Amy,
I might detect some cynicism in your tone. What's to say that a baseball game isn't a life changing three hours for countless little tykes, maybe at their first game with dad, building memories and setting goals at the same time? But I do agree that for the most part, people just want to pay someone else to do the work. If you can afford the baseball game, depending on who you are, you are paying for a number of things. You pay for the right to sit on your behind for three hours if you want, but the freedom to stand and scream and whistle when the itch hits you. You pay for the opportunity to have peanuts thrown to you, or to indulge in a ridiculously overpriced hot dog or foam novelties. You are paying for a pay per view event in 360-degree surround sound, highest definition. 35,000 people get to spend three hours trying to forget the other twenty-one hours they regret having wasted. Maybe I am just jealous. I have never seen a baseball game in person.

 

hmmm...eerie similarities with the decomposing Roman Empire: chariot races, deadly gladiator fights, people screaming for "panem et circenses" (bread and circus, entertainment)

just wondering, what happened to the renaissance ideas?