There's Just Something Special About Baseball Season
There's a reason it's "America's favorite pastime."
Baseball has always had a distinct aroma. The fresh smell of cut grass, the art of the chalky white lines painted on the field for gameday and the crack of the bat that will be heard in a split second at the center field bleachers. Hotdogs covered in the essential fixings that leave a taste in your mouth that can only be washed away from an ice-cold ballpark beer. Watching baseball on TV is undoubtedly not the same as sitting in the wooden ballpark chairs, however.
The pace of the game can be a deciding factor on whether or not people enjoy the game. Baseball is not constantly moving like basketball and doesn't have the physical contact that we crave from football (except the exhilarating bench-clearing brawls). However, there is a reason why baseball is included in the debate on America's favorite pastime sport. The MLB has been around for over 150 years and hasn't changed much to this day.
There is no time limit — no pressure of a shot clock, inattentive halftime, or designated media timeouts. Game three of the 2018 World Series turned into the longest World Series game in history when the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers played an 18-inning game that lasted seven hours and 20 minutes. With no time limit, you experience raw talent, every last bit of energy and pushing up against the mental barriers that come with the sport of baseball.
Yes, baseball can be a slow and uneventful game to watch, however, when you think the game is over and there will be no comeback, a pitcher throws one down the middle, and the batter sends the ball high over the outfield wall. The bases unexpectedly become loaded, and a rally is started. A seventh-inning comeback can leave every seat in the stadium empty because everybody is standing in excitement.
There are so many other entertaining factors than just the baseball game itself. One of the reasons why baseball is my favorite sport is because the athletes interact with the fans. You see the outfielders dancing in-between innings or playing catch with a kid in the stands. You see how grateful and how happy baseball players are while they play. If you're lucky enough to sit behind the dugout, you learn how every team has its personality. I prefer the outfield seats at an MLB game strictly for the fans and the chance at catching a home run ball. You can become friends with anybody around you regardless of the jersey you're wearing. They will most definitely rip you apart but will offer to grab you a beer because you became their neighbor for the duration of the game.
Baseball allows you to reminisce about your childhood. Neighborhood legends have been made during back yard baseball games. I always wanted to play two-hand touch with my brother and his friends, but they never let me play or would go easy on me because I was a girl. When the plastic bats and whiffle balls came out, gender didn't matter. You were another number in the batting order and an extra hand in the outfield. You and your friends played like you were in the big leagues with your own commentating and pitching style.
Baseball May Be Dying, But It Certainly Is NOT A Boring Sport To Watch
There is something so nostalgic about being at the ballpark on a summer day with your friends or family. With its rich history, baseball ties generations and brings people together.
In my house, being a baseball enthusiast is not optional. You fall asleep once the game ends with the last out and you wake up to the highlights on MLB Network at breakfast the next morning. Vacations are typically a road trip of sorts to whichever stadium our team is playing at that week. Watching baseball has been the one activity that brings my family together without fail. So undoubtedly, I will argue that baseball is one of the best sports out there, and the common response of, "baseball is such a boring sport," is a complete misconception.
While I can see where this opinion is coming from, it's impossible to ignore the fact that baseball is becoming steadily less popular among younger generations. The commissioner thinks that altering a tried and true tradition, by knocking a few minutes off the game taking away intentional walk pitches and limiting pitchers mound visits, will re-engage future generations. I don't agree with these changes because getting to the heart of the issue stems from disproving the common points that non-baseball fans try to make.
"The game is sooo long."
The average MLB game time this past season was three hours and five minutes, which is only one minute longer than the average football game from the 2017 NFL season. People have no problem with NFL games holding their attention spans. Some would argue that this is because the game is not as fast paced as basketball or football, which brings me to the next complaint.
"Nothing even happens."
If by nothing happens you mean that there is not constant movement around the court or field like in basketball, football, or soccer, then I guess this is a valid statement. But there is so much that goes on between pitches that leaves room for strategy and discussion between viewers. Baseball lends itself to constant thinking between the players, managers, and fans. The many intricacies and tension throughout the entire game make baseball the type of sport that is more enjoyable the more you know about it.
"It's slow paced."
I guess you could argue that baseball lacks the constant movement up and down the court or field that other sports boast, but baseball makes up for this aspect in so many ways. Baseball doesn't have a salary cap which means that you have both be big city, money spending, free agent buying teams as well as low market teams that build their farm systems. You never have the same teams consistently winning or the same matchup like the NBA. In basketball, you need star players to win. Football, you need a solid quarterback and to a certain extent, you need star players in the same way that you do in basketball. There are so many MLB teams that rise to be playoff contenders from nothing within a few seasons, making for a dynamic league and playoff picture every single year. And as far as the pace of the game itself, I can see how at a glance other sports would seem to hold an onlooker's attention for longer. But if you look at the number of commercial breaks the NFL has nowadays between timeouts, penalties, kickoffs, and punt returns, the amount of time you spend watching the action part of the game itself is not too different from baseball.
* * *
My last, probably most overused, but also the most important point is the fact that no other sport can hold the title "America's Pastime." There is a tradition and a history behind baseball that's more deeply rooted in America's history than any other sport. There is something so nostalgic about being at the ballpark on a summer day with your friends or family. With its rich history, baseball ties generations and brings people together. Hopefully, this tradition will remain deeply rooted in American culture, so that others can experience the magic that being raised in a baseball family brought me.