When it comes to American sports, Baseball seems to be the most interesting sport

When it comes to American sports, Baseball seems to be the most interesting sport.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtu.be/wdH0X_Gbq7E
youtube.com/watch?v=61spAt92APc
youtube.com/watch?v=1j5PJzJTAz8
merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boring
youtube.com/watch?v=ApoJk9X7Vto
youtube.com/watch?v=QqobHHwLbPg
mlb.com/video/statcast-betts-hustle-home/c-1187068183
mlb.com/video/frazier-hustles-home-in-the-8th/c-1387559883
youtube.com/watch?v=oPrMLlyQDt8
youtube.com/watch?v=WYAxk01E404
m.mlb.com/news/article/220204994/statcast-puerto-ricos-javier-baez-throw/
youtube.com/watch?v=1LW87rPBVCk
twitter.com/AnonBabble

good post, football and basketball are trash

careful OP, you'll trigger the "BOREBALL XDD" mouthbreathers

Not baiting, baseball is objectively boring

More than 90% of the time it's just players standing around or commercials, and the very few time of actual play it's mostly a 1vs1 game

baseball is situational, so there will be exciting late night postseason rallies as well as comfy afternoon 5-2 games. as much of reddit as this sounds it takes a more mature fan to understand the beauty of the game, how every pitching matchup plays out in the count, appreciating the approach from the pitcher and batters, and the athleticism and consistency of the fielders to make the plays they do. I don't think there's an equivalent of Ichiro's throws from right field, or an inning ending 5-4-3 to save a run, or how every little error and play adds up to the team's season record, with no randomness because of the amount of games played. there's also almost no way to play baseball like a pussy because there's no penalties, no rules that you can be punished for breaking, no clock to run out, you gotta face the batter until you get all 27 and there's no running from it. it's purely a competition of skill and management, and it's comfy as fuck but still has the kino postseason dinger magic.

youtu.be/wdH0X_Gbq7E

Mate, being "comfy" is not argument. Comfy is a keyword for "boring" and you know it

There is literally nothing wrong about liking boring sports tho. I like football and for Americans it's boring

what a fucking bait this video was

>muh playoff boreball
the pitcher and catcher spend more time flashing gang symbols and having mound visits than the actual at bat takes. they literally waste 5 minutes making a pitching change for a guy to throw 1 pitch before going to the bullpen again and wasting another 5 minutes.

no, it's not. boring means not interesting or dull, baseball is always interesting if you know what's happening, unlike other sports which can literally be teams dragging out a clock. you can't tell me that postseason baseball is boring in any way.

youtube.com/watch?v=61spAt92APc
youtube.com/watch?v=1j5PJzJTAz8

It's enjoyable as Slow Television thing.

there is no clock to drag out yet the games still find a way to take 4 hours. you could almost play 2 nhl/nba games in that time

Boring doesn't mean "not interesting", it just means the opposite of complex

Most of the time the game is just 1 guy throwing the ball to another guy. You could say football is just a guy kikcing a ball around but it isn't the case because all the players are moving and performing strategy THE WHOLE GAME, you get literally infinite situations every single minute

Baseball is the most monotonous ball sport I know

games can go 4 hours BECAUSE there is no clock, you have to get 27 and there's no way around it. you can't just burn time until you hit 2 hours and call yourself a winner like in other sports.

>Boring doesn't mean "not interesting", it just means the opposite of complex
wrong merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boring
but "not complex" is completely incorrect for baseball as well, the approach to each pitch changes for every new count, what pitch the batter's sitting on, what the pitcher wants him to chase, what he wants to fight off, even working his pitch count to get to the bullpen. every player on the field has a spot for every play and the perfect execution of throws to beat a runner by .1 seconds is amazing, but you might have to actually play the game to understand. you don't understand the kind of read on the field you need to have to make a play like this youtube.com/watch?v=ApoJk9X7Vto
the situation changes as to how the at bat is approached throughout the game, while in soccer it's basically reset every time you get possession again, it's the same thing over and over because the situation really never changes. there are no runners, no outs, no innings in soccer, no bullpen, no batting order, no count, no pitch count, just players position on the field which also changes in baseball in shifts.

