Hardly anyone watches baseball in the UK. So why do we keep speaking its language? | Adrian Chiles

I’ve loved the sport for years, and it’s a lonely pursuit. Whenever I talk to a fellow Brit about it, they look at me as if I’ve thrown them a curveball …

When you’re happy about something, it’s good to share it. And when you’re unhappy about something, it’s also good to share it. But if that something is the performance of your baseball team, and you live in the UK, you’ll have your work cut out finding anyone remotely interested in your feelings on the matter. It’s a strange, lonely place to be.

If my football team let me down, there are plenty of people to talk to about this. Same if they’ve managed to win. But if I’ve been up half the night watching the Tampa Bay Rays lose 6-1 to the Orioles in Baltimore, in the morning there is nowhere to take my dismay. And it’s somehow worse if they’ve won. Does a tree falling in a forest make a sound if there’s no one there to hear it? No idea. But I do know that if the Rays have come from behind to win a game in the 13th innings, and there’s no one with whom to share the happy news, it soon feels as if it might not have happened at all.