The World of Baseball

When my boss first told me that I was going to be working at Citi Field, I did not know what to think. I had never had an interest in sports and had never even seen the inside of a stadium. My coworkers who had worked the stand there before warned me that it was pretty boring. However, as the start of the season approached, I felt myself growing more and more excited. I started tuning in to all the talk of baseball, whether in school or on the news, and wanted to experience this sport that so many people seemed so passionate about.

The first few days at the stadium were a blur to me. I was introduced to many new people, intimidating men dressed in suits and my supervisors in their green uniforms. There were complicated cash registers to get used to and long forms to fill out at the end of every game and food prices to remember. However, after the first home stand, I had really settled in and started to feel comfortable in my new job. The most interesting part of working at Citi Field was the customers. I would see the same faces all the time. There was the young guy who would come every Tuesday and Thursday, grinning as I would go prepare his usual turkey sandwich exactly the way he liked it. There was another man who would be there every Wednesday and announce his presence each time by shouting to me, “Let me see the brightest smile in the stadium!” There was the elderly woman I would see almost everyday, buying a salad and going off to sit on a bench alone. What all these people had in common was their intense love for baseball. One of my teachers once told me that sports are like a religion, and that is the way that many people seemed to treat the Mets games, something sacred reserved for a certain day of the week.

To be honest, I still don’t have a great interest in sports. I still do not know any baseball terms or players, despite having watched the games a countless number of times. However, I do have a greater respect for sports fans and their passion. Though I no longer work at Citi Field, I have returned a few times, just for that uplifting atmosphere of excitement that you cannot find anywhere but at a sports stadium.