What I like about Baseball is how fast things can turn, like yesterday when the Dodgers blew a 3-1 lead.

yes that's true, you can get 4 runs with a swing of the bat and in theory get infinite runs in an inning as you can keep scoring over and over, there's no free pass to offense, you need all 3 outs. the game is never de facto over as in football where you can kneel out the clock, or basketball where you can just take fouls.

I was talking about this in another thread, so I guess it's appropriate to repost it here:
>I think this video sums up everything I've been talking about.
youtube.com/watch?v=QqobHHwLbPg
>It basically encompasses everything I like about baseball. At bats are slow affairs, and this at bat is fairly innocuous; no one on and 1 out in the 4th inning of a regular season game in May. Nothing too special really, but the slow down in the game gives Vin the time to talk about the batter, and for a moment that batter, known or unknown, becomes the star of the show, in a standoff between him and the pitcher, and we have time to get to know him a little bit more, since it's his spotlight, and craft a backstory in our heads for the guy. You get to do that for every guy that comes up, and the pitcher too if he's performing well. Doing something like that, at least for me, makes the moments where the game does pick up all the more special, because I feel like I got to know the guys who made those moments possible. And lo and behold, the guy who we just found out survived a wolf attack when he was 12 just successfully hit. I think that's really something. Now imagine this happening in a World Series Game 7. From my experience with other sports everything seems so transient, it feels like you really have no time to make those stories because everything is lost in the heat of the moment. In other sports you would see a guy playing and maybe learn an interesting thing about him after the game.

Another thing I like about MLB is that even though it has a long and very storied history, amazing things are still being done. Like last night was the first time in not only postseason history, but MLB history, back to the late 1800's, where two teams combined to hit 5 home runs in extra innings. Disregarding the amazing context, the idea that you could tune in to any of the hundreds of games and still see something you haven't seen before is very appealing to me.

Baseball is the only game where the defense has the disposition of the ball.

lol ik i was like "fuck this ichiro shit" and i love the guy

>3rd worlders pretending their opinions are relevant

people who call baseball comfy have never played it. it's a nerve wracking, high pressure sport where you learn to have 15-20 of your peers watching your every move and expecting you to produce. the frustration of striking out, especially when trailing is palpable. it also demands a great deal of patience, the latter innings feel like they last for days when the pitchers start getting tired.

you can say the same about literally every sport. even a 0-0 povertyball game with a million passes is entertaining to play in but boring to watch

it's comfy to watch, I played it for years and fuck coming up to bat with the bases loaded is exciting

Luckswing > Apehoop > Niggercrash

Cricket is better.

>I'm a women who cares about more gossip than the actual sport being played

Like user said before, it’s situational. Baseball is a game of matchups in high leverage games. It’s the pitchers job to correctly place his pitches to get the batter out thus preventing runs. The catcher has to be aware of where the ball is going to be pitched so it can be caught and framed for a strike or else he takes a slider to the nutsack.

Cricket isn't America, tugabro.

The stories can be about the sport too, you know, not just outside stuff, hell, they're a big reason why Kirk Gibson's and Bucky Dent's home runs among others are so famous in baseball history

Baseball isn't a sport, it's a game.

It's amazing

Can't spell BASED

without BASE(you dont really need ball though but fuckit)ball

I'm just playing Yeah baseball commentary is super comfy

What's your definition of sport?

direct physical competition with your opponent. I love baseball, but it's kind of the odd man out when it comes to the major sports

>flashing gang symbols
Gave me a chuckle while evacacuting the contents of my insides in the lavatory

baseball requires the speed of sprinting for baserunning and outfielders, footwork of middle infielders, and strength of pitchers and hitting. it's as much of a sport as any athletics like sprinting and swimming.

To be fair, commentary can be very boring as well when the wrong guy is doing it, but that's when you take over. It's kinda fun making up your own plotlines for a particular at bat using what you know about the players inside and outside of the game while knowing the whole time that they could very well come true

all true

This. I played travel ball and it is hell. Best time of my life tho. Baseball is the most cerebral of the
>Amerisports
Also...
>Divegrass

So sprinting and swimming aren't sports to you? What does that leave? Fighting and American Handegg?

