Baseball is Life...and it's crunch time.
"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball....It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again." - Terence Mann
The great John Fogerty reminds us every year, with “Well, beat the drum and hold the phone - the sun came out today! We're born again, there's new grass on the field.” New grass on the field? Summertime? No, baseball time! For some, baseball season is merely a distraction leading up to the next football season. For me, baseball is something different, and I have to ask myself why.
Disclaimer: My baseball career petered out after Little League, as I was a decent fielder, but just couldn’t hit the ball. From those early days, I was hooked on the game, especially college baseball. I won’t give away my allegiance, but here’s a hint - 6 National Championships. And I was hoping I would be writing this as my team was headed to Omaha, but I’ll watch anyway.
As a teenager with no Major League team in my hometown, I was in the market for one. Lucky for me, this was the late 70’s, and this great new thing entered the broadcast arena - the Super Station, delivering all sorts of programming across the country. The two Super Stations were WGN and TBS, and the one thing both of them had in common was a Major League baseball team in their backyard. Not sure exactly why, but I chose TBS and the Atlanta Braves. Dale Murphy was a rookie, and the Braves only won 70 games that year, but I was able to watch all 162 games if I was so inclined. From that point on, my loyalty paid off in spades - Murphy, Jones, Justice, and of course, the Big 3. It was such a treat to watch 3 pitchers dominate the National League, all with completely different stuff. Still have no idea how Sid Bream scored from 2nd on a hard single by Francisco Cabrera in ‘92 to send the Braves to the World Series. I remember thinking my mother could outrun the Braves catcher. Nonetheless, the Braves came from behind in the 9th, scoring 3 runs to beat the Pirates.
I would oftentimes flip on TBS, and the game would be in the middle innings - no matter, I picked it up and rode it to the end. My father would constantly hound me with one question, asking son, how can you watch this crap - it’s 3 minutes of action spread out over 3 hours? Thinking back, he was right, that is, depending on how you define action, and whether it is the action that is the most attractive part of the sport.
Although I always treated my father’s question as a rhetorical one, perhaps he really wanted to know. Well, Pops, here you go - the Top 10 reasons why baseball is the best sport going.
No time limit
Just as there is no crying in baseball, there’s no taking a knee either. The winning team can’t run out the clock - each team is awarded 27 outs, divided equally into 9 innings. This structure fosters a sense of optimism - as long as there is one out left, anything can happen, and often does.
Defense controls the ball
Most team sports boil down to one thing - the offense develops a strategy to score, with the defense reacting with its own strategy - the more successful offense wins. But in baseball, it is the offense that must react to the defense to score, with the initiation of each play starting with the defense controlling the ball.
Game of failure and redemption
What other sport creates heroes out of people who fail at their job 70% of the time? Reminds me of those classes in college where a score of 25% was curved to an A. Although I was happy to take the A, it did have a tendency to wear on my psyche, as I could not help but think I didn’t know crap about the subject matter. Now imagine getting up day after day knowing failure is coming your way, but redemption may be one base knock away.
Strategy
The symmetrical structure of the game appeals to my OCD - it must be the 3s. Baseball is always called a “game within a game” - I think of it more like the movie Inception, where there exists a game within a game within a game within a game … ad infinitum. The strategy for a given game will get adjusted every inning, every AB, every pitch. This constant adjustment draws the viewer into the minds of the participants.
Statistics
Don’t get me started with statistics - it seems like every year, baseball comes up with a new way to measure something. It’s not enough to have batting average(BA), which is the simplest statistic in baseball - number of hits/number of at bats. But how do we know if a player hits for power or is merely a “punch and judy” hitter? Enter slugging percentage(SLP), not to be outdone by on base percentage(OBP) or on base plus slugging percentage(OPS). Baseball.
Romanticism
Romanticism may be too strong of a word - perhaps magical is a better word to describe the storylines that write themselves. And the fact that you are not sitting in a theater with Dolby Surround Sound designed to heighten your senses only makes it more magical. For instance, take a player who starts a season as an All American, playing in only 22 games due to a wrist injury. After the 22-0 start, his team makes it to the postseason, when the All American leads the team in batting average, hitting in the 9 hole. Due to his injury, however, he has lost all power, leaving him without a homerun all season. Championship game, bottom 9, down a run, 2 outs with 1 runner on. And on the 1st pitch no less!
He became the 1st player in the history of baseball, at any level, to hit a walk-off homerun in a championship game. And if you watched the clip, you may have noticed the manager of the Boston Red Sox lying face down on the infield, with his head in his hands.
“How can you not be romantic about baseball? - Billy Beane
Superstitions
“Never f*^k with a winning streak.” As if we needed Crash Davis to remind us! But here’s the thing about superstitions - they’re not just for players. Recently, after spending several innings without moving a muscle for fear of stopping the 2 out hit parade I was enjoying, my daughter said “Dad, you know that doesn’t do anything.” When the game ended, basking in the glow of a victory and my part in it, I took a minute to reflect on my behavior. Cognitively, I know it didn’t have a thing to do with anything, but perhaps it allowed me to connect with the action at the player’s level. Or maybe it’s just fun having a strap of polypropylene stuck in my rally cap?
