Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Help!!! Professors - Student Research Assistants bonding time.
The powers to be at my institution decided that it would be a good idea if all the professors who have a student research assistant this summer, and the students themselves spend sometime socializing together. I guess it's not a bad idea in itself, although it sounds rather random to me.
Now, what's the plan? A get together somewhere on campus, with snacks included? Nope. Going to the Dean's house for pizza? Think again. The bonding experience is: the Dean got us all tickets for a local baseball game in two weeks!!!
I've been to the stadium, and it's beautiful...if you get good seats and it's not miserably hot. I even enjoy going to bars and watching games while drinking some fabulous Midwestern beer. The local team has an incredible propensity to collapse in the last inning or in OT, which makes it even more dramatic. So what's the problem, you may be asking?
In all my years living in the US, I've never learnt baseball rules. Not even close. And if this is supposed to be some bonding moment, I fear I will feel either terribly dumb, or as an outcast. So my question is: can you provide links to any sites where the basic rules of baseball are explained? Nothing complicated, just understanding who gets to pitch and when. Also, can you think of any phrase or topic of conversation that will make me look less dumb? I can always resort to explaining the most obscure rules of soccer (which I do know), but that sounds a little extreme.
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http://baseball.about.com/od/thebasics/a/basebasicrules.htm
ReplyDeleteOh, and also . . . if the dean is requiring people to show up, you most certainly won't be the only person there without a strong interest in or knowledge of baseball. I'd admit upfront that I don't know much about it. If you look even halfway interested, other people there will probably leap at the chance to help you out by explaining the rules.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as someone from SA, you're sort of expected to not know much about baseball. So that gives you an easy topic of conversation to ask about something happening.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that most of the women and some of the men really won't be big into baseball, so you can talk about all sorts of other things.
Baseball is easy-- 9 innings. Each team gets a chance to bat in each inning. Three outs and they switch. When a batter is up, a few things can happen:
ReplyDelete1) A strike: Pitcher throws the ball in the strike zone, the batter does not hit it, STRIKE. Three strikes = 1 out.
2) A foul: Batter hits the ball but sends it out of bounds. Each foul counts as a strike for up to two strikes.
3) A ball: Pitcher throws the ball out of the strike zone making it a non-hittable ball. Four balls and the batter gets a Walk, he walks to first base.
4) A hit: Batter connects with ball and it stays in bounds. If it goes over the wall, it's a home run.
But really my experience has been everyone is just talking crap and sort of watching the game. Just jump and cheer when everyone else does and you'll be good. LOL
My best piece of advice is to just try and watch a game on TV and listen to the commentators. You'll catch it REALLY fast.
Thanks to all of you! I'm sure it will be fun. And come to think about it, it actually is a better idea than a random gathering with people you don't know.
ReplyDeleteHahaha! This sounds like a hilarious idea -- explaining the most obscure rules of soccer to someone! ;) I've never been to a baseball game, but thanks to the red sox (I lived in MA for 8 years & started rooting for the sox & the pats) I learned at least the basics of baseball & watched a few world series final games. Now... don't ask me about football, I know NOTHING about it, NOTHING at all!
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