...

sprinting and swimming aren't sports, they're exercising and hobbies. it's not a sport if it has no defense.

Example: Michael Phelps is one of the best exercisers in Olympic history.

VERY good thread Brazil
Here are some MLB mascots as a reward

I mean kind of, it's really your time versus their time, you're not impeding them or vice versa. There isn't a direct struggle per se

i agree with you OP, good post
we don't call it "The American Pastime" for nothin'

And now here are some NPB mascots

same thing with prince fielder and cc, they may have a lot of fat on the outside but there's still tons of muscle underneath it. pitcher workout's are intense, you need a lot of juice to even hit 90 on the gun.

missing the cutest

What a fuckin throw

that was impressive

Baseball (and cricket) are more interesting since their designs are different. Basketball, soccer, hockey, handball, waterpolo, hurling, futsal, rugby, lacrosse, football, etc are pretty much the same sport (standard goal sport design featuring guys facing off on a rectangle field/court trying to put the ball into a net or bring it over a line) with slight variations among them (American football is probably the most different due to the down structure and strict turn based play). I'm not trying to talk down those sports, but the bat-and-ball games actually feel "fresh" in comparison, since the on-field drama unfolds in a completely different way.

Baseball also isn't slow. There's 300 and more (pitches) scoring opportunities every game and one of those events can totally change the game at any time. We've become too conditioned to only consider "running around" as "action."

See pic. Every pitch shifts the odds in an AB. Casual baseball watchers pretty much consider a 1-2, 3-1 the same thing and don't always realize how important (and thus "exciting") a player taking a razor thin ball on a 1-0 count changes the entire complexion of the AB (and could change the entire game). Or a player fighting back from an 0-2 count to work it to 3-2 and draw a walk. The equivalent in say, football, is like completing a pass on 3rd and 17 to gain a crucial first down. If he homers, it would be like hitting a hail mary in that situation.

It's not a running around sport, but it's not a slow sport by any means. Every action has meaning as much as any other sport.

Also the most tense since the ball doesn't change hands after a score. If I'm watching my football team, I can breathe easy if they're up 4 TDs, even if the other team has the ball, since the most damage they can do with that possession is 8 points. 4 run lead can vanish at any time in baseball.

Your examples are correct but your underlying theory isn't

The correct answer is that it's only a sport if it has a ball*.

*Pucks are also included in this definition

hmm, i like it. i usually use the "no defense" argument. i think combining the two covers all bases

Check this one by Kiermaier. Didn't get him, but a 344 foot missile in the air that actually just missed by a fraction of a second. If Betts was a step slow, he gets nailed.

mlb.com/video/statcast-betts-hustle-home/c-1187068183

Baseball is pretty cool, it reminds me of cricket, slow and tactical.

>American football is probably the most different due to the down structure and strict turn based play
Rugby league has a tackle system that's very similar to downs. Just instead of 4 and 10 imagine it's 6 and score (no matter where the first "down" is taken from)

So snooker is a sport but cycling or running are not?
Retarded.

Convince me to watch regular season baseball. I don't know why any would waste their time on that. I have been watching the playoffs for the last few years and learning about the sport. The playoffs are great entertainment but the regular season just seems so utterly meaningless.

I love how slow it is until it isn't... a 92 mph fastball thrown at the batter, is hit back at a fielder at an average 90 mph (with the games top hitters averaging 100 mph)

I think rugby is a better game than football desu

Happens literally once every 3 games

>Baseball is pretty cool, it reminds me of cricket, slow and tactical.

They're ying-and-yang, which is neat.

Cricket is designed to give the advantage to the batter, who has a similar role as the pitcher in baseball in that he's expected to perform up to par over the long haul to put his team in a position to win. For example, Tendulkar is expected to be good for 50 to 100 runs every game and if he gets out beforehand, it's a big blow, much like how Kershaw is expected to be sharp for 7 innings, yet if he melts down in an early inning, huge blow to the team.

