Let me count the ways

[khaosworks]

It's faster than cricket, but more leisurely than football. Like cricket, like football, it's a thinking man's game, and one done with style and skill rather than brute force. Yes, I said football. Not American Football.

There is no time limit. You play until it's over, and it really ain't over for anyone until it's really over. A 3 run lead can evaporate in half an inning. Hell, an 11 run lead can evaporate almost as quickly, like it did with the Oakland A's this week. But they still managed to win.

The possibilities. The duel between pitcher and batter - the suspense in figuring out, in the thousand and one possibilities between mound and plate, whether it's going to be a grounder, a fly, or a bloop, or any of the possibilities in between. Will the pitcher walk him? Will the first baseman steal second? Is it going to be a force play? A sacrifice bunt? Should the runner try for a double even as the ball is being scooped up, readied for a throw to second? Can the outfielder reach that ball before it flies into the stands? All of that, compressed into that split-second moment of a ball being thrown that scant distance of 60 feet and 6 inches and the crack (or not) of wood against horsehide.

The dance. There is something inherently elegant about the way the component parts of a baseball team work together - more so than football. Even a well-practiced and regular 6-3 play to get the runner out at first has a certain grace to it, as does the lunge as a baseman avoids a pickoff throw or the slide into a base or home plate. And as exciting as an outfielder turning a potential home run into an out is for showcasing individual ability, I can't think of anything smoother and more delightlful to watch than a clockwork precise 6-4-3 double play, Tinker to Evers to Chance^[1].

The history. No other game I know is so intimately tied with a country's history. From the Civil War onward to the first World Series to the Civil Rights movement, baseball has been generational and paralleled America's development to an extent that is remarkable and also admirable. It was a way for immigrants to "become American". It gave opportunities for boys and men who would otherwise have languished in poverty and obscurity to become legends. It had non-pareil personalities - Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Rube Wadell, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Satchel Page, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle... even the goats are remembered, oftentimes with surprising tenderness - Johnny Pesky, Fred Merkel, Bill Buckner. The Chicago Black Sox Scandal, the All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League, Casey Stengel, Branch Rickey... the list goes on, a century and a half of stories and drama. And let's not even start on the Curse of the Bambino.

The statistics. Yes, there were differences between playing in the 1890s and the 1990s, and statistics can be manipulated or misinterpreted, but there are few other sports that keep stats on individual players so you can compare them over the decades. And in any century, in any ballpark, a (say).350 batting average is still pretty damn impressive, and no matter how broad the definition, you can still tell it's much better than a .118 hitter.

The schmaltz. Americans have a tendency to romanticize baseball, because it's what their fathers taught them and it's what they teach their own children and it's a bonding experience for all ages. Sports heroes are the first heroes a child has apart from his father who are flesh and blood. I'm an incurable romantic, so I buy into that totally. It's true that modern day baseball has little to be romantic about, what with the strikes and the commercialization. But even in all that you get the occasional inspirational tale - a Jimmy Morris, perhaps, or more recently, a Jim Rushford. If you ask me, I'd almost rather watch players who actually seem to enjoy the game, want to be in the game and share that joy with the fans than players of ability.

I won't comment on the Show and the discussion and analysis of games until I've actually been to see one in person. Just a few thoughts, probably more in future, noted down, on the game.

What are your favorite spectator sports and why?

[1] Yes, I know Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance weren't really as great a double play combination as legend has led us to believe, and they probably don't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, either, but they're still the most famous because of that poem.

Comments

[swisscheesed.livejournal.com]

Eh I found a baseball but it's got the American Museum of Natural History logo on it (quite small) -- because they had an exhibition on the history of baseball. Want or not?

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

I'll take whatever I can get at this point, really.

package

[kyttn.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping to be able to send out the mitt next weekend (have to get my son to bring it back from his dad's house). It won't be new, but it should fit :)

*hugs*

Re: package

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Wow. Thanks so much!