why do you love baseball?

[jason21nl]

I love baseball for a number of reasons. I love it for the competition, for the speed the players play the game. A person that isn't a fan of the game might say the game is slow paced. There is nothing really slow about baseball. Any given pitch will be between 85-95 mph. nothing slow about that. The quick turn of a DP, the diving stab in the outfield, hitting a ball in the gap and streching it into a triple. I love all of that. Then when all hope seems gone a player stepping up and hitting a walk off homerun. Going to the games with 40,000 strangers and giving them high fives like they are your closest friend when something good happens. Those are a few of the many reasons I love this game. What are yours?

 

 

sorry if this sounded corny or something, I was just sitting here thinking about how much I love baseball.

[hawing]

I'm glad you still love baseball after the last few days. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

When I began to follow the Brewers in 1982, I certainly wasn't in the "key demographic" or whatever the marketing term is - I was a 16 year old, barely athletic girl (I've got a problem with small hard objects being hurled at me - though I did play volleyball, so I wasn't a total slug).

 

I admit, I was lured in by the home runs and the winning that season. I also believe that (like many teenagers) I wanted an interest that was not like everyone else's, and the Brewers became my alternative to following the Packers. Obviously, I've stuck with it.

 

As for the game in general...to me, baseball is an orderly sport, and I've always liked order. You have the batting orders, the fielding arrangements, the rotation pattern. There's much you can predict in the game, but every game is still unique. Home runs are exciting (for your team, at least), but I just as much enjoy pitchers' duels and not only web gem defense, but regular solid defense too. I became more interested in game strategy after the Brewers' move to the NL (and obviously my participation in this site has helped too).

 

Also, baseball has become a slight underdog over the course of my lifetime (compared to the attention the NFL gets, for example), and I still like to root for the underdog.

 

I bet I'll think of more later, but there's a start. Good topic, Jason.

[hammytime]

I attended my first game in 1978, and I've been hooked ever since (thanks Dad!). And yes, that means this is my thirtieth year of watching baseball. Why have I stuck with it? I'm not sure, but I can't imagine it ever not being a part of my life. I don't get to see anywhere near enough games in person anymore, but thank goodness for Direct TV and Extra Innings. As hard as the lean years have been (and let's face it, there have been a lot of lean years), it's worth the wait when you get to experience a season like this. There's still a long way to go, but the excitement of not knowing what will happen between now and October is part of the allure. Having watched the D-Backs go all the way in 2001, I sort of know what I can expect, but at the same time I don't. What an awesome sport!

[pitchleague]

I love baseball for the home runs. Because chicks dig the long ball and I dig chicks. So let the home runs fly!

 

[looks over shoulder] oh, hi dear! What's up? Hey where are you going?

 

[pause of a few moments] Hey! Put down that frying pan! What do you think you're do . . . [WHAP!]

[patrickgpe]

i love baseball for the pure strategy that is played out during every game. No other sport comes close. Every day we get to debate the lineup Ned puts out there. In each other sport is basically the same starting lineup every game (baring injury). Then we have the in game decisions. When to pinch hit, when to have a pitching change. I love the fact that no game is ever over. There comes a time in each other sport where there isn't enough time to come back, not in baseball. There are tons more why baseball is by far my favorite sport, but thats a good start.

[Beerambassador]

It's the sport of poets. There's a beauty to the sport that I can't even begin to describe.

[brewers19]

Line drive double to the gaps and slides to avoid the tag make me immensely happy every time I see them.

[davebobn]

I love the strategy, I love the traditions (ex: Sausage Race, Bernie Brewer Slide, etc. ), I love that every stadium is different (short porch, hill in center with a pole in play at Minute Maid make me happy), I love that overweight freaks like David Wells that can play into their 40s and I love that the All-Star game is during the season

[hammytime]

What other sport could allow a husband and wife to have so much fun together? Frying pan not withstanding? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[DHonks]

I love that no matter how bad life can seem, for roughly 8 months, baseball is there each and every day to give people an escape, an outlet. It really helped me through rough times in high school

[splitterpfj]

I'll provide my own answer later, but this certainly came to mind as I read through this thread, from "Field of Dreams"...

