Baseball

2 people are watching baseball.

One is a fan--played when he was young, mabye has kids into it now, etc. When he watches the game, he gets all the ins and outs. Understands the nuances of when to pitch a fastball vs. a curve ball, when and why to let the first pitch go, when it makes sense to bunt, when to slide, why a coach would pull someone out or someone in, etc. This person gets a lot of enjoyment from the game and in fact may even prefer a game that has a lower score if it is close and well played.

The other has never watched it before. Nothing against it, but doesn't know all of the rules and certainly not the subtleties.

If the first person is worried the second person is going to go away hating baseball, what should he do?

The rules are complicated. Way too complicated to explain to someone new. Maybe he can simplify the rules in a new league... Maybe even take the jargon (short-stops, sacrifice, force-outs, ERA's, double plays, etc.) out of the game since that's a lot to remember...

What other ways could we find to make it easy for the second guy to get it? There are probably a lot more than I'm thinking of. But how long before it's no longer baseball?

Isn't the best way to get him to love it to invite him to play?