I can across a wonderful description of baseball in a book which, otherwise, I didn’t like. The book is “The Gordion Knot,” by Bernhard Schlink, a German author. The book finds a German citizen coming to America in search of a former girlfriend. At one point he goes to a game at Yankee stadium. He’d never seen a baseball game before. Here is how Schlink describes the experience.

“The pitcher throws the ball to the catcher, and the batter has to try to hit the flying ball with his bat and drive it as far away as possible, while he runs to a certain point before the ball is thrown there and caught by someone. The game keeps stopping, the players change their roles, and balls are thrown and caught by the players in the team as if for practice or fun. The fans root for their team, boo, clap, and howl, but don’t become rowdy, don’t smash things, or beat people up. Hot dogs, peanuts, and beer are sold.”

I suspect that Schlink didn’t know anything about baseball until he attended a game as part of his research for the book. What he wrote above is pretty much what he observed. It’s what he wrote down in his notebook.

Schlink forgot to mention the fact that the baseball players wear pajamas. I have trouble respecting athletes who play their sport in pajamas.