Bowlers attack batters in order much like batters attack a pitcher. Each sport uses all manner of defensive shifts, deception, exploiting batter/pitcher tendency to gain an advantage. Cricket turns a singular defense stop into a big event (it's cause for celebration when you get a batter out, while baseball turns the offensive into an event (homerun a cause for celebration, while a 6 in cricket is meaningless if you can't build on it and get edged in the next ball).

Two fine sports.

>players standing around or commercials 90%
Sounds more like the NFL bud

just throw it on in the background, baseball commentary is top tier even if you aren't focusing on the game

you need to watch a game here and there to see how they're coming along, and to gauge their chances. try to prioritize divisional series and games against the top 5 teams.

>Convince me to watch regular season baseball.

Follow your young players, immerse yourself in the stats, and due to the large sample size of games and baseball's nature, you'll probably see a few unique events, like this (a sacrifice fly on a popped up bunt):

mlb.com/video/frazier-hustles-home-in-the-8th/c-1387559883

Every game does matter, as well. One game could be the difference between a playoff berth and not. But yeah, a lot games can feel dull, mostly because the crowd isn't creating an entertaining atmosphere (contrast that to Japanese baseball. Every game feels intense and important because of that).

I can only compare this to the other american sports, but it matters because you can't slack off then decide to "turn it on" in the playoffs. The NBA is the worst culprit of this. Only 10/30 teams make the playoffs in the MLB. Then 4 of those teams are subject to a a single elimination meme game(which the sport is not designed for) So being one of the 6 division winners is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. at least 4 teams miss the playoffs by 1-2 games, so even though it's 162 games over 6 months, when they're going home instead of to the playoffs, they have to be thinking "what if we didn't give up like faggots and actually try vs (team) in june"

16/32 of the teams make the playoffs in the NHL. then play a best of 7

more than 16/30 teams make the fucking playoffs in the NBA(embarrassing, literally teams with losing records) then play a best of 7

16/32 of the teams makethe playoffs in the NFL, but it's all single elimination so getting the "bye week" is important to avoids memes and to rest players

I have no idea how guys can make throws like this with so much power and yet still so much precision

it's magic, seems like ichiro's throw accelerates in air

I'd probably actually like cricket if there weren't so many pakis and pajeets.


Do bowlers suffer tommy john injuries?

It's just too may games. I don't see the point unless you support a team. No incentive for neutrals to watch.

I saw the Yankees fired their manager who had the best record of the last 10 years... losing 700 (!!) games. That's just silly.

It is desu

if you don't support a team then yeah, it's a bit boring unless there's two aces going or something special like the indians 22 winstreak. so yeah, I'd just suggest watching when there's aces on the mound from top division rivals.

Why is the nationality/race of the players important if the game being played is beautiful?

>Do bowlers suffer tommy john injuries?

Not typically, since they throw with their arm straight.

Agree with you OP.

It's relaxing. It's like boxing, one guy may be getting pegged with light straights, it's still comfy because you know it's part of a strategy and will add up to something probably pretty entertaining. It doesn't have to be blaring "SO MUCH ACTION" every second, that was footballs strategy and look how that went. I make a nice cup of coffee and watch baseball to relax, if you're watching it expecting it to be some sort of jungle deathmatch then you're coming in with the wrong mentality

Baseball is not really a sport. It's more of a game for kids since it lacks the sophistication of more dynamic team sports.

And don't forget all the unwritten rules of baseball that can and will be enforced. Like Bautista showboating was the direct catalyst that lead to this bench clearing brawl and this iconic photo.
youtube.com/watch?v=oPrMLlyQDt8

No. Basketball "sophistication" comes down to creating spacing through super sophisticated tactics like pick-and-rolls and collapsing a defense through penetration or low post play. And today's game is essentially a 3 point chuck fest off moving screens.

It's also a sport that can be easily dominated by the individual, making team building a simple joke. Also a sport where you excel through raw athleticism.

Football is complex at the head-coaching and QB level, but every position thereafter is completely specialized. It's why raw athletes can easily convert to football players in college despite never having played the sport.

Average baseball position demands a more well rounded and multiskilled athlete than both football and basketball. And learning to hit is harder than anything you;ll have to do in either sport.

