Taking a swing at baseball in The Guardian

[Cowperson]

Even if you're an ardent baseball fan, you will probably die laughing at this artful and hilarious column putting down baseball and other American sports as published in England's Guardian newspaper:

Now here's an odd thing: most American males over the age of 30 will parrot the line that soccer is "deadly" to watch. And yet every week throughout the summer, hundreds of thousands of Americans (all allegedly cursed with the attention span of hyperactive gnats) dutifully troop into state-of-the-art mega-stadiums to spend three hours (or longer) watching baseball - a sport so glacially tedious that it makes even the dullest MLS soccer game look like Topless Humans v. Gorillas No-Rules Roller Derby On Crystal Meth.

Baseball is the Emperor's New Clothes writ large - make it dull, and the mugs'll still come. Watching the Philadelphia Phillies host the Washington Nationals earlier this year reminded me of the scene in Dawn Of the Dead where the zombies in the shopping mall travel up and down the escalators and stare into shop windows. There's no real reason for them to be there anymore, but still they keep coming.

Hahahaha . .. . . lots more like that in here:

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/americansports...1560110,00.html

Cowperson

[troutman]

Didn't England just go bonkers over winning some cricket tournament? Now there is a "sport" more tedious than baseball.

http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/archiv...08/cricket.php

It's not that I hate it. I just find it boring, tedious, boring, boring, boring, slow, boring, and, er, boring.

Whither, cricket?

http://www.abcofcricket.com/Article_Librar...art72/art72.htm

[Jiggy_12]

Meh.

Baseball is dull to those that aren't fans, but those that play the game and appreciate the talent level don't even think twice about the pace.

I love watching baseball. I don't really care that its slow moving, I love the gamesmanship. Hockey is fast paced, and that's great. But a sport/game doesn't have to be fast paced to be enjoyable to watch.

I find alot of golf fans also watch baseball, they seem to be of the same breed. There are enough scenarios and statistics to process in baseball, that waiting for the next pitch to come isn't a big nuisance to me.

I love everything about the sport and wouldn't change it.

[Patek23]

I played pretty competively in Baseball, but I have to say it takes a higher skill level to play Cricket, It really falls down to the underlying in-security of your run of the mill North American that everything thats on this side of the Atlantic is better.


I don't mind baseball that much, don't watch soccer much because my understanding of it is little and I don't watch Cricket but after giving all of the sports at some level I wil say that Cricket is the hardest to play.

[CaramonLS]

I watch baseball mostly for the pitching. It can really be special when a Pitcher is working, has a game plan and is able to execute.

I just enjoy watching a deep level of stratagy like that.

[browna]

I have no problem having a baseball game on in the background on a summer rainy afternoon, and interest increases into the playoffs, but I do think he's bang on with some observations, even if they are communicated in an over the top fashion.

I think the biggest reason that 75% of the games are snoozefests is the 162 game season. Stats are the only things to keep things interesting, as he puts it.

Now, because of the tradition drilled into fans and purists, and the fact that it would screw all time season stats (I can only imagine how dull it was when there were half the teams playing 162 games back in the 50's) there's little chance they'll tinker with the season length.

But its hard for even the most hardcore of fans to get pumped up for 81 home games in the middle of summer. Sure there's strategy and a cerebral element to the game, but often that's announcer created to distract from the fact that its boring as hell out on the field that day.

[Cowperson]

This goes to my assertion that the reason hockey is not popular in the USA is not the product but rather culture . . . . .

Why is baseball popular in America but not in Europe? Why is soccer the most popular game in the world but not in America? Why is cricket a riveting product in many locales in the world but baseball is not? And vice versa?

Culture not product.

Cowperson