Baseball Game

This was my first experience of going to the field in America to see the baseball game. We went to the 3rd largest field in the States - Safeco in Seattle. The game itself if of no interest to me, but everything else was very entertaining to watch - especially the people.
Even though the game was supposed to start at 7pm, the stadium was packed by the time we arrived - around 5:30pm. The reason for that - the home team Mariners was giving out free blankets for the first 15,000 spectators. Why? Because lately they've been playing really bad and in order to be able to attract the fans to still come and cheer they have to give out free gifts and souvenirs.
As for the crowd, apparently there are very few real fans there. Most of the people just come to eat fat food, buy some nonsense gifts from the vendors and socialize with friends.
I didn't manage to understand any of the rules, and truth be told, I didn't really try to. I really don't enjoy slow sports with complicated rules too much, and far less can I understand how baseball can be the national sport. But I guess, whatever.