Reminds me of Ichiro's throw
youtube.com/watch?v=WYAxk01E404

There's no denying baseball requires an immense amount of skill. It's still essentially based on isolated and sequential 1v1 encounters with minimal dependence on team chemistry/cohesion and on the fly improvisation. This makes for a very stagnant and "boring" game to sell as entertainment to today's youth.

...

1 v 9 technically, you are FUCKED at a batter 70%(and that's if you're good) of the time

>It's still essentially based on isolated and sequential 1v1 encounters with minimal dependence on team chemistry/cohesion and on the fly improvisation.

You're being what I guess I'll call "motion biased," in that you only consider feats that demonstrate some kind of obvious counter movement through movement (i.e. a sure blocked shot in basketball that the shooter turns into a shot by hanging in the air, double pumping, etc. Or a stuffed run an RB turns into a gain through an improvised cut or spin move) as "on the fly improvisation."

Hitters improvise all the time. They might be expecting a certain pitch at a certain location, but the spin of the ball, the arm slot of the pitcher, the pitcher's grip, his body motion tips the batter off and he "improvises" what he was set up for and manages to hit a pitch he wasn't expecting, all in the fraction of a second.

I don't see the difference between that kind of improvisation and a QB improvising with a run when his receivers are locked up. I actually find the baseball example more impressive since you're operating on fractions of second.

Aesthetically, the football example is more overt and "entertaining" but no less impressive.

Baseball also has a good deal of physical improvisation, but admittedly not as much as goal sports.

Team cohesion is very important in baseball (since it's not a goal sport, obviously the ball doesn't travel between 3 or more players very often, but that's why we have goal sports. Totally different design).

m.mlb.com/news/article/220204994/statcast-puerto-ricos-javier-baez-throw/

Two perfect throws in quick succession to get a runner. Improvisation also here. If Pagan doesn't bare hand that ball (first instinct is to always use your glove), that .30 second it would've taken him to transfer to his throwing hand would've cost them the out and tied the game.

me in the cat costume

Lel no reply from that prick

I thought that fight was because Bautista slid into Odor while running for second; Carlos Gomez is the one I know who always gets into bench clearers for showboating

I've always loved baseball the most and can happily chill and watch an entire game any time of the year. There is subtlety to the game beyond what is visible on the screen.
When the Yankees were playing the Astros I saw Didi slide back to first when the pitcher checked his lead and Didi cartoonishly fell a few inches short. In another game Chase got caught in the muddy base paths while trying to change direction. They even showed a closeup of him getting the mud out of his cleats. I was screaming at the tv about how the groundskeepers were soaking the field way too much and why weren't the Yankees on them to stop doing it? The friend I was watching the game with had a great uncle on the Phillies grounds crew decades ago, and he said that a solid grounds crew was good for 4 or 5 wins a year. He guessed that since the Astros were a quick running team they probably soaked the paths more to slow them down. He also said that if a team was coming to town who bunted a lot and relied on small ball the crew would ever so slightly angle the grass so that the balls would tend towards foul. All a part of the chess match of the game where tiny advantages build over 162 games.

>9000 games per year
>multiple games even in one day
>they last four hours
>boreball

that was the trigger, but that never would have happened without the batflip in their playoff series before it

Can agree with people who think baseball is boring, but there is nothing like postseason baseball, even if the match lasts 5 hours. Because of the nature of the game, even a 2nd inning run can mean everything, so the intensity is at 100% almost every at-bat.

>match
kill yourself.

the commercials are inbetween natural breaks, have you even watched one game?

Baseball is pretty fun since interesting plays actually happen, unlike divegrass.

youtube.com/watch?v=1LW87rPBVCk

We have another bomb

>A Jap
>Complaining about baseball

i want my sports games wrapped up in about 2-2.5 hours.
baseball is boring. it's 15 people standing around doing nothing watching 3 people doing almost nothing.

not a jap, a bored marine using our tax dollars to shitpost on a venusian doily knitting forum.

don't you mean a brave marine or serviceperson risking their life for our freedom?

>t. - brainlet

Out of 5 football games, you see 3-5 interesting plays. But in ONE baseball game, you can see 5 or more interesting plays.