Why are you following Baseball?

[TheBeastCoast]

As a sport baseball is easily my favorite. I only ever really just played hockey for fun as a kid growing up where as I absolutely lived and breathed Baseball and still do today. Now with hockey and baseball seasons really not over lapping very much my fandom of the Leafs and Jays is pretty well even at this point. But the sport of baseball itself stands alone at the top.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

Because it's f***ing awesome

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

Also, if you love the sport the games usually go very quickly. I was at a game last year that lasted 2 1/2 hours but felt like I was only there 10 minutes.

 

[habdynasty]

You watch or listen to your team play almost everyday which is awesome.

 

[robertmac43]

One game knock outs are amazing! The Wild Card round is 100% one of the most exciting sport spectacles every year

 

[Baxterman]

Im from Europe. You maybe know, where it is. And as you also maybe know, baseball is here not very popular.

Few years ago there was possible watch MLB also in Slovakia. I did it for some time. I wanted to know, why is it so popular in USA. But every-time after 1/2 Hour i switched to another channel. To watch a game for 3 hours, where the guys mostly miss the ball is for me very boring.

So, my question is, Why do you follow baseball closely? What is so amusing on this sport?

I have a bit of different perspective so I will answer even though as you see it is not exactly the question you asked.

I used to love baseball, it was likely my 2nd or at least 2b sport behind hockey and soccer, but for the past 3 years I have completely stopped following it. I haven't watched a full game in the past 3 years and now usually skip forward on podcasts or turn radio dial if it comes on, especially on Toronto based stations as you we see later.

Some background I grew up in Alberta so we have no hometown team (do not let anyone tell you the Jays are Canada's team or a national team it is complete BS.) So I ended up cheering for the Cardinals starting right around the time LaRussa and Mcgwire arrived. I really started getting into a lot when Pujols joined the team, which was a great time as the team was really starting to turn into something great.

As with what some other posters have said I really liked all the little things that were involved in the game as there are a lot of things going on within the game and in terms of rosters/line-ups/pitching staffs/bull pens etc. You can really go deep looking at different things and it kept me very involved for the summer when hockey was off.

I found two main things have turned me completely off of the sport. The first is the Cardinals continued acceptance of being good not great. They never seem to make a bold move to try and win a world series and instead just seem happy with making the play-offs and going out early. Now I have been lucky to have had seen two WS wins and 3 other appearances (although losing to the pathetic Red Sox was killer). But watching year after year knowing that they wouldn't make a move slowly had me less and less interested in the team.

The 2nd is following baseball in Canada and not being a Jays fan is brutal. The media (and lately the bandwagon fans) are absolutely terrible to listen to. They are homers of the highest level, surpassing anything that I have every heard in hockey and know so little about the sport that it is grating to listen to. You would think the Jays were 10 time defending champs the way they talk about the team the last two years and that Donaldson is a combination of Ruth, rioded up Bonds, Clemons and Gretzky all rolled into one. The obnoxious way they try to sell the team as some sort of big deal nationally isn't just completely untrue it is offputting. The good news is they now have an even "better" player in Vlad Guerro JR who I think Jays fans expect to put up a stat line of roughly 1.000-375-1,000 with 345 stolen bases as well.

I have now found that Football has taken the place of Baseball and I much prefer watching the games and find the intracies of that game much more interesting. It may have been that I was never really that big a fan of baseball and it was more the Cardinal teams of the 2000's that grabbed my attention but I can certainly understand you having a hard time getting into as I have not missed a minute of baseball since I left.

 

[robert terwilliger]

you are going to catch a lot of shit (deservedly so) for your take on the cardinals. especially when there are people here who would kill for one world series appearance.

 

[darko]

Greatest game on the planet.

 

[darko]

No matter how hard people try to explain it to me, I somehow always end up knowing less about the sport than I started knowing.

If you can't pick up cricket you have no hope understanding Aussie Rules Football.

 

[Satan]

Sabermetrics.


Also, the game itself is perfect.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I found two main things have turned me completely off of the sport. The first is the Cardinals continued acceptance of being good not great. They never seem to make a bold move to try and win a world series and instead just seem happy with making the play-offs and going out early. Now I have been lucky to have had seen two WS wins and 3 other appearances (although losing to the pathetic Red Sox was killer). But watching year after year knowing that they wouldn't make a move slowly had me less and less interested in the team.

The Cardinals haven't been good enough for you?

*flips over PNC Park*

One game knock outs are amazing! The Wild Card round is 100% one of the most exciting sport spectacles every year

Personally I think having the 2nd best record in baseball shouldn't require a game of 'who has the better pitcher' to get into the real playoffs, but that's just me.

