I thought this was so spot on I had to post it:

“People from foreign non-baseball countries often have trouble understanding why baseball is America’s pastime. The real reason why baseball is so important to America is because every baseball game is surreal and nostalgic.

Nothing can beat the moment when you walk in the ballpark and you’re greeted by the fresh aroma of the peanuts, hot dogs, and freshly cut grass. Then, once you get to your seat, and you take your first glimpse at the field, memories fill your head. Memories of your youth and childhood, and how innocent it all seemed. When you look out over the field, you remember how badly you wanted to be one of those players.

Then as you sit under the sun (hopefully), the game begins. You see how much the players care about their jobs, but how they still realize how lucky they are to be playing a game. The game gets more exciting inning by inning, and when it finally ends, nobody ever says they just wasted three hours.

Every time you return to the ballpark, it truly is like taking a vacation from your hectic life. In the middle of your city, you can take a break with 30,000 other people, to enjoy a simple, but yet so complicated, game. The players display the skills that they’ve spent their whole lives developing.  These huge patches of bright green, meticulously maintained grass, in our concrete monsters of cities, is what keeps us coming back.

Why people need to keep coming to baseball games is best summarized by Terrence Mann in, “The Field Of Dreams,” when he said,

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”

It is so beautiful in this rugged world, that we still have a place where we can go to watch grown men play the game we all love. Baseball is far from a simple game, but anyone that’s been able to attend a game can see why we love it. Baseball is, and always will be, forever.”

via How Important Is Attending a Baseball Game in Person? | MLB Reports.