Explain Baseball to Me

[Iplayboard]

I'm a huge sports fan. I love college football, the NFL, March Madness, the NBA, any form of "soccer", golf majors, etc.

However, I don't really like baseball. And it's not like I [censored] hate baseball, if the Indians are playing I'll watch it (I cried when they lost the '97 series, I was 12). It's just that I won't watch it on TV (I love attending games) unless it is my favorite team. The regular season is such a grind, 162 games. My main beef is that so much of the viewing is spent watching players stand around. The ball is hardly ever in play.

In addition, I feel that the MLB is one of the most poorly managed pro leagues, with the NFL being the gold standard. The salary cap situation makes it such that in the AL there are only really two playoff positions in contention. Most of the teams are eliminated by July. If you had a LeBron James equivalent in the MLB, there is no way the Indians could afford to pay him, he would just get snapped up by the Yankees or Red Sox. In the NBA, he is almost guarenteed to spend his career with the Cavs.

Also, the MLB playoffs, in my opinion differ so drasticly from the regular season. In the regular season teams use 5-man rotations, but in the playoffs having 2 great pitchers (ala the Diamondbacks) is sufficient. Plus the playoffs seem like such a crapshoot (in comparison to the NBA).

Today at work (I work for a minor league baseball team) my friend and I got into a huge argument with co-workers over the NBA vs. MLB.

My co-workers said they would rather watch a Royals-Devil Rays game than watch an NBA playoff game. To which I almost threw up. I'm not trying to be condescending, so to all the baseball lovers out there, what is it that appeals to you about the sport and the MLB?

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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Explain Baseball to Me

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I work for a minor league baseball team

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[Iplayboard]

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Explain Baseball to Me

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I work for a minor league baseball team

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I apologize for being so vague. I am a college student who is spending the summer interning for a minor league baseball team. I am a Finance major and the town my parents happen to live in does not have any good business opportunities. I deal with the business end of things, not the baseball aspects.

[THAY3R]

I find it shocking that people working for a minor league baseball team would rather watch baseball than an NBA playoff game!

[Taraz]

I agree with you. Baseball just doesn't do it for me except for the playoffs sometimes.

I'm not sure whether it's the tradition or what, but I don't see why baseball is that appealing over other sports. Somebody answer OP's question!

[TheRover]

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Explain Baseball to Me

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I work for a minor league baseball team

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I apologize for being so vague. I am a college student who is spending the summer interning for a minor league baseball team. I am a Finance major and the town my parents happen to live in does not have any good business opportunities. I deal with the business end of things, not the baseball aspects.

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pity.

[moorobot]

Baseball is a hard sport to be a 'moderate fan' of. Most people can enjoy going to a game and be a causal fan, and the hardcore baseball fans spend more time thinking and reading about that sport than any other sport, I think. As far as I know, there is no Bill James of football or basketball, not to mention golf or soccer.

I think most of the action in baseball is intellectual and not athletic; if you don't understand the statistics and other strategy (insofar as these two can be distinguished), it is hard to watch a random three hour baseball game. Watching baseball without understanding these things is like watching a three hour long chess match without understanding the game of chess at all. Baseball is literally a whole new game if you can understand the thinking process behind every pitch, the line up selection, the statistics of the hitters and there meaning, question the comments that the announcers make or even outright laugh at their relative ignorance, etc. It is a game were many of the 'outsiders' here and at sites such as baseballprospectus really understand it better in some ways than the 'insiders' that get paid by major league teams to understand it.

I'm just the opposite of you; I only like baseball, I don't care for any other sports. I suppose I can casually watch a football game at a social event, but if I didn't believe that I should be studying politics and philosophy I probably would spend most of my time reading, writing and thinking about baseball.

[moorobot]

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My main beef is that so much of the viewing is spent watching players stand around. The ball is hardly ever in play.


[/ QUOTE ] This summarizes it perfectly: if you are thinking about baseball during this time and/or you enjoy the time of just relaxing, then baseball is the perfect sport for you. Otherwise, in all likelihood it won't be one of your favorite sports.

[Roy Munson]

The sports that appeal to anyone are most likely the sports that they were most involved with as children. Many of my generation(Baby Boomers) grew up playing baseball. From the age of 3 upward my friends and I played baseball from dawn until dusk during the spring and summer. We also played in organized leagues but the time we spent playing outside of these leagues dwarfed the amount of time spent in organized ball.

Evenings were spent listening to (most games were not televised) or watching games.

Most of us played football and basketball as a substitute for baseball during the off season just for something to do.
Even though both sports have grown in popularity since the 1970's much more rapidly than baseball, baseball will always hold a special place in the heart for those who played it as children.

[Taraz]

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I think most of the action in baseball is intellectual and not athletic; if you don't understand the statistics and other strategy (insofar as these two can be distinguished), it is hard to watch a random three hour baseball game. Watching baseball without understanding these things is like watching a three hour long chess match without understanding the game of chess at all. Baseball is literally a whole new game if you can understand the thinking process behind every pitch, the line up selection, the statistics of the hitters and there meaning . . .

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But lineup selection and statistics don't have anything to do with actually watching the game. I can actually enjoy baseball when I'm playing fantasy baseball or something and just checking box scores and stats. But watching the game is painfully boring most of the time.

It's also impossible to know the tendency of all the batters and pitchers and really appreciate it when so and so throws a changeup even though he usually throws a fastball on a 2-2 count after previously throwing a curveball to a power hitter etc. etc.

FWIW, I do appreciate good pitching somewhat.