Are they going to drink beer and wear shorts while they play?
I respectfully disagree with you on this one, but don't want to give you the "disagree."
MLB: The best thing about baseball...
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Are they going to drink beer and wear shorts while they play?
I respectfully disagree with you on this one, but don't want to give you the "disagree."
Um, I said softball. Actual real softball. Not lob-the-ball-to-the-carpet ball.
Edit: respectfully.
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I like baseball. The #1 problem for me with baseball versus soccer is that soccer games take half the time, literally, many times and there aren't continuous commercial breaks. I'm far from some soccer slappy but give me that TV product any day over baseball.
I love baseball. I don't like soccer.
Yet I will totally agree that generally speaking baseball is not a good TV product much of the time, and soccer is pretty good on TV. I have rarely watched soccer, usually it's like background when NBC happens to be on. Even though I don't like the sport or care about it, I can see how people can find it compelling on TV, and the length is a massive advantage.
Personally baseball has always fallen into a few categories for me.
- Key game for playoff position or playoff game for my favorite team. This is GREAT TV. The tension of every pitch is great. It's some of the best sports TV you can watch, but unfortunately this accounts for very few games.
- Random regular season game - usually pretty boring and not good TV. Because of my TV and MLBs idiotic sport-crushing blackouts I rarely get to see my team (Twins) on TV. So when I do it's enjoyable. But I have no interest in watching even a third of the regular season games. Watching 10 regular season games or so is plenty.
- Fun as an event to go watch in person. Most places the aesthetics are great, and there's a lot of other stuff going on around the game. Would never get season tickets, but hitting a couple games a year in person is fun.
- I have always enjoyed listening to games while working on stuff in the house, garage or yard.
Yet I will totally agree that generally speaking baseball is not a good TV product much of the time, and soccer is pretty good on TV. I have rarely watched soccer, usually it's like background when NBC happens to be on. Even though I don't like the sport or care about it, I can see how people can find it compelling on TV, and the length is a massive advantage.
Personally baseball has always fallen into a few categories for me.
- Key game for playoff position or playoff game for my favorite team. This is GREAT TV. The tension of every pitch is great. It's some of the best sports TV you can watch, but unfortunately this accounts for very few games.
- Random regular season game - usually pretty boring and not good TV. Because of my TV and MLBs idiotic sport-crushing blackouts I rarely get to see my team (Twins) on TV. So when I do it's enjoyable. But I have no interest in watching even a third of the regular season games. Watching 10 regular season games or so is plenty.
- Fun as an event to go watch in person. Most places the aesthetics are great, and there's a lot of other stuff going on around the game. Would never get season tickets, but hitting a couple games a year in person is fun.
- I have always enjoyed listening to games while working on stuff in the house, garage or yard.
Um, I said softball. Actual real softball. Not lob-the-ball-to-the-carpet ball.
Edit: respectfully.
One thing I don't really like about softball is that even a really good hitter in softball has almost no chance against a great softball pitcher. The outcome is almost a forgone conclusion.
As a baseball hitter vs. a dominant pitcher I can throw my hands at the ball and still drive it somewhere. If I get out ahead of an offspeed pitch, same thing. I've got a little room for error in timing.
You don't have that luxury with softball. Every part of the swing has to be there, and timed, or you're probably not getting the ball out of the infield.
Softball was greatly helped when they moved the pitcher back a few years ago. Before the change, the hitters had little to no chance, now its evened up. Meaning we now actually have baserunners and runs scored. Before that every game was a pitchers duel.
Totally agree. I miss having the radio call on while I'm at work, or listening while I mow.
As one who has watched baseball for 50+ years, it's kind of depressing that the game has devolved into Home Run Derby. I understand that home runs fill the seats, but so much of the strategy and nuance have all but disappeared.
I guess I'm a purist.....I hold Game 7 of the 1991 World Series as the greatest game I ever saw. 1-0 in 10 innings. Every hit, every fielding gem, literally every pitch had meaning. One swing of the bat could have changed it, yet it didn't happen. The tension was unbelieveable.
I guess I'm a purist.....I hold Game 7 of the 1991 World Series as the greatest game I ever saw. 1-0 in 10 innings. Every hit, every fielding gem, literally every pitch had meaning. One swing of the bat could have changed it, yet it didn't happen. The tension was unbelieveable.
When you want a nap and you just can't get to sleep, a nice ballgame on low volume does the trick.
Honestly, just can't bother to care about most pro sports anymore. Not that I ever really was that into them before.
That said, I do enjoy a day/night out at the park. But that's not happening, obviously.
Honestly, just can't bother to care about most pro sports anymore. Not that I ever really was that into them before.
That said, I do enjoy a day/night out at the park. But that's not happening, obviously.
I remember going into the local drugstore and getting a 25 cent pack of Topps (and chewing all the brittle gum) and that pack had a Mickey Mantle card in it.
Life fulfilled at that time.
This literally makes zero sense. You can’t just go to the plate against Max Scherzer and hope to slap his 95mph fastball into the gap. It just doesn’t work like that. You have 0.3 seconds to decide if you want to swing at that ball before it’s too late and your window for a base hit has closed. If you get out ahead on an off speed pitch you’re popping up to the second baseman. You hit an off speed pitch well if you time it right.
We were buying 50 cent packs looking for Tony Gwynn, Don Mattingly and Jose Canseco. If you were lucky enough to get the last packs of the box they would give you the box which had cards on the bottom.
We also never left without a pack of Now n Laters or a Charleston Chew.
The Casey's slush machine was always spinning.
You have an even smaller window in softball. But more importantly due to the differences In the ball and velocity you have the luxury in baseball to get everything started and time fastball and still do something with an off speed pitch even with that less than perfect timing between the upper and lower halves. In softball if the upper and lower half aren’t damn near perfectly timed together the ball isn’t going anywhere.
The point is dominant softball pitchers overmatch softball hitters much more than dominant baseball pitchers overmatch hitters. I think this is a pretty commonly agreed upon feature of each game.
You also have a rise ball in softball, which is impossible to do if you are throwing a baseball overhand.
The softball pitcher just has a larger arsenal to throw to the batter, and you have less time to react.
The one aspect of softball that I dislike is the slap hitting, it looks like many times the hitter is out of the box when they come into contact with the ball, therefore they should be called out and rarely are.
The tension in the 10th would have been pretty intense if a crowd were there. In the top half the Angels started with Ohtani at second. The A’s reliever eventually worked out of a bases loaded jam so preserve the tie. In the bottom of the 10th the A’s loaded the bases and with one out Olson stepped into the box. Olson had been studying film on the pitcher Milner and knew he liked to get ahead in the count by throwing his slider. The result is shown above.
I think this new extra innings rule is gonna work out.
There’s never any crowd left by the 10th. The 6 hours it took to get there was exhausting enough. Time to take the kids to bed.
The entire game was 3 hours and 46 mins... or, you know, only 20 mins longer than the average college football game
I am a huge baseball fan- still, I rarely watch just sit and watch full games on TV during the season. What makes it awesome is there is a game close to every day and it’s the perfect sport to catch a couple innings here or there, catch the end in bed before falling asleep, or to have on in the background while doing stuff around the house, working out, etc.
