Monument Park, with plaques commemorating greats like Babe Ruth.
Fan etiquette
There’s a lot of things going on at baseball besides the game itself. At the 7th inning the crowd gets up for the ‘seventh innings stretch’ and belts out ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ so make sure you join in for the popular sing-a-long.
If ‘Kiss Cam’ spots you make sure you go in for the pash, unlike this man who refused to give his date a kiss and she ended up hooking up with the guy in the next seat.
Supersize your food
It’s not all hot dogs and low-alcohol beers a Yankee Stadium. Choose from ribbon fries with applewood smoked bacon, chipotle, and roasted garlic and herb aioli or fried chicken and waffles at the Chicken and Waffle cart. Then wash it down with delicious frozen drinks at the Malibu Rooftop Deck.
Need to knows
-If you’re a New Yorker you love the Yankees, hate the Red Sox – the rivalry between the two teams is often considered to be the greatest rivalry in American sports.
-In the fifth inning of the third game of the 1932 World Series, Baseball legend Babe Ruth allegedly pointed to the centre field bleachers, and proceeded to hit a home run precisely to his indicated spot for the New York Yankees.
-Dandy was the mascot of the New York Yankees between 1979 and 1981. The large pinstriped bird sported a Yankees hat and got his name from the classic American folk song “Yankee Doodle Dandy”.
-Baseball is full of jargon so if you hear ‘homer’, ‘bomb’ or ‘going yard’ these are slang terms referring to the home run. Learn other lingo via the official Baseball site here.