Sure football is in full swing as college conferences start to figure out the clear leaders and the NFL starts rendering some teams completely irrelevant for the next six weeks, but baseball…
Baseball is the best sport there is, hands down. It is the sport of common people and intellectuals alike.
Did you watch the World Series and the playoff games leading up to it? Drama, heroics, unlikely plays…it was amazing, and more of you need to realize that.
Sure, baseball has a long list of rules, but it’s wonderful because of its complexity. Football and basketball are cool, and so is hockey, I guess, but nothing quite compares to the fun in the sun.
So wake up America! You might just begin to embrace your own national pastime again.
- Baseball doesn’t discriminate.
You don’t have to be seven feet tall or weigh 330 pounds to play. No matter how big/small you are, if you can run, throw, field and hit with distinction, someone will pay you to play ball.
- It’s not over until it’s over.
Baseball is the only sport in which the team that is winning must continue to play the game.
Unlike other sports, a comeback is always possible until the final out is made. Dylan Applegate, a College of Charleston assistant coach for the Cougar baseball team, noted that a baseball game cannot simply be “put on ice.”
“There is no clock to run out,” Applegate said. “You have to let the other team have their chance.”
- Baseball is synonymous with summer.
It is the only major sport played in the summer, giving fans the best opportunities to follow and enjoy the games that much more.
There’s nothing like a beer and a dog at the ballpark.
- You can watch baseball every day for seven months of the year.
From March until the end of October, the boys of summer play 162 games plus the postseason, keeping fans entertained during the work week as opposed to a certain sport, which is only played on Sunday…ahem.
Avid Baseball fan Brendan Kelly sure respects the concept of playing so many games.
“Nothing else in the world of sports is harder than putting a bat on a fastball,” Kelly said. “And that’s the easiest pitch to hit. Not to mention, these guys play every day.”
- Every venue is unique.
Home Field advantage goes beyond a noisy crowd.
Baseball players have to be able to perform in ballparks with completely dissimilar dimensions and attributes.
For example, a lazy fly ball to left field at Minute Maid Park in Houston is likely to be a homerun, while the same hit at Fenway Park in Boston will almost definitely turn out to be a single due to the nearly 40-foot wall dubbed, “The Green Monster.”
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- The All-Star Game.
Since 2003, the league that wins the All-Star game is awarded home field advantage in the World Series.
Baseball is the only of the four major American sports where the All-Star game counts for something and is in turn a good, competitive game to watch.
- Baseball has the best fans.
Not only do baseball fans have the attention span to follow their team each day for seven months every year, but they care about the history and statistics more so than fans of other sports.
In fact, you can find a picture of a Cubs fan in the dictionary if you look up the word, “devotion.” (and probably under “delusional” as well!)
So get your cap, buy a beer and a dog, and enjoy America’s greatest game.
-by Patrick Kelly
CougarBuzz 