Jamie Moyer is one of my favorite pitchers. He was so good at disguising what type of pitch he was throwing. And all of them were slow, fucking up the timing of batters used to higher speed pitches.
What’s interesting about baseball?
- Thread starter Bigjig
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I can bitch about baseball like the best of them but when you get to the playoffs and each team has 4-8 pitchers that can do amazing things with the baseball it's a joy to watch for me.
I love the home runs and the juiced balls but in October when the best hitters in the world face some of the best pitchers I find the mind games fascinating. Wake me up in September though.
Watched my first Full Cricket match on TV a couple weeks ago. Meh?
I love the home runs and the juiced balls but in October when the best hitters in the world face some of the best pitchers I find the mind games fascinating. Wake me up in September though.
Watched my first Full Cricket match on TV a couple weeks ago. Meh?
Baseball is kind of all about the tension from batter and pitcher battles in the later innings.
Usually every game is close and you get guys on in the late innings that could flip who wins basically 3 innings in a row.
Sure not every game is like that as you do have occasional blowouts.
It's also just about having a good time at the park, and if watching at home it's kind of just relaxing to throw on early innings and if you have a close game the 7-9th innings are fun.
Usually every game is close and you get guys on in the late innings that could flip who wins basically 3 innings in a row.
Sure not every game is like that as you do have occasional blowouts.
It's also just about having a good time at the park, and if watching at home it's kind of just relaxing to throw on early innings and if you have a close game the 7-9th innings are fun.
Baseball has a rhythm to it that is unlike almost any other sport I can think of. Growing up playing it and watching it constantly I will concede, as a few have already alluded to, that it is not the easiest sport to get into, and all of the rules and elements of the sport can seem awfully difficult to pick up. But once you have some knowledge and take the time to get to know the game there are so many great things about it. I can't think of any other sport that has given me more moments of drama than baseball. Just one example - I was watching live on TV when Kirk Gibson came to bat in the bottom of the 9th inning in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Every baseball fan reading this knows what I am talking about but if you have not heard of it, Google it. One of the most amazing moments I have ever witnessed in sports, and I am not even a Dodgers fan.
Baseball is a contradiction. It's fractally composed of interesting moments and drama, yet simultaneously the individual games and seasons are so long that any specific moment is itself somewhat meaningless. A single pitch has the drama of the skill of a pitcher against the batter. A single at bat has the drama of the pitcher and batter trying to outguess one another. The drama over the span of an inning has to do with strategic plays depending on what the base running situation is, what the batting order is, and how many pitches are thrown. The drama over the span of several innings is a storyline of if the batter can figure out the pitcher at successive at bats. Similarly, storylines emerge over seasons as teams in the same division will play each other many times over the course of a season. I'm not really doing it justice in my writeup, but once I started to see and understand all the tiny moments, as well as the large arcs, baseball became 100000x more interseting, and it's my favorite sport to spectate these days.
I also like that it's low key super dangerous. Like most of the time nothing happens, but every once in a while someone will catch a 103mph ball to the face or break their kneecap on a stray bat.
the variation in baseball primarily comes from the savagery and filth in the pitcher's heart
EDIT: Man, that pitch by Miller is fucking cruel. I miss him.
the variation in baseball primarily comes from the savagery and filth in the pitcher's heart
EDIT: Man, that pitch by Miller is fucking cruel. I miss him.
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It's something I can never really explain. I don't really understand why I like baseball so much. I can definitely say that I don't think it's a thing you can talk some into loving. You just have to try it and see if it resonates. Pick a team, go to games, learn the rules. Really watch what's going on. Sometimes the best part of a game is the three straight hours of building tension all coming crashing down in one single hit. But then sometimes, the best part is a single at bat that's over in less than a minute, or a single catch that takes seconds. I think what really helps is that they just play So. Damn. Much. There's so much baseball happening all the time that you don't have to wait too long in a season for these glorious, brilliant, ridiculous impossible things to happen. And on the one hand, it would make so much sense to think that, with 167 games and 27 outs per game, there are so many chances that no single at-bat could really carry that much drama. And yet, when the moment is right, things just click and suddenly it all seems so important. I dunno, I'm rambling. Like I said, it's hard to explain.
Also it's a game of failure, in a way. Even the best hitters only succeed like 3 out of 10 times, not counting walks. There's something humanizing about that.
For sure and it's a mental mindfuck for the player. How else do explain players like Sax all of a sudden can't throw to first base? Ankiel losing the ability to throw a strike. Hell, Lester his whole career can't throw a ball to first base and was a dominate pitcher and has 3 rings because he's nails in the playoffs and WS. It's about the only sport that utilizes psychologists as mental skills coaches because mentally the game drives you mental!
As a Phiiles fan, I really hate that man.
That shit changed zip codes on him!
Hitting balls out of the park is hard but to do it 4 straight times in the last inning is "improbable".
Talking about the yips. Yips is not a baseball exclusive phenomenon though it is the sport where it pops up more famously. Golf is probably second in yips cases.
Game isn't over until the last out. I don't even see that many games and I've seen things turn around completely in the ninth.
Okay. I don't follow baseball anymore. That was more my granddad's thing. He was after all a head coach for a Little League Baseball team.
I lost interest in my teens when I was no longer playing the game.
Having said that, comparing Baseball to Cricket is like comparing American Football to Football. They have only the most superficial elements in common.
Cricket has a flexible strategy. It's all about that single moment between bowler and batsman. The shape of the field changes often.
Baseball is a more fixed strategy. While then pitcher can call in the outfield, most of it is fixed.
With cricket the baller must plan out his entire team for each batter. In baseball the pitcher needs to only plan for the best and the worst for each batter.
They have massively different strategies and are barely the same sport.
Both are thrilling live. Both are kinda boring to watch at home.
