5 ways to not fall asleep during the MLB season

After the hibernation of four months, the regular season is about to start for the 30 teams of the Major League Baseball. The drawback is always the same, games that are too long, often exceeding three hours, a slow game that only livens up like a flash in the pan, but above all an incalculable number of rules, unknown in many cases even to the players themselves. But baseball deserves much more attention, especially because every year are rewrote new hierarchies, especially this year, in which two top players like Bryce Harper and Manny Machado have decided to leave Washington and Baltimore respectively to move to Philadelphia and San Diego. To understand who will try to contend the title to the Boston Red Sox it takes patience, you have to wait until November and stay up all night, risking to see the only interesting thing in the stands.

To be honest, the whole season has already begun with the two games played between the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletic's at Tokyo Dome, a special event to celebrate the career of Ichiro Suzuki, the best Japanese of all time who retired at 45 after having broken one record after another. This night the season begins and the conditions are good, DeGrom-Scherzer and Snell-Verlander challenge each other, translating the 4 best pitchers of last season.

To enjoy all this we want to give you 5 tips to get you interested in the 2019 season of the MLB, only the next step after being able to not fall asleep before the first pitch.

1 - Know the basic rules

Let's try to make it as simple as possible. Two teams play on a field (diamond), for a total of 9 innings, the attacking team, with a bat, must try to conquer the 4 bases by hitting the ball as far away as possible from the range of the defensive team. The attacking team, in turn, faces the opposing pitcher, until the latter fails to make 3 eliminations (out). At that point the teams exchange roles and, only when the other team also suffers three outs, an inning is considered finished. 

The MLB is divided into two major leagues, the National League and the American League, each of these has 3 divisions, from which come out the 8 participants in the Play-Offs, scheduled to start in October. Each team plays 162 games in the regular season and, as in basketball, the first month and a half are not very meaningful to understand who will be the protagonist for the rest of the season. It comes alive after the stop for the All-Star Game, which this year will be held on July 9th in Cleveland.

2 - Know the protagonists

Each team has about 25 players and the fauna of the MLB really satisfies any kind of extravagance. The most awaited stars will be the MVPs of last season, Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers and Mookie Betts, left field of the Boston Red Sox, famous in the United States also for being national bowling champion. Among the protagonists, there will also be Shoei Othani, the only player able to launch over 100 miles and also be used as a hitter. To give an idea of the extraordinary nature of this player, it is as if Neymar were used as a goalkeeper and a striker indifferently. Together with him, Mike Trout will try to show why the Los Angeles Angels in recent weeks have made him sign a $ 400 million contract for 12 seasons, the highest ever in US sports history. The rookies are expected to be confirmed are Ronald Acuna, Juan Soto and Vladimir Guerrero Jr, only the youngest of a very large group of Latin Americans, including Javier Báez and Francisco Lindor, shortstop of the Cubs and Indians. Unpredictable players who could turn any game into a real show are Alex Bregman, Aaron Judge and especially Miguel Cabrera.

3 - How to watch it

In Italy, until 2017 the MLB was broadcast by FOX Sport, since last season is DAZN to transmit them. Faso's commentary, a member of the band Elio e le Storie Tese, could be one of the reasons that will motivate you to see until the ninth inning. Don't expect scripts and seriousness.

The best way to see all the games of the season is MLB.TV. Live, replay, highlights, and condensed games, that is, editing only the key moments of the game.

4 - Knowing the fun fact

Baseball is a sport closely connected to statistics, which are a source of interest for fans throughout the season. During all the games the MLB updates in real time on every type of statistic, from the most important to the most exclusive, which help to understand how baseball crosses new developments every year and the players continue to improve the game. These themes are well explained in the film Moneyball, starred by Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, which explains how baseball pioneered the use of data analysis applied to sport. Other films dedicated to baseball that you might be interested in are Hardball, in which Keanu Reeves is training a team of kids in Chicago, or 42, the story of Jackie Robinson, a black player who broke the barrier of racial distinction in MLB.

This season will also be important because for the first time the Major League will play a game in Europe, il London, and not just any, but the most heartfelt challenge in America: The Rivalry, between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, once again the most hated team in the league.

Considering the many games, the MLB creates during the year moments of entertainment that liven up the games. A great attraction of the fans in this sense is the special uniforms, created in conjunction with celebrations and anniversaries. For Mother's Day, the teams use pink bats, shoes, helmets, and socks, for Independence Day instead of all the colors of the American flag. In Milwaukee, the Brewers wearing a celebratory jersey for the Italian-American community throughout the year, very numerous in the capital of Wisconsin. Jackets that recover the design of vintage uniforms, other camouflage or with the nicknames of the players, the social initiative that brought for the first time the historical and never modified Yankees uniform to insert the names of the players.

5 - Tu vo fa l'americano

The stadium in MLB is lived in a very active way, nothing compared to what happens in Europe with football. In addition to the different forms of entertainment during each interval, the anthem sung during the seventh inning break, at the stadium what Americans do most often is to eat, and a lot.

The Atlanta Braves proudly announced that the new Blooper Burger will be sold at this year's Sun Trust Park, with 4 meat and cheese balls, a 30 cm hot dog, chicken, salad, tomato, onion, jalapenos covered in salsa cheese. All accompanied by caramelized popcorn. 'Take me out to the ball game', the most famous song sung on stadium stands, resembles another indispensable ballpark food, peanuts, although in recent years the passion of supporters, from Seattle to Miami, are the nachos. At home, you will be sure that none of this can happen to you.