Its Baseball Time Again

It is finally the time of year when baseball scores and highlights begin to appear again. Baseball is a wonderful and unique sport which most people either love or hate. Some feel it lacks the excitement of basketball or football. There are about 20 seconds of wait time between pitches. As a consequence of this waiting, some people conclude that baseball is boring. Baseball, by its nature, is a slow-paced, stop and go game. I hold that the pace at which baseball is played makes for a very relaxing yet exciting game.

Baseball is relaxing because there is no time constraint. All 27 outs will be recorded no matter how long it takes. Achieving victory is a matter of taking advantage of opportunities and scoring runs, not just being ahead when time runs out. Seizing those opportunities is what makes baseball exciting. Each time a batter steps up to bat is a chance to score runs, yet a team can get so far, loading the bases, but still come away with no runs. A walk-off home run changes the outcome of a game and is electrifying to watch.

Yogi Berra illustrated that both baseball games and baseball season are not over till the very end. “It ain’t over till it’s over,” he said. Just as there are 27 outs that must be recorded, all 162 games of a Major League Baseball season must be played. The 1973 Mets, of which Berra was a member, were 9½ games behind the Cubs in the NL East. On the second to last day of the season, the Mets overtook the Cubs and won the division. On the other hand, the 1964 Phillies were ahead of the Reds by 6½ games with 12 games remaining. The Phillies lost 10 of their last 12 games and missed the playoffs. This collapse became known as the “Phold of 1964.” The unpredictability and capriciousness of baseball make baseball thrilling to watch and to play.

Baseball also involves many rich traditions. One of the many traditions is the element of human error. A baseball game is officiated by several umpires. The home plate umpire is responsible for determining whether or not a pitch is inside the strike zone. The strike zone is officially defined, but in reality the strike zone depends on the umpire and his boundaries, as long as they are reasonable. Major League Baseball attempted to normalize the strike zone by installing special cameras and grading umpires on their accuracy. Umpires, players, and fans showed displeasure with the cameras. Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling even went as far as smashing one of the cameras with a bat. Without the help of instant replay, umpires must determine whether a player is safe or out and whether a ball is fair or foul. The element of human error adds to the uniqueness of baseball.

The 7th inning stretch is a tradition that many baseball fans couldn’t live without. Nothing compared to Harry Caray singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the 7th inning stretch at Cubs games. Many teams have their own traditions; the Boston Red Sox sing Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond during the 7th inning stretch. It is not really a necessary part of the game but has been in practice at professional baseball games since the 1920s.

Baseball uniforms have kept with tradition, remaining almost unchanged for decades. Baseball hats have also been a part of the game for decades and have become a popular fashion accessory for many Americans. Managers, essentially coaches, of baseball teams wear the same uniform that the players wear. This is not seen in most sports and makes baseball unique.

Baseball stadiums are not all the same. Some have giant green walls. Others have hills in the outfield. Still others have ivy on the outfield walls. Furthermore, baseball fields are not all the same shape or size. Some parks have a small outfield and are called “hitter’s parks,” meaning they favor the hitter and not the pitcher. The distance from home plate to the center of the outfield wall varies from stadium to stadium. Some are as short as 390 feet, while others are as long as 435 feet. This heterogeneity adds another variable to the game, thus making it more interesting and exciting.

Baseball, more than any other sport, is a game of numbers. Meticulous statistics in many different categories, including batting average, on base percentage, and others, are kept for every player. These statistics may intimidate some fans, but to many, they make following baseball much more interesting. Statistics make it easy to quantitatively describe a player’s ability and skill level. A baseball box score is nothing more than lots of statistics that tell the story of the game. The large emphasis on numbers and statistics drives players to improve because their statistics are announced many times during each game.

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