If there are any parents out there who need non-prescription, non-pill relief for ADD, I have it.

Baseball.

For several days, I've been considering the routines I enjoy and those I don't. For example, I enjoy the coffee and apple fritter from the Circle K down the road even though the fritter isn't good for me and even though the store's manager kind of creeps me out. However, I do it every week day.

Every couple of weeks, Mom and I have dinner. That's regular, and I like that.

However, I don't work enough baseball into the routine. Tonight, on MLB.tv, I watched Texas beat Toronto in walk-off fashion, 9-8. What I realized is how relaxed I was after 3 hours and 16 minutes.

Watching the Sooners for 3 hours and 16 minutes on a football Saturday typically leaves me jittery. College football teams only get 12 games a year, so each one is mammoth. Baseball teams, though, play 162 regular season games each year, and while series wins and consistency are both important, no one game is life or death.

Furthermore, because games last for between 2.5 hours and 3 hours, typically, the baseball watcher might as well get comfortable. Oddly enough, the average baseball game is a good chunk shorter than most any college football game. If the game features two teams with great offenses, such as Oklahoma State and Texas Tech last season, it can last more than four hours.

However, with baseball, I like to get comfortable, get some seeds, get some gum, get a newspaper, break out my foot massager, review some bills and just kick back and watch. The reason it is relaxing, as a sport, to me is not that it is slow. And, I don't really care to get into the argument with baseball haters.

I very much enjoy soccer, too.

Baseball is relaxing first and foremost because it is orderly. It is also steeped in ritual and routine. Unlike many baseball fans, I am not a stats watcher. I won't cite ERAs and batting averages, and I won't debate this, that or the other as to which player is better than another. A player's makeup and a team's chemistry are much more important to me as a fan.

On the other hand, if I merely watched baseball because it was relaxing, I could just take a valium and listen to Yanni. Every once in awhile you get a little drama, but I like that you're not guaranteed it. With Major League Baseball, anybody can beat anybody on any given night, period.

So, it's orderly. It forces me to sit in one place for awhile.

Tell me the Ritalin generation couldn't use some baseball!