THANK GOD I'M A COUNTRY BOY!

Statistics: If you love either role-playing or math, then baseball can sympathize with you. It's easy to simulate entire games because of all the statistics that are kept on baseball. There's even an organization devoted to studying stats in baseball. Each time a player comes up to bat, by looking at the numbers, you can predict whether they'll get a hit, if they do, how many bases they'll get, and how much they'll contribute to the game. With pitchers, it's possible to predict how many runs they give up, how many people they'll walk or strike out.

The sheer amount of available in baseball make it possible to have arguments about what stats matter, and which are bunk. Statistics might even make it possible for poorer teams to compete.


Acronyms: VORP, GIDP, or RISP each statistic has a clever acronym associated with it. While it can make the statistical side of baseball daunting, it's still possible to not know what any of these mean and enjoy the game (and many people think they're bunk). My personal favorite is GIDP which I liked to pretend stood for "Getting It Done Percentage" when it's really the opposite, it measures a player's likely-hood of hitting into a double play.

Cost: It's possible to go to a baseball game in Milwaukee for only a little more than it would cost you to go see a movie (in fact, cheaper, if you can get Uecker seats. Sure, if you drive there, or buy food, it'll be insanely expensive, but you don't have to do any of those things.

Objectivity: In music or art, there's really no way to prove that you one band is better than the other, or that one painting is more artistically valid than another. In baseball, since the teams actually face each other, it is possible to argue that the Tigers are better than the Royals, or the Braves are better than the Giants.

Subjectivity: Even if teams go head-to-head there's always wiggle room for subjective arguments. For example, the Brewers won't have their "star" pitcher until September, how many more games would they have won if he didn't get injured? Or, you can try comparing teams from different years... Like, were the Reds in the 70s better than the Braves in the late 50s? You can even do it with individual players.

Facial Hair: Baseball has the best facial hair.

Drama: If you're a fan of movies, you probably love the tense moments when you don't know which direction the character's life will take. In baseball, every single game has the tension created over whether or not the team will win or lose. On top of that there's the tension over the course of the year determining what positions teams will finish. There are the losing streaks that seem like the end of the world, and the winning streaks that make it seem like a team is invincible.

Work Ethic: Players can play more than 160 games a year. They could even end up playing as many as 17 days in a row. Have you ever worked 17 days in a row. Sure, they're not building a building, and they're getting paid alot of money to do it, but baseball players have to spend more than half a year away from their family. In addition, they're work day involves more than just the game, there's warmups, interviews, autographs, and the run to your car after you dropped a ball or gave up the winning run.

History: Baseball has more than a hundred years of history, yet still finds room for firsts. There's the long-standing home run records, Jackie Robinson's saga, or the Cubs' curse.

Individual face offs: When a pitcher faces a batter, for that moment the game is only between two people, each trying their best to upset the other's intentions.

Teamwork: While there is an individual element, the rest of the game relies on working as a team to win the game, from sacrifice flys to working together to make plays.

Psychology: For players, the game must be mentally taxing. If you don't hit in 20 at bats, you start to over-think, and if you're not Barry Bonds, you worry about getting sent down to the minors. If you're on a hitting streak, you wonder if it will continue. You try to figure out what the pitcher is going to throw your way, while he tries his best to screw you over.

Robin Yount, Craig Biggio, and Cal Ripken Jr.: While this isn't common, the players that spend their entire career with one team appeal to me. I like the idea of the company guy who may not make as much as if they went somewhere else, but stick with one team.

Heh. For whatever reason, I love reading about baseball, but don't like watching it. I thought that was weird for a while, but I'm making my peace with it and just enjoying reading about baseball. And your piece here made for good baseball reading.

So, um, go Twins. And by "go," I mean go ahead and write off the rest of the season and make the proper moves to stomp some ass next year.

cobra!, I can definitely sympathize with that, I like following the games via box score or listening on the radio. On television, it never seems as fun (though I'll sometimes watch). Plus, there are some really great baseball books.

What I like about baseball is that it is played in parks. Not stadiums, or fields, but parks. The grass is neatly manicured, the dirt is carefully groomed, and the bases are nailed down in their respective spots, with neat white lines laid out, just so. It's very relaxing to go sit in a ball park, just because of the sense of order about the place.

I also love that baseball is not played against the clock. Baseball ignores the rest of the world's slavish fascination with the clock. And still, baseball players call "Time!" for a time out, without thought. There is an MLB rule (rule 8.04) about pitchers needing to deliver the pitch within 12 seconds of a batter standing in the box, when the bases are empty, but, hey, it's hardly ever enforced. I love that about the game! 3 hour games? Sure!