 

Quote:

---

Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

---

[pretendastronaut]

It would be hard to put into words the reasons I'm attached to this game.

 

But I have grown up on it. My earliest memories are of rooting for Dale Murphy and the Atlanta Braves with my dad. My dad was a Milwaukee Braves fan, and when they moved, he followed them. So I grew up with this dedication to the Braves, we would watch every game we could on TBS, and I would be sitting there filling out the scorecard as they lost 100 games a season. The summer the Braves went worst to first was one of the most exciting summers, that I still have great memories from.

 

While I had went to some Brewers games growing up, I don't think I paid much attention to them until they moved to the NL. And then I moved to Milwaukee myself in 1996, and have followed them pretty religiously since that time.

 

But that doesn't say why I love the game I suppose. There was this passage I read once, maybe 15 years ago, that I believe was written by Ted Williams and was an intro into a book about Roberto Clemente. I've never been able to find it again, though I've tried, but for some reason, that passage has always lingered with me when I think about baseball. It was a brilliant description of the game. There's a beauty and history to the game, that other sports just don't have.

[hawing]

There was this passage I read once, maybe 15 years ago, that I believe was written by Ted Williams and was an intro into a book about Roberto Clemente. I've never been able to find it again, though I've tried, but for some reason, that passage has always lingered with me when I think about baseball. It was a brilliant description of the game. There's a beauty and history to the game, that other sports just don't have.

 

I just checked the stacks at the library where I work and I wonder if this isn't the passage:

 

Quote:

---

"Without question the hardest single thing to do in sport is to hit a baseball," says the great Boston slugger Ted Williams. "A .300 hitter, that rarest of breeds, goes through life with the certainty that he will fail at his job seven out of ten times."

---

 

There's more to the introduction, but that is the part credited to Williams. This is from Clemente!, written by Kal Wagenheim and published in 1973. (And if you want to know how to borrow our copy, send me a PM.)

[NeedMoreFans]

Baseball has been a part of my family almost as long as it has been an organized sport, so it seems. My great grandfather played in those little town leagues in Iowa back in the 20's and 30's. He also tried out for and made the St. Louis Cardinals one season, but left due to family reasons (I think it was during the depression and he was newly married with children). So my grandmother and her siblings grew up watching their dad play baseball, and it kept going all down the line. My dad quickly became a baseball fan as well, taking trips all over the midwest to see games. My parents' honeymoon was to Kansas City, and they went to a Royals game. So baseball has been a part of my life since I was born.

 

I enjoy it because of the strategy behind literally every single pitch thrown. The concept of the game is so simple, yet every game is so complex.

[EsoxLazer]

I love the game for so many reasons that I really don't know where to start....

 

I love the bond that it created with my father and I...going out to play catch and field grounders or take some batting practice. I didn't really have much in common with my father growing up so baseball was one of the only things that brought us close. When my dad and I stepped onto the baseball diamond we became best friends and didn't have any differences or arguments. I always smile when I see a boy and his father playing catch or heading in to a baseball game...for myself and many of my friends, those times spent with our dads on the diamond or at Brewers games are going to be some of the longest lasting memories long after our fathers have passed.

 

The history and tradition of the game are so deep and rich(not always for the best but I think you understand my point)...many of the storylines have not only been interesting but have been a good gauge of whats going on in America at a given point. On that same note, I love the way that baseball has been a constant no matter what is going on...look at the time around 9/11 and how the Yankees, much as I may hate them, brought such relief, joy, and distraction from an unthinkable event in American history. It brought a semblance of normalcy to an otherwise completely chaotic time and I doubt that any other sport could have done it in the same way. It gave the people of NY, and anywhere in the US for that matter, something to rally around and celebrate.

