I witnessed my husband disciplining our dogs recently and boy was it nice to see. Of course I never like confrontation or seeing my babies get in trouble, but I like my husband taking his place as the head of our household. He’s really nice usually, but I appreciate that he doesn’t hesitate to exert his dominance whenever necessary. It’s a super affective trait and I’m glad he has it. 

He’s also a fantastic teacher. He’s taught me the ways of Metro Georgia, a deeper love of Georgia football, and the most reliable cars on the market, among many other things over the course of our relationship. One of the most recent (and most surprising) things he’s taught me is to love baseball/softball. 

He has always been a baseball fan. He loves talking about his favorite team (the Los Angeles Dodgers) with his grandfather and has even seen their longest game which lasted easily eight hours. 

I, on the other hand, never enjoyed watching the sport. I always thought it was too slow paced and I didn’t understand the rules. I was confused why the pitcher would throw so many pitches during a sequence and only a few in another sequence. Balls and strikes looked too similar to each other for me to tell the difference. At times the game whizzed by and at others it dragged on slower than a snail. 

During my IntroSports class in college, I had to do play-by-play for two baseball games and that helped teach me the in’s and out’s of the positions, basic rules, and reporting statistics. I made sure to keep that instruction book just in case I needed it going forward since it went so in depth over every single sport you could imagine.

Fast forward to a few years later and I love watching softball and baseball. Kris and I went to about 20 or so UGA softball games this past season and it’s been great getting to see the games in person, be in the environment, learn the players, and experience the nuances of the sport. I’ve enjoyed watching the softball games so much that I think I could officially claim it as my second favorite Georgia sport (behind football, of course). 

Since softball is so similar to baseball, it’s interesting to see the stark differences between college athletes and professional MLB athletes. The number of balls is incredibly higher in softball than it is in baseball. Similarly, the number of strikeouts tends to be higher in baseball. Even the playing fields are two different sizes that impact how the games are played. 

I’m pleasantly surprised that I’ve grown to like softball/baseball so much, but I have to give all the credit to my loving husband. 

Signed, 

Jessica Marie