Good. Baseball is one of the most crushingly dull sports I've ever seen. And I say that as a fan of Test cricket, in which a match can take up to five days to finish and often ends in a draw. To...
Good. Baseball is one of the most crushingly dull sports I've ever seen. And I say that as a fan of Test cricket, in which a match can take up to five days to finish and often ends in a draw.
To be fair, plenty of sports aren't exciting when you don't know the rules - American rules football is boring to my eyes but I don't know what anyone is doing or why - but I bothered to learn the rules to baseball and it didn't help at all. These changes look interesting and well thought through and if they work, maybe I'll even start watching baseball again.
I totally agree, and in particular team sports that have a lot of strategies/counter strategies get more interesting the more you understand the rules and the head-games going on surrounding the...
I totally agree, and in particular team sports that have a lot of strategies/counter strategies get more interesting the more you understand the rules and the head-games going on surrounding the actual on field action. If you have much understanding of American Football (Hand-egg?) it's like chess, if the pieces were giving each other concussions every few minutes. It's stupefyingly boring to watch if you don't know what's going on, but if you do it can get pretty interesting. I don't really follow it, but I always wind up going to watch parties once or twice a year (usually for the Iron Bowl, because that's the big event around here) and I almost always wind up getting sucked in.
I think this applies to most competitive events to be honest. Even stuff that has surface-level enjoyment like boardercross or boxing is far more entertaining if you understand the nuances of...
It's stupefyingly boring to watch if you don't know what's going on, but if you do it can get pretty interesting.
I think this applies to most competitive events to be honest. Even stuff that has surface-level enjoyment like boardercross or boxing is far more entertaining if you understand the nuances of what's going on.
I think baseball is one of those sports that didn't translate well to TV. It's like horse racing. I wouldn't enjoy a televised horse race. But going to the horse track on a Sunday afternoon to...
I think baseball is one of those sports that didn't translate well to TV.
It's like horse racing. I wouldn't enjoy a televised horse race. But going to the horse track on a Sunday afternoon to hang out with friends and drink beverages in the sunshine -- now that's a day.
Which I realize isn't a ringing endorsement of the sport, because sitting in a backyard with your friends in the sun is also entertaining, but I do enjoy going to a baseball game.
Did I mention cricket at all? :) A test match is an 8+ hour day during which there might be, in a particularly exciting game, maybe two hours of top notch action. My preferred way to watch cricket...
hang out with friends and drink beverages in the sunshine
Did I mention cricket at all? :)
A test match is an 8+ hour day during which there might be, in a particularly exciting game, maybe two hours of top notch action. My preferred way to watch cricket on TV is edited highlights, with the day reduced to an hour. In person it's largely about hanging out in the sun and drinking. Although on the rare occasions one has a summer's day free with nearly zero commitments, there is something quite meditative about lying outside on the grass with the cricket gently murmuring away on the radio all day. Go sports!
I'm the same way with Sumo. I love the tradition, pomp, and circumstance of it all and I've watched many a full day of live sumo, but the other 99% of the time I'm watching a condensed version...
A test match is an 8+ hour day during which there might be, in a particularly exciting game, maybe two hours of top notch action. My preferred way to watch cricket on TV is edited highlights, with the day reduced to an hour.
I'm the same way with Sumo. I love the tradition, pomp, and circumstance of it all and I've watched many a full day of live sumo, but the other 99% of the time I'm watching a condensed version that is just a few seconds before a match starts, the match, and then the judging. What usually takes 3+ hours for the top ranked matches is boiled down to about 20 minutes.
My foreign and uninformed impression of American Football is that it's essentially a board game with sentient miniatures. They even have armor! And some people really like that.
My foreign and uninformed impression of American Football is that it's essentially a board game with sentient miniatures. They even have armor! And some people really like that.
Agreed and ditto... and I say that as a former Rep baseball player. ;) It's really fun to play, but boring as hell to watch, at the Major League level, anyways. Varsity and Minor League baseball...
