Men Are Different From Women - If You're a Man, Play Baseball

I just finished reading an article that serendipitously was in my news feed about how men and women are different at making and interacting with friends. Basically, a researcher in England found that old men who volunteered together barely spoke to each other but were able to have important relationships with other men. The author compared it to men hanging out at the pub and then returning home with no information about the lives of his friends for his wife to learn. Sometimes, guys just want to hang out with other guys. Maybe it's watching a game with others who know the rules (or won't talk about how cute the uniforms are). Maybe it's working on classic cars. Maybe it's planting flowers or painting walls at church. Or maybe, it's returning to your youth and playing some baseball.

It takes some effort for men to get away from the family and do whatever, so it's obviously easier to just head out to the patio, yard, or garage. But when you're in the garage, you're still within whineshot, even if you crank the Nirvana up. 

If you live in the Jacksonville area, are over 40, and want to get the heck out of the house somewhere other than to Fernandina Beach to go shopping for home decor, then consider playing baseball. Even if you weren't great at it back in the day. Most of those guys are 300 pounds and dealing with real health issues. If you at least played high school baseball and aren't totally falling apart, you probably can play in an over-40 baseball league.

If you are from the East Coast, you'll feel right at home because I think half of each team I've been on in Jacksonville included guys from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. In fact, I'd like to issue a challenge to Flogrown men to join as well. I just saw Fred Durst in a recent movie wearing his iconic red baseball cap, so there's a local who ought to play. 

It doesn't cost a whole lot to play. Like $300 should get you by, which is what that new grill or lawn mower would cost, and you can wait another year on those. Sure, there's a chance you can sell your insurance policies to some of the guys, but it's not really about business connections or intimate friendships. It's about doing something you enjoy alongside other guys who also enjoy it, without the awkwardness of being at a gentlemen's club or cock fight. As a writer, I can appreciate you wanting to join a poetry Meetup, but then your wife would want to join. Baseball is so skill-specific and boring that she won't want to try to play or watch, at least not too often. 

If you're interested in being able to say, "I'd love to go out to Panera and then the art store with you, Honey, but I have baseball for the next four hours," then joining a baseball league is probably for you. And it's not like we don't actually talk to each other. The point is you don't really have to. No one will judge you if you're kind of quiet, if you swear too much, or if you don't really want to talk about your feelings.