Explain Baseball

[tomdemaine]

Ok. I've got nothing tomorrow so I can sleep all day. I'm in a great poker game so I've decided to stay up and watch the world series (I'm a UKer it's 1am here) so heres what I want, explain what I'm looking for in this game and why I should get excited about it. I love american footbal but can't seem to get into this baseball thing. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[LoaferGee12]

It helps to have a team to cheer for.

[RacersEdge]

See the ball, hit the ball.

[MyTurn2Raise]

rent one of those new video games for PS2 or Xbox. Try to hit against a pitcher throwing a monster fastball, a slider, a curve, etc. It starts from there and gets better.

[TheHip41]

This is the beauty of baseball. It's not in your face like football, or constant action like hockey. It's a methodical pace. It's got exciting points, it's got low points.

On the surface, it looks like not much is going on. It looks like 1 guy throwing, and 1 guy trying to hit it.

If you watch more, you see there is infinite strategy going on back and forth. If the pitcher is trying to pitch inside, the defense will swing to that side. Is the pitcher going to follow up a eye level fastball with a sinker, or go right back up the ladder.


For me, baseball resembles life in a lot of ways. A lot of down time, but short burst of excitement and intensity.


For those that like soccer, it's the same kind of deal. It looks like someone kicking a ball over and over, but really, there is so much skill/strategy involved, it's really amazing to watch.

[andyfox]

I once took my dowdy and dotty old aunt to a ballgame. She must have been 80 at the time and had never been to a ballgame. So it was my job to explain it to her.

It was hard work. It's not like basketball where it's more self-evident what's going on. Baseball is complicated and more cerebral than most sports.

First there's the battle between the pitcher and the batter. The pitcher is trying to fool the batter, to overpower him sometimes, to finesse him at others, to intimidate him too. He can change speeds, change location, change the type of pitch, change his cadence, change the movement on his pitches. The batter is trying sometimes to bludgeon the ball, other times merely to place it in play. And their history against each other comes into play as well.

All of this is a microcosm of the game in general. The managers have this same type of play vs. each other, as do the fielders vs. the hitters and the baserunners vs. the fielders. I think football is better on TV in that you generally see all the players on the field in one shot, but you lose that with baseball. I think it's the only game that's clearly better in person where you gain a perspective of everything that's happening, all the cat and mouse of it.

[FouTight]

It's kind of interesting that it's the only sport that I know the rules to that only one team can make offensive points at any given time.

Football, soccer, basketball, hockey, pretty much any player on the field can score with a good play, but in baseball, no matter how good of a defensive play is made, you have nothing to really show for it except a lack of points for the other team.

It's obvious, but kind of unique when you think about it.

[M2d]

It's hard for me to explain, having been born into a baseball crazy family. As Andy and others mentioned, there are the little battles that are missed by the casual observer that play huge roles in the outcomes of each play, inning, game. The pace of the game lends itself to a lot of second guessing (or pre-guessing?) which allows the fans to have more than a rooting interest in the action. The action itself, which comes in spurts interspaced with sometimes long lulls, is sometimes unexpected and sometimes a crescendo after a build up of tension, which makes it much more exciting and precious than the constant hammering of action you find in american football and basketball.

for those like me, though, it just is. Terrance Mann's (the character in field of dreams) speech at the end of the movie sums it up for me and people who grew up with the game:

"Ray, people will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. "Of course, we won't mind if you have a look around," you'll say. "It's only twenty dollars per person." They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it; for it is money they have and peace they lack.

"And they'll walk out to the bleachers, and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game, and it'll be as if they'd dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces.

"People will come, Ray.

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Ohhhhhhhh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come."

[mikech]

here's something to think about wrt baseball: unlike football, basketball, hockey, soccer (the last 3 of which are essentially variations of the same game), baseball is a game where the DEFENSE controls the ball. i had never considered it from that perspective until i read something pedro martinez said a few years ago; he said something to the effect of, "I'M the offense, i've got the ball, they've gotta try to hit it."

[imported_The Vibesman]

[ QUOTE ]
here's something to think about wrt baseball: unlike football, basketball, hockey, soccer (the last 3 of which are essentially variations of the same game), baseball is a game where the DEFENSE controls the ball. i had never considered it from that perspective until i read something pedro martinez said a few years ago; he said something to the effect of, "I'M the offense, i've got the ball, they've gotta try to hit it."

[/ QUOTE ]

This is what I find interesting about the game as well. Every other team sport (excepting Cricket and other variations on that theme) is basically a version of Capture The Flag, goals on each end that a team defends, and an object the offensive team controls and tries to get to the goal. (Even in USA football, the endzone serves as "the goal") Baseball's different, as the quoted post says.

[andyfox]

Also the only sport where the defense has possession of the ball.

[JPinAZ]

It's also interesting in that there is no fixed time structure for the game. Football & basketball have their 15 minute quarters, hockey has 20 minute periods, soccer has 45 minute halfs. But baseball is played until 9 innings are up. Those 9 innings could take 1 1/2 hours, they could take 4 hours. But until 9 innings are up, the game isn't over. (I'm ignoring a called game after 4 1/2 innings).

[tdarko]

no matter how hard anyone tries (and andy fox will always do the best job) i don't think anyone here will be able to truly explain to you why baseball is such a great game.

watch it and if you find the passion for it then in your lifetime you will eventually figure out the beauty of it. a post will not explain it though.

Marvelous game, really. You see, the bowler hurls the ball toward the batter who tries to play away a fine leg. He endeavors to score by dashing between the creases, provided the wicket keeper hasn't whipped his bails off, of course.

[Voltron87]

[ QUOTE ]
Marvelous game, really. You see, the bowler hurls the ball toward the batter who tries to play away a fine leg. He endeavors to score by dashing between the creases, provided the wicket keeper hasn't whipped his bails off, of course.

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Smashing!

I love when there's an LBW and the umpire just raises his finger and calls the guy out, all calmly. great sport, i wish i could watch more. its very, very english

[Cancer Merchant]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Marvelous game, really. You see, the bowler hurls the ball toward the batter who tries to play away a fine leg. He endeavors to score by dashing between the creases, provided the wicket keeper hasn't whipped his bails off, of course.

[/ QUOTE ]

Smashing!

I love when there's an LBW and the umpire just raises his finger and calls the guy out, all calmly. great sport, i wish i could watch more. its very, very english

[/ QUOTE ]

Can you even find yon game on American TV? This year's Ashes sounded spectacular, but it's not the same watching web updates.

Back to describing baseball: it's like cricket for those with short attention spans.

[MoreWineII]

[ QUOTE ]
See the ball, hit the ball. watch the umpires fail.

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added to your post.