Baseball: The King of Sports
Lately, I've really been getting into baseball. The more I think about it, the more I realize that baseball is better than hockey and in fact, better than a lot of sports. But let's do a one on one with hockey for now. Why is baseball scientifically better?
There's no clock. Unlike every other sport in the world there's no timekeeper in baseball. The game is finished when it's finished. There are no cheap "run out the clock" maneuvers. You have to win on skill, not time.
The outcome of the game is always left in doubt. Because there's no clock anyone can win. Imagine a hockey match that's 4-1 with a minute to play. The fans would be leaving in droves. The game is over. Imagine now a baseball game 4-1, bottom of the ninth with 1 out and a man on. The team down 3 runs has plenty of chances to win.
Baseball caps. Baseball caps have been co-opted by every other sport out there but when you start to think of an Edmonton Oilers baseball cap and what that means you start to get a headache. I guess the visor is there to keep the sun out of Steve Staios' eyes? I don't know. Imagine an Oakland Raiders hockey jersey and you'll see my point.
It's a true team sport. In baseball, each and every man on a 9 man squad has to do their part. They all have to get up to bat. They all have a fielding position. In hockey you can have a couple of lunchpailers that stay back and do nothing but try to jam up the offense because that's all they can do. And there are lineups. In baseball, the team is the lineup. There aren't any fourth stringers. Imagine if every forward had to play defense and every defenseman had to play as a forward. That's baseball.
But there is plenty of room for individual accomplishments. The Babe. Ty Cobb. Cy Young. Jackie Robinson. Nolan Ryan. Mickey Mantle. Ted Williams. Hank Aaron. Joe DiMaggio.
It's played in the summer. Every other sport is played in the fall and winter. The Boys of Summer fill an important gap. That's why no one misses hockey during this lockout: there's football and basketball. The winter season is saturated.
It's more democratic. To get your kid started in hockey you're looking at $1200 in equipment. To get your kid started in Little League you're looking at a mitt and a uniform. That's why hockey hasn't caught on in poorer countries like Honduras; it's too damn expensive. Which ties into the next reason...
It's played on a field. You can find a dirt or grass field or a sandlot pretty much anywhere on earth. The same can't be said for an ice rink. So if you want to play hockey in Africa you're going to need some serious coin to generate ice. If you want to play baseball you need 4 stones to mark the bases and a stick. It's just more accessible. Which is why...
It's more ethnically diverse. Because you need ice to play, hockey has become a white man's game. The players are all blonde and blue eyed because they're from Sweden, Norway, Russia, and Switzerland. Baseball is populated with Asians, African Americans, Jews, Latinos, and Caribbeans.
It's the number one sport in Japan. Can't get much cooler than that unless the proposed Japan-America World Series becomes a reality. I'd kill for a Tokyo Giants jersey. How many hockey fans want a Lögdeå/Nordmaling-91 jersey?
It's a deep game of strategy and statistics. The manager has to constantly check the angles and the numbers if he wants his team to do well. He has to have a real time situational awareness of the game and its flow. I've heard hockey players say after a loss that the reason they lost was because "they didn't score enough goals." The manager can have a direct outcome on the game during the game. A hockey coach can prepare the team beforehand but once the game has begun, he's lost control. Which is why...
The manager gets to wear a uniform. The manager is as much part of the team as anyone else. In fact, in the early days of baseball, the manager was a player. Can you imagine Jacques Martin in a Senators uniform behind the bench?
Ballpark franks. Hockey arena sushi? All the food is better at a ballpark: popcorn, peanuts, Cracker Jack.
There's no armor. What's worse? A goalie taking a puck to the chest or a batter taking a 100MPH pitch to the arm? Even a head first slide into home plate would hurt more.
Every fight clears the dugouts. When there's a brawl in baseball count on both dugouts to empty in a hurry. Bench clearers do happen in hockey but 9 times out of ten the teams sit back while 2 players duke it out. Baseball is a team sport and a team would never think to let one of their own fight by themselves. The team always has your back.
Errors are scored. If you make a mistake in baseball it's put right on the official scoresheet. You make a mistake in hockey and it's forgotten. Baseball punishes errors.
It's harder to do. It's been said that "the hardest feat in professional sports is to hit a baseball". It's true. A baseball has a diameter of 3 inches and a bat is 2 and a quarter inches in diameter. A baseball can travel at speeds over 100MPH. You've got 0.4 seconds--it takes 0.15 to blink--to see the pitch, determine it's velocity, determine it's trajectory, determine the timing of your swing, determine where to hit the ball and determine whether to swing at all, then get a signal from your brain to your arms. All that in 0.4 seconds. Throw in the fact that the pitcher can pitch the ball in such a way to make those determinations all but impossible and you can see why Ted Williams used to say that "Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer." It's just that difficult. Never mind the fact that most people wouldn't even be able to stand still while the ball was coming at them because they'd be afraid of getting hit. It's so difficult that Porter Johnson, a physics professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology said after studying the phenomenon: "If a person from another planet was told what's involved ... they would say it's impossible." It's really incredible when you think of it.
Fans can bring their mitts to the ballpark and try to catch a foul ball. It's like you're part of the team for a split second. Put on your cap and your mitt and there's a thought in the back of your mind "Maybe I'll get called up if someone gets hurt." I can't bring my hockey stick to a hockey match and hope to get some puck time. Baseball players are also apt to throw foul balls that didn't reach the stands to the fans. I've never seen a hockey player throw a puck into the crowd.
The Nicknames. Ted "The Splendid Splinter" Williams, George Herman "The Babe" Ruth (AKA Sultan of Swat and countless others), Willie "Hit 'em where they ain't" Keeler, "Hammerin'" Hank Aaron, "The Big Unit" Randy Johnson, Mordecai "Three Fingers" Brown, "Joltin" Joe Dimaggio (AKA The Yankee Clipper), Lou "The Iron Horse" Gehrig.
It translates to radio perfectly. To enjoy a hockey game you have to keep your eye on the puck which is why listening to a hockey game doesn't make any sense or work very well. The puck is passed so quickly the announcers can never name every puckhandler in realtime or everyone's position. Baseball is not a visual game. It's a strategy game. It's a mental game. Which is why you can easily form a mental picture of the action on the field. And since only the baserunners move you can easily remember where everyone is at any given time.
There are a ton of other reasons:
Now don't get me wrong, I still like hockey (not the NHL's brand of hockey mind you) but baseball is clearly the better sport. Maybe I wouldn't have gotten so into it if the NHL was playing this year but they weren't and I know I'm not the only Canadian sports fan to switch their sports allegiance. Most went over to basketball and football. I went to baseball. It was a short trip. See you at the ballpark!
Up next: Why soccer is better than hockey.