Baseball is the greatest of the four major sports, end of story.
Football is great.
Basketball is good.
Hockey is...there.
Baseball dwarfs them all.
It may not be the most popular sport in America, but then again nobody cares about NASCAR, but it is the most beautiful sport and in my opinion it is the most difficult sport.
Football may be more exciting, basketball may be action-packed, hell even hockey beats it with regard to speed but there is no doubt in my mind that baseball is a better sport than them all.
Reason #1 why baseball is the greatest sport: It is the hardest.
Why is baseball the hardest? Simple, I can go out onto a basketball court and make almost any shot with a bit of luck. I can run a route on a football field and catch at least 1 out of every 100 passes, at the very least. I can even waddle my souther butt out onto an ice rink and flail a puck into the net. However, in no dream world would I, or any of you reading this (unless you have played high level baseball), be able to stand in the batters box and make contact with a 95 mph fastball or even a knee-buckling 77 mph curveball. Not only that, there is very little chance I would be able to field a ball at third base, let alone stay alive in the process.
When talking about how difficult this game is, I always go back to the greatest quote I've ever heard with regard to hitting. The greatest hitter of all-time, Ted Williams used to say, and I'm paraphrasing here, the hardest thing about baseball is having to hit a round ball with a round bat, squarely.
There is something to be said about the difficulty of the game when the greatest players fail 70% of the time. If you shoot 30% from the field in the NBA, you no longer have a job. Meanwhile, in baseball, you can hit lower than .200 and sign a $10 million dollar contract for this year (Carlos Pena).
Reason #2 why baseball is the greatest sport: The time of year it is played.
Ask anyone what their favorite season of the year is and most of the time they will tell you summer. People love the weather, the lack of school (for us students), vacations and the great feeling we have during this wonderful time of year. Baseball is played during the summer. A time when the days are hot, the nights are warm, the skies are clear and (for those who apply) the beers are cold. I implore you to find a better time than going to a baseball game outside and sitting with a nice cold beverage, be it a beer, soda or water. Except in Dallas where the nights are still 100°, there is nothing better. Yes, baseball may be boring as hell to watch on TV if you are not a die-hard fan, but you cannot argue that it is the best sport to attend.
I had a conversation with a friend of mine this winter about the 2014 Super Bowl that will be held in the New Meadowlands Stadium, the first Super Bowl to be played outdoors. He said that if our beloved Cowboys made it to the Super Bowl and it was 14° outside and he had a ticket, he wouldn't go. Thats mind boggling but it proves a vital point. No one likes the cold, people may be used to it but no one likes the cold. With baseball there is no need to worry about the weather (except for rain). The majority of the games are played outside under a beautifully clear day/night sky, not a single ounce of cold in the air (unless you are counting the beginning and very end of the season, which i am not). You will not hear of anyone who will give up a ticket to the World Series because of the weather, on the contrary. This same friend skipped school and drove back home to Dallas to attend a World Series game this past season. Do you think he would have gone if it were 50° and raining? I am convinced that he would have, there is zero chance he would have missed that game. He would have been willing to attend a chilly and rainy World Series game, keep in mind there would have been at least 1 more, but he would not be willing to sit through 4 hours of cold to see the biggest sporting event in the world with his team involved. That has to say something for the sport of baseball.
Reason #3 why baseball is the greatest sport: Attending a game at the ballpark.
Football is clearly better on TV because there is so much going on. Basketball is better on TV because of the announcers and hockey is better on TV because you can keep track of the puck. With baseball, there is no need for gadgetry or announcers, yes some of the best voices in sports history were radio callers for baseball teams but the fan doesn't require them to understand the game. As a fan, you will lose nothing in translation from the TV to the ballpark.
Some stadiums in other sports come up with gimmicks to keep the fans involved and make sure they can fill the seats. Maybe they have "cheerleaders" who are more like exotic dancers. Maybe they have a costumed man jumping off a trampoline and dunking a ball. Maybe they have a t-shirt cannon and fire t-shirts into the crowd. Baseball doesn't, well at least it didn't until 5 years ago, have any of this. Fans don't need such gimmicks to attend a ball game, don't believe me? Next time you are at a game, find a little kid with a glove on his hand and ask him why he brought it. He will tell you he brought his glove to the park so he could catch a foul ball. The game ITSELF keeps the fan engaged. Hell baseball doesn't even need Jumbo-trons in the outfield to make things exciting, the game on the field is enough to keep everyone engaged.
Call me crazy, but I think the best part of the ballpark is the smell. There is nothing in sports better than walking into a baseball park and taking a nice big whiff of the mixture of beer/summer/peanuts/hotdogs/freshly printed programs. The craziest part about that? Thats before you even make it to your seat. Once you get to your seat, the real beauty takes hold. The strikingly brown dirt and the gorgeous green grass cut to perfection. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks it but that is one of the most beautiful sights in sports. It beats the hell out of a shiny basketball floor with a few lines on it and it certainly beats the hell out of a giant rectangle of grass with numbers on it. Ever baseball diamond is unique and beautiful in its own way.
