Why Baseball?

Why Baseball?

It’s a simple question – only two words – but it becomes more complex as you read over it.

Why do we love this perfectly crazy sport? Why do people dedicate their entire summers in the name of fastballs and homeruns? Why do people drive hours just to catch a glimpse of live, professional action?

“It’s baseball because, well, it’s always been baseball” says Murray Bell, an Account Executive at the Aces. “My earliest memory is positioning my Red Sox playing cards in a particular way during their comeback against the Yankees in 2004 because I thought I was the reason they were winning”, he laughed. “I still do a little bit”. There’s just something about baseball. An allure to it. Something that turns the answer to a two-word question into a long-winded, story driven, nostalgic nod to our experiences. One might even say a calling.

“Even though I work in baseball, I’m really a fan first” says Olivia Reese, a Corporate Partnership Coordinator on our team. “I grew up in St. Louis and went to college out there. Any chance I had, I was at Cardinals games. I interned for the Blues a few years ago, and even though I was working in sports and surrounded by that world, I spent any free time I had with a different sport (baseball)”. Baseball has a way of connecting us to something larger than ourselves. The Aces offer this to the Reno community in the same way the Red Sox offer the connection to Boston, or the Cardinals to St. Louis. It’s amazing how things that are so different and unique can be so similar at their core.

“There’s just an energy in a baseball stadium that is intoxicating” says Meadow Eisenstein, a Promo Team member from last season. “My job was to interact with fans and run games on the field in between innings for the kids at the game. You’d think that that could get old after 60+ games, but honestly, it was the atmosphere that kept me going through our season because I just loved the feel of fans being here so much”. There really is something special about attending a baseball game. Many fans say that the experience in a ballpark is totally different than watching a game on television, and most feel it is due mostly to the “life” that exists in the air of the environment. From the moment you park, cross through the turnstiles, grab a bite to eat, or find your seat/section, you feel this inexplicable feeling of “home”.

2020 was the first time I was introduced to Greater Nevada Field. I was scheduled to interview for an internship and had no idea what to expect. As soon as my eyes caught a glimpse, I fell in love with the stadium. The design of the building, the thousands of empty seats waiting to be filled, and the field itself all had the aforementioned “feel” that instantly put me in a state of disbelief that I could potentially be working here. That same disbelief of working at a baseball stadium hasn’t faded all that much since the first day, and it was only amplified on Opening Day of the 2021 season, the first live game I got to witness at Greater Nevada Field. It was originally baseball for me because it is what fell into my lap, but it’s baseball for me now because I couldn’t envision it being anything else anymore.

That sentiment seems to be the same in talking to other people in the building. Wherever they came from, whether a different sport, different department, or different field entirely, baseball has a way of pulling you in and not letting you go. As we move ever closer to another season of Aces baseball, it’s natural to feel the anticipation of Opening Day on the horizon.

“Why Baseball?”. No, no, no. The real question is “How could it not be baseball?”