Baseball

I'm going to try to get back into baseball this summer. It's been about 3 years since I've been, what I will call, 'involved' with baseball. I suppose I have to pick a team out here just to get behind as a home team. I went to a Dodger's game with Kevin the other week and I liked it. It's funny. I still like the Cubs (though I won't be able to watch too many games out here) and many Dodger's are ex-Cubs; Nomar, Juan Pierre (best name in baseball). Anyway, I'll do my best to get back in the swing. Pun.

On another note, there hasn't been a really good baseball movie in a while. There should. For the Love of the Game is on with Kevin Costner, and it blows, mediocre at best. Anyway, you got Field of Dreams and Bull Durham (good job Kevin on those twins), A League of Their Own, and Major League (which if you haven't seen it in a while, check it out again. It's a cut above.) and, arguably, The Natural. I guess that's five which is more than most other sports, but the newest one is A League of Their Own. That was a decade ago.

Anyway, I write this because I had my baseball talk with my students the other day. I'm sure people have talked about this before, probably published something, but I came up with this on my own. Anyway, my students were remarking about how great some sport was and I had to sit them down and tell them about baseball. They're so quick to say how boring it is, etc., but haven't taken a good look at it.

First, it's the best sport to watch live. You couldn't sell out 100 games of any other sport. Some might argue football, but I don't think so. Baseball is a long term sport. It's about consistency and perfection (I'll get to perfection in a minute) over a long period of time. Football, yes it is full contact and injuries are more prominent, but that sport is a sprint and momentum can weigh much more heavily than many other sports (figuratively speaking) namely because it's so short. Sitting in the stands is calming with your beer, keeping score, and spitting sunflower seeds. Tough to beat.

Second, it's arguably the most fun sport to play. Obviously people will disagree for a different sport they have more success at or experience with since youth. But, give it a chance if you haven't. Anyway, if you want to play catch, you don't need a whole lot: two gloves, a ball, and about 25 feet of space. Most other sports you need much more organization and acreage of space. Of course if you want to play a full game you need a diamond, 10 people, the whole shibang. At the very least, it's one of the most relaxing sports to play.

Finally, the game is perfect. Argue all you want about this one; it's non-negotiable. It's a game of perfection. People say it's a game of inches, but every sport is when you think about it, so that seems bad reasoning. Back to the point, it's a game of perfection so much that they actually count the errors. Do you believe that? They count them. And it's perfectly common to have games with no errors. Think of every other sport; penalties, fouls, rules being broken. The only rule that's usually broken is when a pitcher gets called for a Balk which is rare. Other than that, I can't think of too many other rules that get broken. Besides, think of how good you have to be to play professionally. There's no luck in baseball (now this is from Fever Pitch which I forgot to mention earlier, which is actually pretty decent, but baseball is the medium rather than the point of that movie), you can get lucky in other sports, have a good game, but in baseball you either can hit a curveball or you can't, there's no faking it. They are the best of the best. There's triple-A, double-A, etc. as a system in place to get the best. Yes, much of the talent is natural, but they work for it and weed out the weaker ones. Not that football players don't work for it, but look at lineman, for example. Yes, they need talent but they're just big, you know? They ate a lot, worked out a lot, and ate some more. They can't eat a bunch to hit a 92 mph split-finger.

Listen, I'm right. Accept it.