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1. Tour Guide for an Alien
Pretend that you have been assigned the task of conducting a tour for aliens
who are visiting earth and observing human life. You're riding along in a blimp,
and you float over a professional baseball stadium. One of your aliens looks
down and becomes very confused, so you tell him that there is a game going
on. Answer the following questions for him.
1. What is a game? - Well, a game is an organized group of people that have
intentions of having fun by being active through a series of rules and boundaries
that usually involve the act of either throwing or hitting a ball of some sort. A
game could also be described as structured playing, which is usually strictly for
enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from
work, which is usually carried out for a reward of some sort like money or other
types of payment. A game is also different from art, which is more often an
expression of emotions or ideological elements.
2. Why are there no female players? - I guess that women don’t have a desire
to play baseball since it was men that predominately played it, and men
founded the sport in the late 1800’s which in the 1800’s women had strict roles
as being mothers and housekeepers, so they weren’t allowed to play baseball at
the time so they just never got to liking the sport. Women have their own
version of baseball called softball; that uses a bigger, softer, and more vibrantly
colored ball than baseball and they have a lot of the same rules as baseball
except the way they throw the ball.
3. Why do people get so passionate watching other people play games? -
People like to root for a winning team, and when their team is winning they are
happy and cheerful, and on the other hand if they are losing they get mad and
aggravated with the outcome and try to blame everything on why the team
they were cheering for didn’t win.
4. What is a team? – A team is a group of players that work together to win the
game. They have coordinated actions and do their best to benefit the team in
any way possible.
5. Why can't the people in the seats just go down on the field and join in? It’s
against the law. I guess they aren’t allowed because it is a way of protecting the
players and coaches from angry fans. It could also be for the peoples’
protection, because if someone got hit with a bat or ball they would get
seriously injured. That is why they have big nets behind the home plate.

2. If you try to answer these questions fully, it will quickly become apparent that
we carry around certain assumptions and values. We support a certain team, for
instance, because it makes us feel like we're a part of a community. This sense
of community is a value that matters to some people more than others.
Furthermore, when trying to explain team sports to an alien, you have to
explain the value we put on winning and losing.
When you think like an alien tour guide, you are forced to take a deeper look at the things we do
and things we value. They don't always sound so logical and true from the outside looking in!