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We are in the second week of spring training and I couldn’t be more excited for the 2016 season! The sport I love is back and I don’t care who knows it! Then I share my love of the game with a friend, co-worker, or random person and they tell me they don’t like baseball because it’s boring. Stop saying baseball is boring!
I realize that baseball isn’t an impact sport like football or have the fast paced, intense nature of hockey, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring. Any sport can get droning at times during a game regardless of its intensity. I love football and hockey, but I have a passion for baseball. Baseball is not boring and this is why.
Every minute of a baseball game is an edge of your seat moment. With every pitch the game could change, for the good or bad depending on who you are rooting for. The pace may not be fast as a hockey game but it has every bit as much intensity and precision. The speed of the ball heading toward the smallest target in almost any sport, a catcher’s glove, has an equally skilled battered defending it. Every at-bat is a shoot out between the pitcher and the catcher.
Baseball may not have impact in every play like football, but when impact happens there is no little to no padding to protect the players. Collisions with player happen frequently enough that in 2014 after a violent collision between the San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey and Florida Marlins outfielder Scott Cousins. The collision was so hard it broke Posey’s leg and prompted a rule change in the league regarding catchers blocking the plate. In addition to player collisions, there is also impact plays with the ball itself to a player. Batters often get hit by pitches, but when pitchers get hit by a by a line dive it is one of the scariest things a sports fan can witness. I still vividly remember June 15, 2013 when Alex Cobb was hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Kansas City Royals first baseman, Eric Hosmer.
Why do I think baseball is so much better than other sports you ask? There are a few reasons.
Ease of understanding is a definite advantage that baseball has on other sports. I’m not saying that there aren’t a few complex rules that even boggle the minds of avid fans, like the balk, but the rules for the most part rules are basic and easy to follow. Pitcher throws the ball, the batter hits it (or doesn’t) and either gets on base or doesn’t. Players that are on base try to advance until they reach home plate and score a run. Each player that crosses the plate equal one point (run) for their team. There are nine innings in a game and each team has three outs each inning. This game has no time limit. That is the rules of baseball in a nutshell.
For the most part, players play the same position or a similar position each game. If you are watching a game and want to watch your favorite player, you always know where he will be. I understand that in football and hockey that players play the same positions, but they move around a lot due to plays in and the structure of those games, so big plays could easily be missed and have to be watched via replays; it’s easy to see Kevin Kiermaier make one of his dynamic catches live as it happens.
Additionally, baseball has to be the most fan friendly sport there is. Across the board, tickets for a baseball game are much more affordable than other professional sports. There are 81 home games, there is a lot of flexibility and a fan could attend a game any day of the week. Also, what other sport is there where fans have the opportunity to get autographs of their favorite players before every game; not many.
I love baseball. I know not everyone has an emotional attachment to the game like I do; it was the only thing I had in common with my grandfather and we use to watch the Atlanta Braves together (in the 90s before the Marlins or Rays), but I urge you to give it another chance if you think it’s boring. Baseball is America’s pastime, and hopefully it can become one of yours.
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