Baseball is so boring!
28 July 2008 Sport
I somehow stumbled onto ESPN on Saturday afternoon and they were showing the New York Yankees play the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Fenway park is seen as the home of baseball from what I can pick up, and it seats around 40000 fans.
Baseball is huge in the States and I’ve always wondered what the fascination is? After watching this game, I can tell you the only conclusion I can come to is that baseball fans are sad and boring people.
Its a pitchers game
The problem I see is that baseball is it’s a pitchers game. They throw so fast, that as a batter, its pretty much a guessing game of where and when to swing. In 9 innings, exactly 1 run was scored. Not a home run, just a couple of hits, and eventually 1 New York player got around to score. *Yawn*. All you ever hear the commentators says is “Swing and a miss!”. How boring is that?
With regards to skill, the only skills I really saw came from the pitchers ability to throw curve balls, swing balls, dropping balls (when the ball curves downwards as it gets close to the batter) and really fast balls.
There were 1 or 2 moments of skill by the fielders, but by using mits, it takes the skill out of catching and fielding. *Yawn*
Baseball versus Cricket
5 day cricket test matches sometimes can get a little boring, but there are passages of the game that are really exciting. Both teams can attack and defend while on the field, where as in baseball, there is no attack or defense.
Also, take the 20/20 format of cricket. Whats the purpose of it? To see batsmen smash the ball to all corners of the field! Attacking cricket is really awesome to watch, whether you batting or bowling!
So, baseball fans, what the hell is the fascination?
Adii
Funny Mail
Mike Stopforth
8 comments so far...
I’d have to agree that baseball is boring. I’d go much further and say that televised Rugby, Cricket and Football are all a total waste of time.
With the combined hours and energy this country has wasted parked in front of the idiot box shouting about nothing we could probably have rebuilt Koeberg, purged the government of corrupt morons or cured Aids.
Of course I realise that this may be a somewhat extreme point of view, but hey its mine, and now its out there.
11:07 am
While I disagree with just about everything you just said, I’d like to point out that what you saw isn’t typical of your average baseball game. The game between the Red Sox and the Yankees that you witnessed featured two of the best pitchers in professional baseball pitching very very well, even for them. Such games are often referred to as a “pitcher’s duel”, the average final baseball game score is more like 5-4.
As for the rest of what you wrote, the only thing I can say that is both concise and polite is that you just don’t know what you are talking about or are most likely not very familiar with the game of baseball. I can assure you that in addition to the pitchers, all the other position players (especially on the two teams you witnessed) are very skilled at what they do both batting and fielding and command very large sums of money applying those skills everyday.
1:13 pm
@Luke - you view on sport is an extreme! :-) I love watching sport.
@DDR - a pitchers game or not, it was very boring to watch. On the subject of skills, don’t confuse money and skills. Baseball, like most sports on television, are all about marketing, thus the reason for large salaries and so forth. So just because a player earns a lot of money, doesn’t make him brilliant.
Cricket is a far more skillful game than baseball. The same with rugby being a far superior game to NFL football.
Why do baseball players use mits? To make catching and fielding easier, thus my argument about skills. I won’t disagree with your pitchers argument. They are really the only skilled players on the field. And the fact that some of baseballs “best” batters are overweight and unfit, makes my argument that they not really sportsmen or have much skill other than power hitting, even greater!
Oh, and baseball’s World Series. Who competes in that? The US only? Haha!
Baseball, in my opinion, is a joke. :-)
6:21 pm
I totally agree. You know what’s really exciting, when football players take a dive and spend a few minutes holding their ankle and writhing around like they’ve just been shot or something.
And then they get up and continue playing, miraculously. Yep, nothing gets my heart a-racin’ quite like that.
9:19 pm
@Jon - Haha! You watch the soccer just to see players diving and acting? Shame dude, no wonder its so boring for you!
I watch the soccer for the skill, goals and attacking action!
8:16 am
Guess your a cricket fan! As a younster I started playing cricket and was as you put it got ‘bored’ from the first game. I had a father who both played and watched cricket till the cows came home. I on the other hand could not stand watching a 5 day games and even 3 days games. Come on talk about how boring the British can make things - they’re so long winded!
Anyway, I was introduced to baseball via a couple of my friends at a local club in Cape Town. Well the rest is history. Its so exciting to play and you get to bat at least 3 or more times. Unlike cricket if you are out for a duck then your done. You could stand out in the field forever and never really get a ball especailly if the batsman plays safe. At baseball you only get 3 strike so you better swing or you are out, so there are always hits to anywhere in the field.
Watching a professional game like Boston vs Yankees one doesn’t expect to much to happen but when it does then you’ll see skill.
It not easy taking a round bat and hitting a ball thrown at 95MPH at that distance. There no such thing as blocking. You either it hit or get out of there. BUT you get to go again.
I played baseball against the likes of Kallis and WP and guess what they wore gloves too. They also enjoy it as it happened more than once.
Why you think they went with 20/20 because cricket is becoming a boring game that fewer people are watching. I watch many a game at Newlands and enjoy it as it’s a sport that has its own skill level as do other sports.
Have you ever played both games or are you one who sits at home a supports TV advertising?????
7:33 pm
Look I don’t like cricket, I love it…. But there is no game like baseball. The best game with the best field ever.
More skill is needed for baseball than cricket for sure… firstly there are far more rules in baseball than cricket so it’s more about the style of the game and there are stats for every single play on the field, cricket the fielder drops a ball big laugh and go on. Baseball error gets recorded against that fielder, pitcher and team. Secondly more balls get thrown to the player by player, like a double play…i want to see a second base catch a screamer of a throw to his chest, catch it, touch the base get out the way of the runner trying to take you out and make the same type of throw to fist… takes the skill out of catching…ha ha write, if so, a wicket keeper that has gloves, does this make a wicket keeper the worst fielder on the team? But let me tell you there is a skill in fielding with a baseball glove and the transition of the ball to glove to throwing hand and getting the runner out. It looks easy but come try and you will find out…
Then there is the boundaries, take Cape Town’s cricket ground, a 6 hit out the stadium over the stands over the railway track. Wow big hit, laid back got under it full on pull shot, nice… in baseball terms far foul, say it was fair, routine catch for the outfielder, a few feet sort of the shortest boundary wall. That is just one of the big differences and you can not face 20 balls to get your eye in first.
Only skilled player on the baseball field is the pitcher? wrong, what about the catcher behind the batter? No skill involved there? Don’t know what you talking about do you?
The World Series is the worlds best baseball teams playing so yes the teams come from USA but the line up is not just American players. Were you maybe looking for “World Baseball Classic” that is played by countries teams.
Okay this is way to much tipping let me get back to work…
4:39 pm
Yeah, you kind of have to be there to enjoy the beer and peanuts while you watch… Also, minor league games tend to be more exciting because the players are young and there are more hits… If you ever visit New York, check out a Brooklyn Cyclones game instead of the Yankees or Mets!
Cheers,
Julienne
10:00 pm
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