Why I Love Baseball

June 18, 2008 at 9:12 pm nathan118 15 comments

I haven’t always loved to watch baseball. When I was younger I always loved to play it, but sitting in front of a TV for 2.5 hours was impossible. Now that I’m older and have a little more patience, I love it beyond any other sport. I can watch an entire game and enjoy each pitch.

This appreciation actually stems somewhat from watching a little basketball recently. I’m not trying to hate on basketball, but in some ways it’s absolutely annoying to watch. I remember watching Jordan as a kid, but I never remember the game being so physical. How the refs call the game I have no idea, because it’s almost ridiculous to watch these guys hit and run into each other constantly. It seems like getting away with just enough contact without drawing a foul is a more important skill than shooting a basket. Watch a game from twenty or thirty years ago and the game is completely different, and I think worse.

This brings me to why I love baseball so much. Everything is cut and dry in baseball. If the ball gets to first before your foot, you’re out. If the outfielder catches the ball, you’re out. You hit it over the fence, it’s a home run. Even balls and strikes (which are subjective) are rarely a problem. Strike out on a pitch on the corner? That means you had at least two shots before that one, you should have known borderline pitches need to be defended, and the game never hinges on one pitch because you have 9 innings to get the job done. It’s so cut and dry, and for the most part the game is identical to the way it was played 50+ years ago. Not to mention all the strategy I love about the game and the batter/pitcher battle.

Watching basketball and Kevin Garnett dropping f-bombs on national TV make me proud to be a baseball fan.

Baseball kevin garnett, national tv

Comments

Written by Lori about 4 years ago.

I agree %100! Baseball is really the only sport I can sit and watch and actually enjoy… ok, soccer is a distant second, but only for the world cup. But, I think the reason I enjoy it is because it makes sense! Like you said, it’s pretty cut and dry.

I will gladly hate on Basketball. No offense to any real b-ball lovers out there – and real fans (people who play and watch the SPORT, ie, Robert Townsend) are not lumped into this opinion of mine, it’s more so the “band wagon” fans…. but seriously, the game has become such a joke. I cannot stand watching my little 4th graders idolize these foul mouthed, blinged out, sorry excuses for “child heros.” I totally recognize that my opinion is extreme, I just don’t understand people who would start a fist fight over a game or turn over a car if my team loses.. heck, if my team WINS.

And before anyone posts that I am totally wrong and that ALL sports are like this to some extent – I totally don’t deny that. Basketball or the Lakers are just on my radar because they are local and in the news ALL the TIME… and because Paul likes them.

Wow, I’m a little ashamed that my (possibly) longest post was about basketball!

Enough about that! Nathan, your boy is adorable and we have less than 12 hours until the start of summer vacation! Yee haw!
Written by amy about 4 years ago.

Yes, I also love watching baseball. I don’t like to play it at all, but I do love watching. It was my cousin, Curt, who made me a fan. I watched him play from Northwest Downey Little League all the way through his senior year of high school. I just don’t know what it is about the game but I enjoy watching it more than any other sport. And all I’ve ever heard from people who don’t like watching baseball is “it’s too slow, nothing ever happens” but I don’t think that’s true at all. Yeah, it’s not as fast paced as sports where everyone is constantly sprinting back and forth across a field or a court. But cool things happen, and it requires a lot of skill and precision to make those things happen.

Also, i agree, your boy is adorable. And Stacie looks amazing, by the way (you already know that).
Written by kurtiigeek about 4 years ago.

I can’t stand watching baseball. I find it boring. That being said, I love the game of basketball, or at least my idea of what basketball should be. Growing up I was lucky enough to have season tickets during showtime (Magic, Kareem, Worthy, Scott, Cooper, Green, etc…) and that was great, but it’s only gone downhill since. Just recently I watched an old game of the Lakers with Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, and it was absolutely weird to watch. If you so much as touched the opponent, a foul would be called. The game was much cleaner.

Lastly, I pretty much despise the personalities of most player types in basketball (and football). I don’t want to blanket every player, because my next statement does not apply to every professional NBA player, but it would seem the vast majority are criminals in one form or another and need to go back to moral/manner/English class.
Written by Padfoot240 about 4 years ago.

For some reason I find basketball boring to watch. I know they are constantly moving, and running into each other, but it just seems that since there is so much running…nothing else happens. Thus being the same the entire game.
Baseball speeds up and slows down with every new pitcher or inning and I think that’s why it appeals to me.
Although I must say that I love watching football too.
Baseball and Football FTW!
Written by nathan118 about 4 years ago.

I understand how someone could find baseball boring. You truly have to enjoy the pitcher/batter duel to enjoy the game, otherwise you could possibly sit around all game and not enjoy anything until there is a big homerun.

I love the intricacies like getting ahead of the batter, keeping the ball low, amazing curveballs, guys that can turn on an inside pitch, stellar defensive plays that save runs, guys that crush the ball only to have it go straight into a defenders glove…all the little things that happen in between scoring runs.
Written by Andrew about 4 years ago.

It’s a shame volleyball doesn’t get a whole lot of TV coverage because it’s a blast to watch. I might be biased from playing for almost 7 years, but it is one of the few sports I can actually sit and watch.
Written by nixon about 4 years ago.

My favorite thing about baseball is that there is no clock. You can’t run a 4 corners offense and run the clock out. You can’t take a knee with 23 seconds left and run the clock out. There are no penalty kicks. There isn’t a sudden death shoot out. None of that. The pitcher has to throw the ball and the batter either succeeds or fails. Cut and dry. It’s really a thing of beauty.
Written by ~kevin about 4 years ago.

I’ve learned that people who find a sport, any sport, boring are people who just don’t know all there is to know about it… and that’s ok. I’ll start by saying I watch baseball every single day. I do not find it boring. And I plan on doing the same for the rest of my life. That is because I understand it and all the intricacies that Nathan listed. The intricacies exist in every sport if you are willing enough to learn them.

I used to be a hard-headed, baseball-rules-and-your-sport-sucks kinda guy until I got into NASCAR, which has millions of the little intricacies that make sports interesting. I get annoyed with people who laugh at me and say “Well, I wonder what they are going to do next. Oh, look! They turned left!” It’s like they are insulting me for liking NASCAR, when really they are putting their ignorance on display.

So I don’t bag on sports that I am not a fan of anymore. I just try and educate people on the sports I know about so they can enjoy it too. We just have to accept that sports are different and people have different tastes.

Some things go with the territory in different sports and we just need to accept those unique attributes that make the sports lovable to their particular fan base. Like, you can find NFL players passed out on the street in vegas or in shoot-ups outside nightclubs, or in the form of Terrel Owens. You can find NBA players who get 20 fathers’ day cards, assault their boss and get a raise, beat up fans, or get traded in 11 player deals. Oh wait, I guess that was sports-bashing after all.

Ya, baseball is the best. Hockey a close second, with Curling make at run on the outside.
Written by Trento about 4 years ago.

Tennis FTW!
Written by ~kevin about 4 years ago.

whats “ftw”
Written by Andrew about 4 years ago.

FTW = for the win
Written by ~kevin about 4 years ago.

Thanks. Just add that on to anything I ever say and it’ll work
Written by Angelo Alberico about 4 years ago.

I’d be careful with that one, it can also stand for something else!
Written by ~kevin about 4 years ago.

that’s why I asked. If the blarg is a forum where it is confused with something else, then I’ll take my acronyms elsewhere…
Written by nathan118 about 4 years ago.

I’m glad people got into this discussion. I didn’t think people would have many opinions on sports.