If you can't pick up cricket you have no hope understanding Aussie Rules Football.

 

[Baxterman]

The Cardinals haven't been good enough for you?

*flips over PNC Park*

They have been good enough for me as I loved watching them in the 2000's but 3-5 years ago they were frustrating to follow as they seemed unwilling to make a big move to go for it and instead kept young pieces to ensure they would stay good but not actually contend.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

after three work stoppages i'm pretty lukewarm on hockey.

Stanley Cup Playoffs >> MLB Postseason and WS

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Stanley Cup Playoffs >> MLB Postseason and WS

Well that's definitely not true. Maybe the first round of the NHL playoffs I can see an argument for but the baseball playoffs in general are just magic. Look at what we've had the last 3 years or so. Just incredible.

 

[Voight]

I literally don't care to watch a reg. season game on TV but come playoffs its awesome. I've been a fan my whole life and also being in fantasy sports helps.

 

[Cassano]

Stanley Cup Playoffs >> MLB Postseason and WS

Definitely not true the last 3 seasons.

 

[darko]

Stanley Cup Playoffs >> MLB Postseason and WS

Nothing compares to MLB postseason.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Cricket only appears to be more complicated than baseball because the concepts are so very different from other team sports. If you had grown up on cricket, it'd be just like baseball - fairly easily understood on the surface but with a myriad of complexities in the details of tactics, strategy, rules etc.

I didn't grow up on cricket but got to know it fairly well. However, as I didn't really have a team to cheer for I just didn't keep up with it. That's the thing with sport, it's always a different 'ballgame' if you want to follow a sport that you have no direct relationship with via the place you've grown up in or your family and friends. At the end of the day, you only have so many free hours in the day and you will prioritize what's near and dear to you.

 

[bluesfan94]

you are going to catch a lot of **** (deservedly so) for your take on the cardinals. especially when there are people here who would kill for one world series appearance.

And especially when the Cardinals tried to sign Price and Heyward and trade for Stanton.

 

[Bjorn Le]

I think it's a sport that has a lot of misconceptions. I'm big on the premise that, psychologically, if you go into something expecting it to be boring, bad, or not fun you're going to find seasons to not like something. On the other hand, if you go into it open-minded, you might change your perspective. I'm guilty of the latter when it comes to sports like American Football and Soccer (though I've tried to get into football, and I'm slowly changing my mind on soccer). For baseball, everybody who knows a little bit about it knows the games are long and that there is supposedly a lot of "downtime." And it's true, there are games that are mind-numbingly boring, but that's true of any sport.

I went to a game with a friend from South Africa a couple years ago. He was a big rugby fan (great sport), and enjoyed cricket as well. Knew nothing about baseball, other than that it was a batted ball sport like cricket, and that it was supposedly really boring. It ended up being a fairly exciting game and he loved it. He came into it with an open-mind, and found something he really liked. He also had this misconception that only Americans and Canadians played it, but when he saw that this game had people from all over the world in it (Japan, Australia, Mexico, Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, Venezuela, South Korea, etc.) he really liked that. Finding out it was a global sport really helped to stem those stereotypes.

Personally, I was into baseball as a kid in the late 1990s and early 200s, but got out of it during high school. I got back into it the season before Jose Bautista's breakthrough year and I honestly watch more games than I do hockey. Jose Bautista's explosion probably helped me stay with it. It's just a great sport, and I really enjoy the fact that all interactions in the game are 1 on 1 (fielder vs. batter, batter vs. pitcher). It's part of what makes the game brilliant for stats, which also helps get you into the sport. I'll be the first one to recognize the limitations of advanced statistics, but it's hard to ignore how much it can help getting you into the game.

 

[PG Canuck]

Also, if you love the sport the games usually go very quickly. I was at a game last year that lasted 2 1/2 hours but felt like I was only there 10 minutes.

Especially if you get drunk after drink at the ballpark. It always seems to go by in 10 minutes when I do that.

 

[PG Canuck]

you are going to catch a lot of **** (deservedly so) for your take on the cardinals. especially when there are people here who would kill for one world series appearance.

How about just one playoff appearance? That would basically be a World Series win in Seattle.

 

[robert terwilliger]

the mariners have never appeared in the world series but cardinals superfan over here is upset because the cardinals just won't move from being good to great.

 

[Machinehead]

You have to understand pitching and appreciate pitching.

Then the guys missing the ball is the exciting part.

And once you appreciate pitching, it makes the offense that much better when it happens.

 

[Machinehead]

I like it a lot more than hockey

I like hockey better as a sport, but as products, MLB takes the NHL behind the woodshed.