Ballparks are theatres, and we all play a part

“Every baseball crowd, like every theatre audience, has its own distinctive attitude and atmosphere. You can usually tell as they are coming into the park whether it is going to be a happy, responsive crowd or a dead and sullen one.”
— Bill Veeck

The baseball team owner and impresario Bill Veeck made that comment decades ago, in his colourfully titled memoir Veeck — As In Wreck, which a) answered readers’ questions about how to pronounce his name and b) gave them a hint of what kind of life he led. Veeck died in 1986.

I’ve been to a few major league games in a few cities over the years, and I have to say, the crowd can be the show. Years ago, on a family vacation in San Diego, I got some tickets for an afternoon Padres game for Nick and me while Martha was at a conference. We were seated amongst season ticket holders who all knew each other, and my memories are of their warmth and friendship rather than the game itself.