Baseball... The best game!!

Kritchlow

Final Approach
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Kritchlow
Red Sox fan here. Any guesses on where Lester winds up? I hear the Yanks are in the bidding now. God help us...

What about Scherzer? (Likely gummed up the spelling).

Any thoughts in the 2015 season?
 
I really like baseball as well. It is such a strategic game. The pitcher has to be right 100% of the time, the batter on a small fraction of the time, but let the pitcher mess up!!!! Figuring which pitch a batter will hit to which of his teammates and then a pop up or grounder, I find it fascinating to watch.
I also see Nascar as the same, a driver calculates the whole race lap after lap, how to get closer to the lead, drive hard after a pit stop, wait for other options, does he/she need to save gas, or wait for another pit stop to get an adjustment. It is such a strategic sport as well.
Most think they are a bunch of people just going left, but it is way more than that. Sadly, if ones driver is not in near or in the lead, then TV does not do well. I think you have to experience racing by going and having a favorite, a. car b. driver. or c. brand name to pull for. then watch how that car and or driver makes their way through the field.
 
One of my favorite "Simpsons" episodes is when Homer is forced to give up beer for a week, whereupon watching a baseball game while completely sober he remarks "I had no idea how boring this game actually is" !
 
I missed getting the gene that likes to watch other people play games. In particular the amount of energy and money devoted to watching somewhat-rich guys play games that profit massively-rich guys totally baffles me. I guess it must be a little bit like being color blind.
 
I missed getting the gene that likes to watch other people play games. In particular the amount of energy and money devoted to watching somewhat-rich guys play games that profit massively-rich guys totally baffles me. I guess it must be a little bit like being color blind.

At least the hockey players get to beat the sh*t out of each other... sometimes. Hockey players play hockey because they love playing hockey. I'm sure the same goes for other sports as well, but I doubt it's to the same extent.
 
What is the best sport to watch in person?
What is the best sport to watch on TV?
 
I missed getting the gene that likes to watch other people play games. In particular the amount of energy and money devoted to watching somewhat-rich guys play games that profit massively-rich guys totally baffles me. I guess it must be a little bit like being color blind.


The money apsect of it turned me off, too. I haven't gone to any major-league baseball game or other top-level professional sporting event in more than a decade.

I do, however, enjoy minor league baseball. What they lack in skill they make up for in heart.

Rich
 
Red Sox spring training went on sale this morning. Snagged tix for the Rays/Sox and Cards/Sox games at JetBlue Park. With a little luck, we'll see Lester at those games (in a Sox uniform). :)
 
I'd rather play at anything, even at a **** poor level, then watch someone else play. Do any of you fans play ball? Highschool doesn't count unless you are still in highschool.
 
The money apsect of it turned me off, too. I haven't gone to any major-league baseball game or other top-level professional sporting event in more than a decade.

I do, however, enjoy minor league baseball. What they lack in skill they make up for in heart.

Rich
Not necessarily. I live next to a AAA stadium with most of the players living in the same complex. The ticket prices are about the same as a major league game... With half of the excitement. The players don't seem to care much about the game, either.

Now, going to a Daytona Cubs game was an entirely different story. Loved those games.

I'd rather play at anything, even at a **** poor level, then watch someone else play. Do any of you fans play ball? Highschool doesn't count unless you are still in highschool.
Yes.
 
One of my favorite "Simpsons" episodes is when Homer is forced to give up beer for a week, whereupon watching a baseball game while completely sober he remarks "I had no idea how boring this game actually is" !

It's hard to understand just how interesting baseball is until one watches cricket.
 
Red Sox fan here. Any guesses on where Lester winds up? I hear the Yanks are in the bidding now. God help us...

What about Scherzer? (Likely gummed up the spelling).

Any thoughts in the 2015 season?

World Champion Giants' fan here. Hoping to see Lester in the Orange and Black.
 
Baseball is the hardest game there is. In what other game can you fail 70 per cent of the time and be a superstar?
 
Yep. Good story.

Wonder if they could afford it if they had to buy their own stadiums? That's my only major beef with pro sports. Taxes to buy stadiums to keep billionaires from having to buy them, is obscene.
 
Jordan speith likes golf a whole lot. ( and I too am against the insane practice of taxpayers paying for stadiums wheather it be baseball or football. Let the teams pay for it!)
 
