# 4

Wow... I was really bored tonight and decided I must finish this damn thing off. Then I noticed I began writing this in April. It seems like a fitting time to post a blog on why baseball is the best sport.

Why Baseball is the Best Sport
It IS America's pasttime... it is the American sport.

Stadium Experience
The fact that each baseball park is different used to annoy me, but now it is probably the one thing that I enjoy most about the game. The ivy at Wrigley, Yankee stadium's parking lot behind home plate, and of course, the Green Monster. Each makes the stadium experience unique. Half of the fun in going to a game for many people is the romanticism of the large, lush field set in a gigantic ballpark. I still remember exactly how I felt when I first walked into Fenway. You just don't get that kind of feeling by walking into an arena. But you don't have to go to a Major League park to enjoy the baseball experience. You can enjoy a deep minor league system (approximately 245 teams); each packed with wacky promotions that are focused on one thing: entertaining the fans.

The Game
A simplified explanation of baseball is that it is a matchup between a batter and a pitcher... any mistake is magnified for everyone to see. The game really is more complex than that; intentional walks, stolen bases, double plays. Which brings me to a key difference between baseball and most other sports; the importance of statistics. In soccer and hockey, I can only think of basic numbers like goals, saves, shots, assists, etc. Basketball goes a little deeper: rebounds, blocks, 3 pointers. Baseball is filled with statistics; especially after Moneyball. WHIP, RISP, HRANSP. That last one stands for Home Runs Allowed to Non Steroid Players. It hasn't officially invented yet, but it will be used to evaluate pitchers from 1990-2010. So how does the importance of these numbers make baseball better? It attracts fans to follow more than just a teams' record. And it can make a player stand out. Take a guy like Chris Shelton, who can have a phenomenal first month and he's the talk of the league. Did ESPN really compare him to Bonds in the first few weeks of the season? Yes, yes they did. Until he came back to Earth and was shipped to Toledo. The other aspect of baseball games that separates them from soccer is that each game takes on its own personality. You can have a pitchers duel or a shootout. I guess soccer may have this too, but the difference between an offense game and a defensive one is one goal.

Intangibles
The cornerstone of the league is its history... 2004: end of the Curse of the Bambino, 2005: Black Sox Curse ends. I hate to say it, but Bonds chasing down the Home Run record is deservedly a big story. I know soccer has its history too, but the MLS started in 1996. (Yes, I went all out and did research for this. MLB started in 1903 in comparison.) My theory as to why soccer is bigger in just about every country outside of the U.S. (besides the talent gap) is that the rivalries are much more real. Take the heated Poland vs. Germany matchup. We can't have that kind of rivalry because we have few geographic neighbors. Without any competitive rivalries for Americans to become incensed about, we lose the soccer intensity that other countries have. Other countries may hate us and our soccer team, but they aren't rivals.

The mild soccer interest that the U.S. has during the World Cup pales in comparison to the annual summer pasttime. The 162 regular season games and playoff games lead us gracefully from spring to fall. Opening day is a sign that spring is just ahead, the All Star game is the Summer Classic and the World Series brings in fall.

Conclusion
The sport of baseball may be losing its grip as America's pasttime, but it isn't losing out to soccer.

Countdown Begins

I too have decided to end my blog. I haven't posted in over a month and I don't feel the need to put words onto the internet anymore. Plus, I want to only write about sports and I really can't keep that up over the summer. BUT I do want to end with a bang, so I've planned out four final entries. This is not one of them. One will argue in favor of Kevin as to why soccer is the best sport. One will side with Mike that baseball is the best. The third will take my own perspective on why hockey is the best and it will highlight my experience in beginner hockey lessons. The final entry is a secret, but it won't be about sports. I do not know how long it will take me to finish them, but my guess is that it might take a little while time for me to decide how I can argue soccer is the best sport. Mike and Kevin, I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog in the past.