Celebrating baseball?

April 15, 2017 8:32 AM

I want to make the start of baseball season a 'holiday' for my son and celebrate it every year like a real holiday. I'd love some ideas for what 'traditions' this fake holiday should have.

Context: My husbans, who recently passed away, was a huge baseball fan, as are the grandfathers. He had series of about 25 collectible baseball figures which are in a display case and I was going to box them up and give one to the baby every year.

Then I was reading a great book about starting family traditions with your kids and creating a your-family-only holiday was one of the ideas. I love this concept so much. And it's right around the time of my husband's birthday, which I think will be hard for his parents to celebrate. This will be a happier way to remember him at that time of year.

So, what do we do on baseball day? Obviously, we wear the team clothes. And he gets one of the guys to put in the display case. I also have a baseball jersey for our team with our last name on the back. I think I can present that to him in some sort of rite of passage ceremony when he's old enough to go to his first home opener live. But what else? Does he get to miss school and we go somewhere? And do what? Do we eat only ballpark foods? Maybe go downtown and buy the annual book?

I'm not as knowledgable about baseball and I'm looking for ideas that would be fun for a little kid (baby is six months old right now) but can grow with him too. I'd really like teenaged Ficbaby to still look forward to celebrating baseball day with me every year.

posted by ficbot to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (11 answers total)

Of course he gets to miss school for such an important holiday! A coworker of mine has very fond memories of when he and his mom skipped school and work every year for the first game of the season, just the two of them.
posted by easily confused at 8:48 AM on April 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Missing school for baseball is great. My family had season tickets when I was a kid and I missed a day of school once a month for day games in grades 2-5 (or until the strike and we gave up the tickets).

Celebrating​ when pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training is also a thing. It's like the start of Advent.
posted by kendrak at 8:59 AM on April 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

When he's old enough to get the concept you could write a new verse for "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" together every year and eventually have an epic poem.

You could also maybe do something where you invent hand signals to communicate with each other in the manner of managers sending signals to a pitcher. Add a new "phrase" every year. By the time he's in middle school you could go to a game and communicate across distance such things as "Do you want anything from the snack bar?" "Yes, I'd like a hot dog but no ketchup" using baseball-style hand jive.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 9:00 AM on April 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

To add to kendrak's idea, hang a mitt on your front door, like a Christmas wreath, to celebrate the season.
posted by oflinkey at 9:07 AM on April 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Take a look at this list of all of the ballparks (and related teams) in the U.S. and Canada.

In the League/Level column, look for MLB or AAA. The MLB is the professional league (also called the majors) and AAA is the level just below that. After AAA, comes AA, then there's A. Anything that says "Spring training" means they'll only be there for the month of March.

If there's a team near you, part of your tradition should be to go to the opening-day home game for that team. When you go, buy some fun food, hang out for a while. When he's little, you don't have to stay for the whole game. Minor league games can be a lot of fun, so don't worry if that's the only option available to you.

If you're looking for ways to keep him interested in baseball beyond opening day, you could start turning on the baseball game on the radio pretty regularly. It's a bit less invasive than the tv, and baseball is one of the few sports that's really fun to listen to on the radio.
posted by colfax at 12:44 PM on April 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

FOR SURE skip school for opening day. That is a WONDERFUL tradition that I wish my parents had thought to do for me. If it seems in keeping with his personality, you or one of his grandparents could also teach him how to keep score, which is a fun and nerdy thing to do that's very baseball-centric. (I love love baseball but do not know how to keep score and I love seeing people doing it at games.)

The other nice thing about baseball is it's on the TV/radio all the time, so it can really be part of the fabric of your lives.

I'm so sorry for the loss of your husband. I think this is a beautiful and fun way to keep his memory alive, and to create great new ones with your sweet kid.
posted by Countess Sandwich at 2:38 PM on April 15, 2017

You didn't say how old your son is now, and that would be useful. Also, what was your husband's favorite team and who were his all-time favorite players?

Anyways, one of the best things you could do, in my opinion, is learn about the game yourself. Just watch it on TV and you will start to pick things up. "Watching Baseball Smarter" by Zack Hample, despite the fact that the guy himself is a putz, is a very useful and easily understandable guide to the game. If you find that you don't enjoy watching, that is fine too, though. But it would and will be fun to watch games with him.
posted by old_growler at 3:54 PM on April 15, 2017

A friend has the same dinner with his family (2 small kids) on opening day every year - hot dogs, popcorn, and cracker jack and I always thought that was a wonderful tradition.
You could add ice cream or anything your local park offers as add ons.
posted by bowmaniac at 4:23 PM on April 15, 2017

A few thoughts, borrowing from other holidays:

- A game of Wiffle ball in the backyard / park -- like the family football games a lot of folks play on Thanksgiving
- Give a gift of a new glove / bat / other baseball equipment for the upcoming season if he ends up being into baseball as he grows up
- Make an advent calendar out of baseball cards, for the month leading up to opening day, and have a small gift (stickers, etc) behind each one, with the last day being tickets to a game at some point in the season
posted by chiefthe at 4:53 PM on April 15, 2017

1. Definitely go to opening day when he's old enough— and depending on how much you guys like mementos, buy a program. I'm dorky, but I looooved learning how to keep score at a baseball game, and used to like to do that. (And then on the way home see if I could narrate the game just from my scorecard...) My brother still buys mini bats at every game he goes to; he must have 60 by now. He started asking to buy them when he was six or seven.
2. At some point, either at the game or at home, have some peanuts and crackerjacks.
3. Not sure how crafty you are, but you could make a baseball wreath or at least hang one up?
4. Everyone has to run the bases. Sometimes minor league teams let fans do this on the field, but any old baseball diamond will do — a school or where ever. Everyone pretends to hit a home run (while the other person does a radio-broadcaster call: "It could be...it is! GONE!!") and rounds the bases victoriously. The bags probably won't be out there, but some fields have a home plate just set into the dirt.
5. Everyone wears a baseball hat at the dinner table.

I'm so sorry about your husband.
posted by Charity Garfein at 5:38 PM on April 15, 2017

You must come to Cincinnati at least once and experience opening day the way the oldest franchise in baseball history does it. It's basically a city holiday. We have a huge parade, there's tons of stuff to do on Fountain Square, and opening day at our ballpark is just super awesome.
posted by cooker girl at 6:29 AM on April 16, 2017