Why do people actually like baseball?

Question

It's a boring sport and the players have no athletic talent whatsoever. No wonder it's America's national pasttime.

Answer 1

Baseball is made up of very few big and dramatic moments, but rather it's a beautifully put together pattern of countless little subtleties that finally add up to the big moment, and you have to be well-versed in the game to truly appreciate them.

Answer 2

Actually baseball has been replaced by football as America's national pastime a number of years ago. But it is a deceptively easy sport - where it seems like it takes no athletic talent to play until you stand in the box against a 100 MPH fastball, or a slider that suddenly breaks away from where you think its going to be. Then you realize baseball takes a lot more physical ability then you think.

I can't answer in terms of why people like baseball. I know why I love it. It has to do with the game within a game - the pitcher and catcher calling what pitches to throw to a certain batter, and the batter adjusting to the pitches thrown. Two managers matching wits - do you send your batter to second base on a 3-2 pitch, do you bring in the lefty to face the lefthanded batter coming up and what happens if he gets a hit, etc etc?

There is also the rich history of the game - going back to the Civil War era in this country, if not further back.

Most importantly, as someone who has seen many hundreds of baseball games live, there is just no better way to spend a summer day or night then at the ballpark. Fresh air, Sunshine (if a day game), a hotdog and cold drink of your choice, and the company of good people.

There is so much to baseball. If you are a numbers person you can study statistics and find out what they reveal about your favorite players or teams. If you are somewhat of a study of the human psyche, then baseball, whether its the players or fans, reveals a great deal of a persons character. A historian, amateur or professional, can draw a great deal of comparisons between the history of baseball and the history of America itself.

In short - I understand that all people are different, but I really can't understand why people don't like baseball.

Answer 3

Right. No talent. Sure. You probably play in a beer slow-pitch softball league and think that requires talent. Baseball requires no talent like brain surgery requires no talent, and is certainly uninteresting to those who prefer WWE and Monster Truck Rallies (SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!)
Let's compare baseball, to say, golf, for a minute.


To Wit:


Baseball requires no talent?? By disparaging the best baseball players for being successful only a third of the time ( a .333 hitter), most people tacitly admit that hitting a round baseball with a round bat, while it is being hurled at you in varying trajectories at speeds ranging from 60 to 100 MPH is unarguably the most difficult task in sport.

This is further demonstrated by the fact that perhaps the greatest athlete of our time, and an excellent golfer as well, was less than a mediocre minor league baseball player, his ability to purchase a new team bus not withstanding. (see Jordan, Michael)

Admittedly, there is a version of the sport where the player adjusts the ball to just the right height and location, and swings at it at his leasure while it sits there stationary. It's called T-Ball, and even the least gifted move past it by nine years of age.

To be truly comparable, not only would the ball need to be thrown at the golfer while he attempts to hit it, there would have to be random occurences, some accidental, some on purpose, but never known in advance, where the ball might strike the golfer in the head, kidney, elbow, or kneecap while traveling 97 miles per hour. On the occasions he was fortunate enough to make contact, there would be nine other golfers attempting to stop his ball from going anywhere at all. Then we'd see if he could succeed more than a third of the time.

The opportunity to hit a stationary target with a giant club head while everyone around you observes complete silence is roughly equivalent, in baseball terms, of hitting a grapefruit tossed underhanded with an ironing board (see slow-pitch softball, which not coincidentally is also often participated in by non-athletes while drinking.)

Admittedly, mercifully in baseball there isn't that guy hollering "YOU THE MAN" after each swing. Rather, there are thousands loudly questioning your Mother's heritage and moral character WHILE you are swinging.

After the swing, the player cannot stand quietly in the batter's box and admire his work and still be considered successful. With the exception of that rarest of hits, the home run, he must actually exert even more athletic effort after the swing, thus disqualifying the inert from playing the game. This is unlike a sport where the players are so frail they either pay some strapping young lad to carry their equipment for them, or hitch a ride on the nearest motorized vehicle.

Umpires are required in the sport. This is not primarily due to the players unwillingness to adhere to the rules or to fairness. Rather, it is because the plays often unfold at such a rapid pace that a professional judge focused entirley on the events is required to guage the actual outcome. Often the true outcome happens so quickly that it is undetectable to the naked eye, and only slowing the video down frame by frame can show whether the ball was fair or foul, the man was out or safe. Slowing down the video below actual speed in golf would not only not be necessary, prescription use to combat narcolepsy would skyrocket.