I lost interest in my teens when I was no longer playing the game.
Having said that, comparing Baseball to Cricket is like comparing American Football to Football. They have only the most superficial elements in common.
Cricket has a flexible strategy. It's all about that single moment between bowler and batsman. The shape of the field changes often.
Baseball is a more fixed strategy. While then pitcher can call in the outfield, most of it is fixed.
With cricket the baller must plan out his entire team for each batter. In baseball the pitcher needs to only plan for the best and the worst for each batter.
They have massively different strategies and are barely the same sport.
Both are thrilling live. Both are kinda boring to watch at home.
i'm more into cricket than i am baseball, but the thing i like about baseball is it condenses cricket's tensest moments into a more frequent, repeatable structure where there could always be huge repercussions for the outcome of the game.
it obviously can't compete with the endurance aspect of test cricket but to me it's better balanced than twenty20, which i never really got into because it just feels like the mario kart 200cc of cricket. i enjoy baseball's rhythm of short innings and infrequent scoring.
it obviously can't compete with the endurance aspect of test cricket but to me it's better balanced than twenty20, which i never really got into because it just feels like the mario kart 200cc of cricket. i enjoy baseball's rhythm of short innings and infrequent scoring.
The pitcher-batter dual, amazing fielding plays, home runs, tactics of positioning the fielding team, the relaxed atmospher, walk up songs, other fun traditions like 7th inning strech.
If you really want to be engrossed in a baseball game you need to focus on the strategy of the pitcher hitter dynamic. Does the pitcher attack the inside of the plate, the outside of the plate, is he a fastball master, is an off speed master, does he pitch for contact and ground balls ect... each at bat becomes a mini duel, and the way a pitcher or hitter performs in that duel is interesting especially on the 2nd time through with the starter. This dynamic gets more interesting the more you are familiar with the teams to be honest.
Next is the strategy of the game once runners are on base. Once a runner comes on base the pitcher changes his mechanics, and there is additional layers of holding the runner, or moving defenders to different positions. Also the batter maybe trying to hit the ball in a particular area or spot to advance him, hell he might even bunt.
Of course there is the actual action on the field and from what I have seen of baseball vs cricket, is that the smaller field and additional glove make fielding more a more interesting aspect, you will likely see more great grabs or athletic fielding plays, then in a typical cricket match.
Next is the strategy of the game once runners are on base. Once a runner comes on base the pitcher changes his mechanics, and there is additional layers of holding the runner, or moving defenders to different positions. Also the batter maybe trying to hit the ball in a particular area or spot to advance him, hell he might even bunt.
Of course there is the actual action on the field and from what I have seen of baseball vs cricket, is that the smaller field and additional glove make fielding more a more interesting aspect, you will likely see more great grabs or athletic fielding plays, then in a typical cricket match.
I'd go to more ballgames but the stadiums are too far and the games way too long especially when you go extra innings.
It's a fun experience though interacting with other fans and an excuse to eat junk food. Used to love watching Ken Griffey Jr. at the Kingdome.
It's a fun experience though interacting with other fans and an excuse to eat junk food. Used to love watching Ken Griffey Jr. at the Kingdome.
You can get Granular to the max. Watching up to 300 pitches per game. NBA is 200 shots. NFL 130 plays.
I've always found baseball to be a pretty low-tier sport. The absence of a timer robs it of any sense of urgency, and having 100+ games in a season makes the outcome of any single one of them irrelevant.
I enjoyed the Seattle Mariners miniseries that SB Nation published on YouTube last year though.
I enjoyed the Seattle Mariners miniseries that SB Nation published on YouTube last year though.
the fact that it's 162 makes the games relevant.you can lose your division by a game, change your whole outcome heading into the playoffs because of it.
Baseball is amazing. It's not perfect. But I guess you just don't get it.
You can reduce any sport to frivolities if you talk about in regressive ways. Same thing with cricket. People can slag off Cricket too if they don't get what makes that sport so intriguing too.
But with baseball, if so get it, there's not many sports that reward you so deeply. It's great. And I can't wait to be able to catch a game again in person. Not too many better ways to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon with friends.
You can reduce any sport to frivolities if you talk about in regressive ways. Same thing with cricket. People can slag off Cricket too if they don't get what makes that sport so intriguing too.
But with baseball, if so get it, there's not many sports that reward you so deeply. It's great. And I can't wait to be able to catch a game again in person. Not too many better ways to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon with friends.
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This includes fans, so if you go to a game you need to pay at least some attention no matter where you're sitting.
Given how watching cricket is as equally boring as baseball, I'm surprised you -at least- don't see the correlation there instead choosing on dismissing baseball and siding with cricket because "you played it". I guess you don't get the sport. Also, as a spectator, Japanese baseball is a different breed to American baseball. The game is played differently and the teams make an effort to engage fans into the game through encouragement and songs. But I guess it's not cRiCket so whatever. Typical snobbish attitude.
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OP
OP
The purpose of the thread isn't to try and dismiss or shit on baseball and claim that cricket is the "better" sport.
I'm going along to see a game and just wanted to see why people like it so I might get more out of it if I understood what was going on a bit better. I am well aware that my lack of interest in baseball could be totally due to my ignorance of the finer strategy to the sport and not because the sport is "boring" or whatever .
Sorry if I ruffled a few feathers. That wasn't my intention
When a hitter is hitting well, it is one of the most skillful things you can watch in all of sports.
When a pitcher is pitching well, it is one of the most dominant things you can watch in all of sports.
Also, because of the slow pace, it allows for a lot of strategy. It's like asking what's interesting about chess.
When a pitcher is pitching well, it is one of the most dominant things you can watch in all of sports.
Also, because of the slow pace, it allows for a lot of strategy. It's like asking what's interesting about chess.
