"From my experience I have come to the conclusion that to be a baseball fan, a person must devote his or her time to it, and not let outside affairs interfere as outside affairs will surely suffer. For baseball fever is absolutely incurable, and once you catch it, you might as well resign yourself to the inevitable; that is, your friends might, for you will be willing enough to stand it."
Lulu Glaser, a comic opera prima donna popular around the turn of the 20th century, wrote this in a wonderful piece called The Lady Fan, which appears in Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, Women Writers on Baseball (edited by Elinor Nauen). I often think of it when, as now, "outside affairs" come knocking.
