Constantino Diaz-Duran is a fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University. He is chronicling his walk from New York to Los Angeles to celebrate his eligibility for American citizenship. Follow Constantino’s progress.

I fell ill this week. Every year, for the last ten years, I’ve been stricken by tonsillitis. Sometimes it happens twice a year, and in 2007/2008 I got it three times in 12 months. I considered getting a tonsillectomy in New York before I hit the road, but the ENT doctor I saw discouraged it. I had been dreading getting it on the road, and alas, it has happened. My doctor called in a prescription for antibiotics, however, and I am already feeling better. The fever, at least, is gone. I will be able to keep going toward Austin this weekend.

Before I got sick, however, I was able to take in an Astros vs. Mets game at Minute Maid Park. As I’ve written before, I love baseball, so I’m making it a point to go to a game at every MLB city I visit during the walk. I also have a separate goal of visiting every Major League ballpark in the country.

So far, as part of the walk, I’ve been to games at Citizens Bank Park in Philly, Nationals Park, in DC, and now Minute Maid. The Braves weren’t in town when I was in Atlanta, so I didn’t get to see Turner Field. I’ll have to go back. In addition to these stadiums, I’ve been in the past to U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Camden Yards in Baltimore, CitiField in Queens (and Shea Stadium, before that), and of course, both the new and old Yankee Stadiums in The Bronx. I’m looking forward to seeing the Rangers in Dallas, the Diamondbacks in Phoenix, and the Dodgers when I get to LA-maybe I’ll even make it out to Anaheim to see the Angels.

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In life, I am first and foremost a Yankees fan-then an American, a New Yorker, and everything else. I cannot genuinely root for any other team, not even when the Yankees aren’t playing-it’s just never the same. But at Minute Maid Park last Tuesday, I at least tried to cheer for the Mets. I figured I should show a little New York pride. Boy, did they make it hard to cheer for them, though. They fell behind in the second inning, when Chris Johnson hit a three-run jack for the Astros, and ended up losing 6-3.

Of course the Yanks haven’t been doing great lately either, and now with Mariano Rivera’s injury, I’m starting to worry about the rest of the season. But I won’t be a Negative Nancy. My teams have done well in 2012; ‘Bama won the National Championship, the Giants the Superbowl, and I still believe my boys in pinstripes will win their 28th World Series.

A true baseball fan is always loyal, and hopeful-in a sense even naïve. Jacques Barzun, who famously wrote that “whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball,” also pointed out this naïveté found both in baseball fandom and in our nation’s character. “We find also our American innocence in calling ‘World Series’ the annual games between the winners in each big league” he wrote. “The world doesn’t know or care and couldn’t compete if it wanted to, but since it’s us children having fun, why, the world is our stage.”

That is what baseball is about-fun. The crowd at Minute Maid wasn’t the most enthused I’ve ever seen, but even there, you saw grown men and women allowing themselves to act like children, chasing after a foul ball in the stands, eating Cracker Jack, dancing, kissing, and smiling for the camera. You saw, as in every stadium, Americans of all shapes, sizes, ages and colors, rallying together, cheering for their hometown team. I don’t know how much you can learn about Americans by studying the rules of baseball, but I do know that if you want to see what our country having fun looks like, a ballpark in the summer is the place to go.

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*Photo by Constantino Diaz-Duran.