Agreed and ditto... and I say that as a former Rep baseball player. ;) It's really fun to play, but boring as hell to watch, at the Major League level, anyways. Varsity and Minor League baseball is a bit more entertaining because it's typically faster paced (by necessity), has less strikeouts, more hits, and there are also more errors, which spice things up. And, of course, exhibition teams like the Savannah Bananas are always awesome to watch.
p.s. Lately I have actually gotten into watching Premier WIFFLE ball, which is very entertaining too: https://premierleaguewiffle.com/
We played baseball and softball very occasionally at my high school in the UK and it was a reasonably fast, fun game. Although personally I think the proto-baseball game rounders is even faster...
We played baseball and softball very occasionally at my high school in the UK and it was a reasonably fast, fun game. Although personally I think the proto-baseball game rounders is even faster and more fun. Not sure there's a professional league, it's definitely not on TV if there is!
Good. Baseball is one of the most crushingly dull sports I've ever seen. And I say that as a fan of Test cricket, in which a match can take up to five days to finish and often ends in a draw.
To be fair, plenty of sports aren't exciting when you don't know the rules - American rules football is boring to my eyes but I don't know what anyone is doing or why - but I bothered to learn the rules to baseball and it didn't help at all. These changes look interesting and well thought through and if they work, maybe I'll even start watching baseball again.
I totally agree, and in particular team sports that have a lot of strategies/counter strategies get more interesting the more you understand the rules and the head-games going on surrounding the actual on field action. If you have much understanding of American Football (Hand-egg?) it's like chess, if the pieces were giving each other concussions every few minutes. It's stupefyingly boring to watch if you don't know what's going on, but if you do it can get pretty interesting. I don't really follow it, but I always wind up going to watch parties once or twice a year (usually for the Iron Bowl, because that's the big event around here) and I almost always wind up getting sucked in.
I think this applies to most competitive events to be honest. Even stuff that has surface-level enjoyment like boardercross or boxing is far more entertaining if you understand the nuances of what's going on.
I think baseball is one of those sports that didn't translate well to TV.
It's like horse racing. I wouldn't enjoy a televised horse race. But going to the horse track on a Sunday afternoon to hang out with friends and drink beverages in the sunshine -- now that's a day.
Which I realize isn't a ringing endorsement of the sport, because sitting in a backyard with your friends in the sun is also entertaining, but I do enjoy going to a baseball game.
Did I mention cricket at all? :)
A test match is an 8+ hour day during which there might be, in a particularly exciting game, maybe two hours of top notch action. My preferred way to watch cricket on TV is edited highlights, with the day reduced to an hour. In person it's largely about hanging out in the sun and drinking. Although on the rare occasions one has a summer's day free with nearly zero commitments, there is something quite meditative about lying outside on the grass with the cricket gently murmuring away on the radio all day. Go sports!
I'm the same way with Sumo. I love the tradition, pomp, and circumstance of it all and I've watched many a full day of live sumo, but the other 99% of the time I'm watching a condensed version that is just a few seconds before a match starts, the match, and then the judging. What usually takes 3+ hours for the top ranked matches is boiled down to about 20 minutes.
My foreign and uninformed impression of American Football is that it's essentially a board game with sentient miniatures. They even have armor! And some people really like that.
Agreed and ditto... and I say that as a former Rep baseball player. ;) It's really fun to play, but boring as hell to watch, at the Major League level, anyways. Varsity and Minor League baseball is a bit more entertaining because it's typically faster paced (by necessity), has less strikeouts, more hits, and there are also more errors, which spice things up. And, of course, exhibition teams like the Savannah Bananas are always awesome to watch.
p.s. Lately I have actually gotten into watching Premier WIFFLE ball, which is very entertaining too:
https://premierleaguewiffle.com/
We played baseball and softball very occasionally at my high school in the UK and it was a reasonably fast, fun game. Although personally I think the proto-baseball game rounders is even faster and more fun. Not sure there's a professional league, it's definitely not on TV if there is!