Don’t judge me. Prior to Game 1 of the 2009 College World Series, I was doing a little tailgating outside the ‘Blatt when I was approached by a fellow fan who handed me a strap from an old lawn chair. Unfazed, I gladly accepted the gift, eagerly awaiting the story behind its power. Typical story, really - this man was listening to the 2000 CWS Final outside of the park. Completely frustrated in the 4th inning, he threw his lawn chair into the tree he was sitting under. Stewing and pacing for the next several innings, while both his team floundered and the chair remained stuck in the tree, he began to feel ridiculous for tossing the chair like a child. He actually stepped away from the action long enough to rig a makeshift ladder and reached high enough to extricate his chair. Exhausted from the ordeal, he sat in his chair, took a breath and got back to the action. His team still down 3, with only 5 outs to go, but at least the evidence of his tantrum was gone. Home run, walk, home run, game tied, walk off championship in 9th - it was definitely the chair. And now I had a piece of it - by the way, it worked in 2009 as well!
Sounds Of The Game
Baseball has a variety of sounds that contribute to the auditory smorgasbord that engulfs our senses. In one play you may hear the crack of the bat, the roar of anticipation, only to be followed by the collective exhale of 60,000 fans when the ball barely reaches the warning track. No worries - the organist knows exactly what to do to get the crowd going again. And then you are distracted by 20 seconds of a song signaling your favorite player is approaching the dish. And who doesn’t know every word to “Take me out to the ballgame”?
My favorite sounds of the game come through my radio speaker. There’s something about hearing the radio play-by-play guy announce the “wind and the pitch”, anticipating the sound of the bat hitting the ball or the crowd responding before the announcer can formulate his words. But, without a doubt, the best part of the radio broadcast is the chance to hear your guy - the one who is torn between being an objective observer and a fan. And on those “made for Hollywood” moments, the emotion overwhelms him, and that’s OK with me. If you viewed the walk-off homerun above, check out what it sounded like on the radio from one of the greatest to call the game. Radio version of walk-off.
Oddities and Weirdness
Baseball, at times, is a game that doesn’t quite make sense. It is the only sport where action can take place outside the lines that designate the field of play - a player can catch a fly ball outside the field of play and still record an out. The pole that extends vertically at each corner of the outfield is called the foul pole, but if a ball hits it, the ball is fair. The game of baseball will also give you the opportunity to see things you thought you would never see, like Randy Johnson literally blowing up a dove with a 95 mph fastball. Just watch a game - you never know what you’ll see.
Slang
I’m not exactly sure why there is so much slang in the game of baseball - perhaps it is a way to let baseball aficionados communicate with each other using some coded language. Most of the slang describes some sort of action within the game - can of corn, seeing eye single, high cheese, uncle charley, and on and on. However, I’m not sure if I’m down with the slang that celebrates a player’s failure into eternity. I’m sure Mario Mendoza tried his best to hit above 0.200, but that’s baseball.
Perhaps my favorite use of slang is the word “Blue” for umpires. Sitting in the grandstand behind home plate for a CWS game, I yelled “You’re My Boy, Blue” after a called strike. My younger brother gave me the side eye like I was speaking Chinese. Needless to say, he hadn’t seen Old School yet.
Ok, I know that there are far more than 10 best things about baseball, but I tried. Please leave me a comment with your additions.
Remember when I said there were only two Super Stations? Well, my sister picked WGN and has been a suffering Cubs fans (save for one year) for over 30 years. When I told her about this article, I asked her to give me her reasons why she loves baseball so much. After thinking about it for a day or so, she got back to me with perhaps the best answer yet. She simply said “I don’t know why I like it so much. I just turn on the game and suddenly I am immersed in it - without even knowing why”. Great answer - someone call Kevin Costner.
Are you sure you are not a literary scholar just posing as some average Joe??? Loved this piece. I especially enjoy the whole nostalgia of the game. Way back when, in 1994 I had partial season tickets to the Texas Rangers at the now not so new but then brand new stadium in Arlington. One of the first games I attended I brought my son, age 5 and my dad, well old. From the minute we arrived all he talked about was how beautiful the stadium was and how it felt like the Brooklyn Dodgers and the NY Yankee's stadiums that as he said took my mom when they were "keeping company" Inning after inning he would tell my son about this game or that game he saw back in the day. I think he really felt nostalgic when he gave my son $.50 for an ice cream. I didn't have the heart to tell prices have gone up since 1939. It truly was the thought that counted. It was a great way to spend the afternoon and he loved it. SO much so that every time thereafter I would visit him in NY a neighbor or friend of his would say wow I hear TX is beautiful and what a stadium you have! This was the same man who walked in to my home which I thought was pretty nice and his comment was "how the hell many BATTROOMS" do you have in this house..."Immediately followed up by his tales of 5 brothers 1 bathroom etc. But what a stadium. it also reminded me of his line when one of my children were at bat either in softball or baseball you could hear Poppa Al say "that's the way you work it" and "okay making him trow it to you!" Nostalgia and the sport! Thanks for making me reminisce.
Great article. Baseball is glorious.