Spent my life with split allegiance between the Baltimore Oreos (I lived blocks away from the old Memorial Stadium) and the Red Sox. However, it was a few years ago watching the National League play (primarily when DC got the Nationals) that I've come to realize what's been missing all those years since the AL put in the designated hitter rule.

Much as I like David Ortiz, I am in favor of a constitutional amendment barring astroturf and the designated hitter.
 
Spent my life with split allegiance between the Baltimore Oreos (I lived blocks away from the old Memorial Stadium) and the Red Sox. However, it was a few years ago watching the National League play (primarily when DC got the Nationals) that I've come to realize what's been missing all those years since the AL put in the designated hitter rule.

Much as I like David Ortiz, I am in favor of a constitutional amendment barring astroturf and the designated hitter.

Add domed stadiums to that banned list and I might go along with you.
 
Baseball is special because there is no clock.

Football, basketball, soccer, hockey, all have a clock.
 
One of my favorite "Simpsons" episodes is when Homer is forced to give up beer for a week, whereupon watching a baseball game while completely sober he remarks "I had no idea how boring this game actually is" !

Watching baseball on TV is boring.
 
Baseball is special because there is no clock.

Football, basketball, soccer, hockey, all have a clock.

It is too long.
Baseball needs a clock.

They're working on a clock. As I recall, this year they took some actions to speed up the pace of play, including not letting the batter leave the batter's box.
 
They're working on a clock. As I recall, this year they took some actions to speed up the pace of play, including not letting the batter leave the batter's box.

iirc, the batter is free to leave the box. But the umpire is not obligated to call time.

Sooooo, one fix would be to let the pitcher throw a pitch even if the batter steps out of the box.

players like Carlton Fisk and Nomar G (ain't trying to spell his last name) would adapt or have to watch a lot of pitches go by.
 
MLB experimented with clocks in spring training, then the league decided to use them in the regular season.

I don't remember the exact rules, and am too lazy to look them up. There is a clock between innings and on pitching changes. 2:30 from the last out to the first pitch, or the umpire can start calling balls, same on a pitching change so the new guy needs to jog in if he wants all his warm up pitches. I don't know if a pitcher coming in because of an injury still gets all the time he needs, probably that part of the rule didn't change. They've also limited the number of times there can be meetings on the mound. There was always a rule about how many times a coach can come onto the field each inning, but I think they are cutting down on the pitcher catcher discussions.

The instant replays can be requested directly from the dugout, there doesn't have to be a walk from the dugout to the umpire by the manager anymore.

Batters are supposed to stay in the box between pitches. They were always permitted to leave, and the umpire was always allowed to use his discretion in the past whether or not to warn the batter about excessive delays and start calling strikes. The rule was rarely enforced. This year the batter is subject to fines for leaving the box, and umpires have been told to emphasis those rules this season. Pitchers are supposed to be on a clock now, too, between pitches.

It's an attempt to speed up the game but I haven't noticed a difference. Maybe fewer batters are stepping back and adjusting gloves, cups, and helmets between each pitch, but it isn't noticeable and I don't know if it's made any difference at all.
 
Frankly the inter-inning and the pitching change times don't bother me so much. Get up, go get a beer, use the toilet, whatever...

It's the idiot batters taking time and leaving the box after every pitch that is what makes the game a snoozer. Of course, any attempt to limit this gets a lot of cry babies that say the pitchers get to take as long as they want to deliver. Neglecting that the parity applies to the batters for both teams.

We don't have athletes to watch anymore, but just a bunch of self-entitled cry babies who've priced the average fan out of the market.
 
Ever considered soccer? Before you start hating I'm gonna preface this by saying that 3 years ago I was the biggest "soccer is for wussies" guy around. I played football my whole life and never saw the point of soccer. However, I decided as a joke to pick a team and follow it because baseball and basketball is just too boring to watch after football season ends.

I decided to look at the English Premier League because if I was gonna watch it I was't going to watch bad American soccer. Since all the cute girls at my school were on the Liverpool 96 (year of our birth) team, that was the team I would follow ;)

Needless to say the passion of the supporters in England, and the competition of the league is second to none. Liverpool is now my favorite professional team (being a Cowboys fan does that to you), and it is a very close second to college football. I highly recommend it!
 
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