 

The smoothness of the game at the major league level is just a complete joy to watch. Ive played and seen plenty of baseball at many levels and what these guys can do, even the ones that we rip for being terrible, is just so far beyond what is done at the college and minor league level. The way that a SS or 2B receives and gets rid of the ball on a double play, an outfielder hosing someone at the plate from deep in the outfield(Jesse Barfield anyone?), the quick release of a catcher gunning down a runner trying to take second, the confidence and command that pitchers show when they are on top of their game and absolutely unhittable...those are the things that always make me smile and shake my head in disbelief.

 

I have said it before on the board but I think that everyone loves the game for different reasons. Although I enjoy stats and know they are important, I don't try to think too much about them. To me, the game is too beautiful and there is too much going on for me to boil it down to a set of numbers(and yes, I do realize that the #'s are integral to the game). The way that everyone watches and appreciates the game is different and that in and of itself makes it so enjoyable. The game of baseball has given me so much...many times I have had some terrible things going on and baseball has been my savior...a reason to get away from it all and a means to rid myself of a great deal of negative energy. I don't think I can really describe it but I am sure that some of you know what I am talking about.

 

Most importantly, I love how I feel like a little kid again when I walk into the stadium, around the concourse, and up over the ramp to my seats to see the field for the first time each season. Sorry to get a little long-winded there...its hard to keep it short when it means so much and is so close to my heart.

[TerraceReserved]

I love baseball for many, many reason.

 

I love playing the game. There's nothing like a 12 inning marathon that you win with a walkoff hit. Nothing like making a great play, making a routine play, turning 2 smoothly, having a perfect relay and throwing a guy out. There's nothing like botching a ground ball, then making up for it with an rbi double the next inning. Nothing like a simple game of catch, or the feeling of when you're in the groove at the plate.

 

I also love playing the game as a young kid in the backyard. My fondest memories of those days are running to my friends house, getting the neighborhood boys together, and playing for hours every day. Baseball is what I remember when I look back at my childhood. That for me is what makes me love the game the most.

[2hoophead]

It's a game in which you think you have seen everything and then you find out you haven't at all!

 

And, it was my first love....

[pretendastronaut]

Hawing was super enough to actually track down the quote I was mentioning earlier, so here it is;

 

"A baseball is a sphere with a diameter of 2 7/8 inches. The batter stands at home plate and grips a tapering wood cylinder that has a maximum diameter of 2 3/4 inches; he tries to defend a strike zone that is approximately seven baseballs wide and eleven high. The pitcher, from 60 1/2 feet away, throws the ball at a speed of about 90 miles per hour. As it spins toward the plate - hopping, sinking, or curving - the hitter has four-tenths of one second to decide whether he should let it pass by, jump away to avoid being maimed, or swing. To get "good wood" on it, he must connect squarely with a 3/4-inch portion of the ball's round surface - and then hope that none of the nine defensive players catches it."

 

I don't know, that's always stuck with me. I read it to my wife and she said, "That makes you like baseball?"

 

Anyway, thank you so much to hawing for doing that, that's really amazing. I've looked for that again for years. Thank you hawing!

[hawing]

Oh, you know, if something is remembered to be in a book in my library's collection, the challenge of finding it is hard for me to pass up. (Plus you supplied more of a description than a lot of our visitors who ask us similar questions.) I was happy to look, and happier yet to find it.

 

That quote helped me put my finger on another reason why baseball appeals to me: there's so much precision in it. That's probably related to the order I mentioned earlier in this thread.

 

And touching on hoophead's "first love" comment...when the All-Star starters were announced and it was apparent that Prince is the first Brewer voted to start since 1988, I realized that that's the year before I met the S.O. First love indeed.

(Sorry, Madison softball, that's why I'm staying home to watch the ASG Tuesday instead of you guys.)

[lukevan]

First, I love to play the game. When I'm in a defensive position in the OF, nothing is on my mind except not letting that ball touch the ground. I love tracking down a line drive gapper and making a diving play to save a run.

 

I love pitching; something about getting someone to swing at a curveball in the dirt just makes me happy.