You can indeed sometimes hear the birds while watching or playing golf. If not, CBS will pipe in recorded birds from other continents for your enjoyment.

Golf does not change its rules to attract fans. This is true. Rather, golf constantly changes its equipment to attract both fans and players. If the compression of the baseball was eqivalent to today's golf ball, the best home run hitters would hit the ball to approximately Korea. If the wooden baseball bat had evolved like the "Big Bertha" interstellar flight might be possible.

no talent, indeed.

Answer 4

No athletic talent??? It takes more talent to hit a baseball than anything else in professional sports. I don't know too many non-athletes that play center field and chase down fly balls to the gap, lay out and make a spectacular diving catch. Baseball is a thinking mans game. If your'e bored by it and don't get it, that generally mean you have the attention span of a 2 year old and about the same intellect.

Answer 5

I cant remember which chief justice of the Supreme Court said it but it was something like baseball is boring to those that have boring minds.You dont have to like it but I love baseball, You have to be pretty atheletic to play the sport, and with all the sports that we have the consensus is the hardest thing to do in sport is to hit a round ball with a round bat and do it square.With every pitch the defense has to be prepared and with runners on base they have to make the right decision in microseconds that can affect the game..when they are waiting on a pitch the defense still has to make minute corrections that can affect an outcome of a game. You have a guy with a 34 inch peice of wood that is waiting on a ball that is either dipping curving dropping or breaking at 75 to 100 mph with a guy thats throwining it and someone behind him that has to stop it The best hitter that ever lived failed to get a hit 63.3 of the times he batted. No its a wonderful and grand game, and to sum it up best, when an American said to an Englishman in the 1920s "Screw the King", what did the Englishman say..."Screw Babe Ruth"...Baseball is the embodiment of this country..never forget it

Answer 6

For the same reason that you list this about yourself:

"I love hockey, football, basketball, and most other sports".

If you honestly believe that the players have no athletic talent whatsoever, it's simply because you've never really bothered to watch it.

It's America's pastime, yes, but also that of Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Cuba, Aruba, Nicaraugua, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands, Italy, Guam and others.

It's also called the thinking person's sport. It's only boring to those who don't wish to think.

BTW, I happen to think that neither hockey nor football are sports. They are almost complete mayhem, and mayhem is not a sport. But you won't see me here or anywhere else taunting people who disagree with me.

Answer 7

Suspense followed by exciting action followed by inaction. Then the process repeats. There's plenty of time to think and daydream between pitches. Americans love to dream.

It's the national pastime because little equipment was needed at the start...only a bat & ball for up to 9 or 10 players on each team.

Americans are always trying to improve things so more equipment was added over 150 yrs to include sunglasses, spikes, helmets, batting gloves, pine tar, and even steroids.

Because we are also traditionalists, the sport has endured.

Answer 8

There are so many reasons that people like baseball. First all, try to hit a round ball with a round bat square. (what movie did that come from?). It is not easy, plus it is fun to play & watch. Especally a father & son watching a ball game together.Those are memories that will never go away. I can still remember my dad taking me to a professional baseball game, with my older brother. This was before all these sport stations like espn, before anyone even heard of computers or fantasy baseball. You would listen to the ball game on the radio if it was not on television, I still do. I will always love the game of baseball more than any other sport.

Answer 9

Must be you sucked at it.

No athletic talent? Have you ever watched a baseball game? Could you throw a ball 95 MPH? Also, it's generally agreed that the hardest thing to do in sports is hit a moving baseball.

Answer 10

Hmm....you go on the baseball question link asking why people like the sport and then put it down? I'm guessing either you have no talent whatsoever and are mad you aren't a baseball player or you post these dumb questions on all the links because it gets you off by pissing people off....aww, poor you. Get a life.

Answer 11

Perhaps of all American sports, baseball has the longest, most varied and most colorful history. For decades, it stood unchallenged as the national pastime. It was the first sport in America to achieve the status of a big business concern.
You my friend must live outside of the U.S.A.