Reason #4 why baseball is the greatest sport: The uniqueness of the field of play.
All the other major sports have specifications that the field has to adhere to in order to be playable.
Football? 100 yards long, 2 end zones each 10 yards deep.
Basketball? 90 foot long court, specific distances for free throw line and three point line.
Hockey? I don't know the length of the ice but i do know that every sheet of ice is exactly the same in every hockey arena.
Baseball? Yes, the bases have to be 90 feet apart and yes the mound has to be 60 feet away from the plate but what about the outfield fences? There is not a single field in the league that has the same dimensions to left, center, and right. Hell there isn't even a single field in the league that has the same wall height than another park.
Football stadiums are definitely louder and hold more fans but how much fun can it actually be to have the same dimensions as everyone else. Teams are identified by their unique stadiums and the dimensions of said stadium. Boston is known for the Green Monster, Houston is known for the hill in center field, and Oakland is known for the huge amounts of foul territory.
On another level, ever field has the grass cut in a different patter. Maybe that pattern is straight lines, checkered lines or maybe even the skyline of the city. The only unique part of any of the other sports fields of play are the paint jobs of the team logos.
Reason #5 why baseball is the greatest sport: Numbers.
More than any other sport, baseball lives and breathes numbers, without which the game would not be nearly what we know it as today.
For every action that takes place in baseball, there is a number statistic to correlate it to. The same is not true for the rest of the sports. More than anything else the game is describable to the uneducated fan. Something that can't be said for the other major sports.
No other sport even comes close to the amount of statistical numbers baseball has, baseball has Batting Average, On Base Percentage, Caught Stealing %, Steal %, Fielding % and many many many more.
What does basketball have? Shooting %, Free throw % and 3 point % and....thats about it.
What about hockey? Save %
Football? Completion %
Reason #6 why baseball is the greatest sport: The Baseball Hat.
This one pretty much speaks for itself. If you wear a hat, unless its a fedora or a cowboy hat, you are wearing a baseball hat.
Reason #7 why baseball is the greatest sport: Every pitch matters.
Unlike other sports, every single pitch matters in baseball. It may not seem like it but if a pitcher makes a mistake on an 0-1 fastball and leaves it belt high over the plate, the ball is gone and the other team has scored a precious run. Because the sport is so low scoring, every run matters and any single mistake, be it a hit, wild pitch or hit batsman, can make a huge difference in the out come of a game. The only sport that comes close to having this kind of intensity is hockey but in hockey not every possession is going to lead to a scoring opportunity.
A 3 point basket in the beginning of 1st quarter of a game is not going to affect the eventual outcome of the game, many more possessions will take place on both offense and defense for both teams.
Football also comes close to having the same kind of importance for possessions. If a quarterback makes a mistake and throws the ball into the arms of the defender for a pick six, the game's momentum will shift. But every single pitch is important and can change the game.
There is also the feeling of 1-on-1 battle during every at bat. For the most part, the entire game takes place between the pitcher and the batter and that is a beautiful thing. Yes the team in involved in fielding and running the bases but the idea of individual battles dominating the game gives us the possibility of David v. Goliath excitement every night. Better yet, baseball affords us the opportunity to see two of the greatest players, one hitter and one batter, face off against each other to see who is better. You cannot deny the excitement of watching Albert Pujols step into the batters box in the 9th inning against Mariano Riveria. THAT is a beautiful occurrence we all hope and pray for.
Reason #8 why baseball is the greatest sport: No time limit.
Most other sports have a time limit on their games: four 12 minute quarters, two 20 minute halves, three 20 minute periods, but baseball only ends when one team has more points than the other. That means a game can end after the top half of the 9th or after the top half of the 29th inning. However long it takes for a team to score more than the other team is how long the game will go on for. There are no ties and no overtime losses, a game counts the same not matter if it was a 9 inning game or a 29 inning game. A team won't gain a game in the standings for an extra inning loss....cough cough...hockey.
Reason #9 why baseball is the greatest sport: Walk-offs.
There is not greater euphoria than your team hitting a walk-off homer, there simply isn't. Yes, in other sports your team can have the opportunity to hit a last second shot to win the game, but so can the other team. In baseball, if you are the away team, you will never bat last, the home team will always bat with a chance, no matter how slim, to win the game.
This is why walk-offs are so spectacular. They only apply to the home team which means the only fans who will ever be able to watch a walk-off and enjoy it are the home fans. According to the rules of baseball, it is IMPOSSIBLE for the away team to win the game on the last pitch. That is why people go bananas when a walk-off is hit. Don't believe me? Go check out youtube and watch one for yourself.
Reason #10 why baseball is the greatest sport: Chicks love the long ball.
Yea I stole this one from the Greg Maddox, Tom Glavine ESPN commercial from back in the day but it's true.
Well there you have it, the tentative list from Zuck's Mind as to why baseball is ther greatest sport of them all. Don't worry, I will continue to come up with reasons and when I do I will be sure to put out another post detailing each and every one of them, as well as telling you why the other sports simple cower in the shadow of baseball.
Until next time kids.