 

I love hitting: the intense amount of focus required, the quick athletic turn through the baseball, the value of hitting it far and also the value of making contact more often than another guy.

 

I love baseball because it doesn't require its players to all out sprint all of the time like basketball or football. There are moments of anticipation interuppted by quick action that requires quick reaction.

 

There's no time limit, each team gets equal opportunity to score (27 outs) and the defense handles the ball instead of the offense.

 

Baseball is easy to play, you don't need an elaborate strategy or gameplan, just a glove, ball and bat and four bases, though it's perfectly fine to use a Radio Flyer, ice cream bucket or dead spot in the grass as a base.

 

Baseball is the easiest sport to watch and comprehend, as most of the action of the play occurs in one spot on the field at a time. Because of this, the players on the field, at certain moments of the game, have almost all the pressure for the team to succeed on their shoulders, making baseball a series of singular individual performances that add up to team success or failure.

[sheetswannabe]

No running out the clock, you have to throw that 3-2 pitch for a strike with the bases loaded in the 9th!

[Thats Freakin Sweet]

Having played since I was five through a couple of years ago at varying levels, there are a ton of things I can say, but the following quote from Buck Weaver in "Eight Men Out" (IMO, the best baseball movie ever made) says it all. When I watch now, I remember exactly what he was talking about.

 

"You get out there, and the stands are full and everybody's cheerin'. It's like everybody in the world come to see you. And inside of that there's the players, they're yakkin' it up. The pitcher throws and you look for that pill... suddenly there's nothing else in the ballpark but you and it. Sometimes, when you feel right, there's a groove there, and the bat just eases into it and meets that ball. When the bat meets that ball and you feel that ball just give, you know it's going to go a long way. Damn, if you don't feel like you're going to live forever. "

 

I'm not afraid to admit that I get chills when I read this and my eyes well a bit.

[Baldkin]

I will try to put into words why I love the game so much.

 

In no other sport is the history of the game as prevelant as it is in baseball. Numbers, situations, games, calls. No other sport compares.

 

The voice of the game has been carried through time by the great announcers, this is something that hoops, football and others have never had. Baseball grew up on the radio, there is a huge list of names that carried the game to many people, that they simply associate with their team, their city, in much the same way that we Wisconsinites associate Uecker with the Brewers.

 

Why do I love the game? The stories my friends can tell. The games that I have seen. The subtleties and the intensity that every single pitch brings.

Every pitch is a new game.

 

Baseball may be 'slow' but no other sport has the action as compacted as Baseball does.

 

There's more in my head, but my brain has shut off.

[FVBrewerFan]

Look no further than this forum, and you'll have my main reason for loving the game. I love football, basketball below the NBA level, golf, even NASCAR. But only baseball generates so much meaningful conversation.

 

Think about it. You can talk about the Packers on Packers Chatters or some other site, and it's borderline ridiculous. We can watch a game and there's only so much that can be said. I love watching the games, but it ends there for the most part.

 

With baseball you can discuss the line-up, rotation, who should be called up, should a player be platooned, trades, I could go on and on. Within an individual game you can debate when a pitcher should be taken out, should they have sacraficed, when to use a PH, is this a good time to steal, etc. The game jsut lends itself to a ton of well reasoned debate.

 

The other thing that's special about baseball is the unique events you can see on any given day. Inside the park HR, walk off hit, triple play, hit for the cycle, no hitter.

 

I love the way baseball clubhouses are self-policing and for the most part won't allow players to give a half-hearted effort or act like a jerk.

[1992casey]

In no particular order:

 

? My dad always had ball games going on his transistor radio; I had to see what was up. If it wasn't Milwaukee, it was either of the Chicago teams. Far-away teams on AM in the car at night were a bonus. As a kid, baseball was the first reason for me to pick up a newspaper.

 

? Summer is my favorite season and baseball is part of it. I don't necessarily know which one is the cart and which one is the horse. But I do know that spring training is a sign that the snow will be melting soon.

 

? I love the fact that there are 162 games in 180 days. You don't have to 'make an appointment' to see it.