Every year thousands of Irish students visit the United States of America on a J1 visa, and many of them decide to sample American sporting culture in it's purest form; Baseball.
You kind of have an idea for the rules (you played rounders in PE as a child), you know there's going to be food involved, and the tickets aren't too pricey.. It's an experience many seek out when they find themselves in the bigger cities.
Here are 15 facts that anyone who has experienced the good old sport of baseball while on a J1 summer take away from the event.
Baseball stadiums are stunningly beautiful.
The likes of Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Yankee Stadium are truly magnificent sporting arenas that are steeped in history, and the newer ones that don't have as much history usually have elaborate fountains and weird designs behind the outfield.
They are fantastic places to spend a day casually watching men attempt to blast baseballs out of the current time zone.
The home team you watched are now your (extremely casual) team for life.
You've been to a game, you've clapped in unison with 50,000 other baseball fans, you are now qualified to tell people that you follow the sport and support a team.
But for now it's a great opportunity to fly the GAA flag.
You might pop up on Fox Sports if you're lucky, and then you'll probably pop up on Balls.ie like these buckos.
It is extremely difficult to resist buying a hat to 'fit in'.
Baseball cap at a baseball game? Be rude not to.
Everyone else is wearing them.
If your seats are in the sun, you're fucked.
Either you'll be burned alive after failing to bring sun-cream, or you'll sweat a dangerous amount as the plastic seats slowly melt into your skin..
So you may as well whip the tops off.
Young Irish men need very little encouragement to get the tops off when 'on tour', but thankfully the locals do it too, usually when they have something written on their bodies.
One member of the group is forced to explain the rules to everyone else.
He's the one that wanted to go in the first place, so now he is being punished for it.
"I get that the score is 4-2, but what are those other numbers for?"
'Churros' are a thing, and they are very strange.
Is it a salty snack? Is there meat in it? Is it a pastry?
Oh.. It's like a donut, and I don't know where to look while I'm eating it.
About 18% of the people in attendance are paying attention at any given time.
Honestly, most of the cheers are three to five seconds after the incident when everyone realises what happened.
People will go ape-shit for free stuff.
T-Shirt cannons are awesome, but prepare to engage in a fight to the death with a tipsy 40-something woman who has her heart set on leaving with something she didn't pay for.
The variety of food options available is staggering.
If you want peanuts or a beer, they'll bring it to you, but no joke, Angels Stadium in Anahiem has a full on Panda Express Chinese restaurant in it.
Imagine sitting in the Aviva and thinking "Should I get a rubber hot-dog?.. Nah I actually fancy an Indian" and then popping out to Bombay Pantry at half-time.
The '7th Inning Stretch' is both confusing and terrifying.
"Woah hang on why is everyone standing up? Who are all those old people on the field? Why is everyone stretching and singing?"
Taking a break from the action for a scheduled sing-song just feels weird.
Nine innings is more than enough time to get significantly drunk.
You don't realise just how long you've been sitting in the same spot drinking bear until you get up to leave..
All those $6 Bud Lights add up, and you've been sipping away for the guts of five hours.
The 'AMERICA FUCK YEAH' fireworks are a nice surprise.
This is the the type of stuff you're there for.
Our sports team just won, create explosions in the sky to alert everyone in a five mile radius.
You leave the stadium knowing less about baseball than you did before.
It's a funny old game.
Hopefully you saw a few homers, because scoreboards don't come more confusing than baseball scoreboards.