I hate free agency, and long term contracts. I think all contracts should be 1 year contracts, and every team should have the same salary cap, but that successful players should be free to parlay endorsement deals. That would provide individual players with income potential, while guaranteeing that no team could buy a pennant. I'm also dead set against designated hitters, and pinch runners.

1) Hot guys ... Biggio, Bagwell (he grew into his good looks), Berkman, Backe, Lidge ... lots of my hometown boys are hot hot hot. I'll stop there because I'm sweating.

2) Good guys ... Biggio, again, not only is he destined for the hall of fame, but the tale of his friendship with Ken Caminiti (who's buried at Biggio's ranch) through Caminiti's ups, downs, and eventual death due to drug abuse is a heartwarming/breaking one.

3) The sound of ball hitting bat

4) the feel of sun on skin

5) hot dogs, cold cold beer

6) fans that aren't fanatics, and some that are

7) keeping score of a game as a kid, and then to find that your grandfather had saved all the scorecards; finding those cards again 20 years later.

I love the game, always have always will despite (or in small part because of) the turbulence and scandal that has always always existed at the professional level.

Interesting read drezdn. People do love the statistics. Every time I go to a game, I always spot someone obsessively recording the outcome of every pitch. As a kid, I used to love poring over the stats on the backs of my baseball cards.

To me, baseball means lazy summers sorting cards, listening to the game on A.M. radio or heading to the park for a double header. Some of my best memories are of going to see games at Tiger Stadium with my great uncle. (Anybody remember "The Bird"?) I miss all those things.

The key to baseball is this: the more you know about it, teh more fun watching it becomes. also, baseball isn't about excitement, it's about tension. also, if you're a freak for history and lore (as I obviously am) baseball has more of it than any other pro sport in America.

LET'S GO METS!!

I score every game I go to.

Seconding everything drezdn says, especially the part about "really great books" (Roger Angell FTW!). I will also throw in: no goddamned clock. The game takes as long as it takes, and there's none of those winding-down-the-clock shenanigans of basketball and football.

I paid little attention to baseball until 1987, when the Twins' pennant race and ultimate World Series victory absolutely captivated me, naive and joyous fan that I was. In the next few years I became a pretty serious student of the game, and so by the time the Twins were in the 1991 World Series, it was at once that much sweeter (because I knew so much better just how big a deal that was, and how hard), and much more painful (because it was SO MUCH BIGGER A DEAL).

Then somewhere in the mid-90s I just -- fell out of love, I guess, not with the game but with the whole corporate/money-driven context in which it operates. I still watch, though, albeit much more casually, and it's still my favorite sport, and I am very much looking forward to catching some games in Safeco (gorgeous ballpark!), once I've gotten moved to Seattle next month.

I paid little attention to baseball until 1987, when the Twins' pennant race and ultimate World Series victory absolutely captivated me, naive and joyous fan that I was.

I was in a bar on Amsterdam Avenue when I saw Kirby hit that homer. It was a total kick to see that pudgy goof be a hero.

Just another note on Biggio— he's getting close to breaking a record that's stood for 104 years: number of times hit by pitch. He's in the high 200s.

Plus, go Tigers!

I thought Don Zimmer was the master of 'taking one for the team,' die to his plate paralysis.

Not a baseball fan myself, but I will say this for the game: Over the past year or two, between reading the occasional article here or there, and hanging out in sports bars, I've come to appreciate that the game is much deeper strategically than it initially appears. I still don't like baseball, but I do respect it now, if that makes sense.

VORP, GIDP, or RISP.... What ARE those? Never heard of them, and I've followed baseball for a long time (although not in the "know-every-stat-fantasy-baseball" way)?

What do *I* like about baseball? Minor leagues. I went to see the Fort Worth Cats win a double header against the Coastal Bend (Corpus Christi area) Aviators tonight. Talk about upclose and personal: our $8 tickets were three rows from the bullpen bench. And when the pitchers got thirsty, they stepped over the 3-foot fence separating the field from the fans and walked up the aisle right by us to the concession stand, schmoozing the fans and signing autographs both ways.

Oh, and the "World Famous Chicken" (formerly known as the San Diego Chicken) made an appearance.

When we lived in Detroit, we went to a few Tigers games, but we just as frequently drove south an hour or so to see the Toledo Mudhens play too.

To me, the major leagues have become too big. Minor leagues, that's real baseball.

Although this is not true of all ballparks, baseball stadiums really are "ball parks"; a greenspace with seating where baseball is played. Football is also played on turf, but you just wouldn't describe a football field as a "park".

jonmc is absolutely right that the more you know, the more fun it is to watch. Paying close attention makes watching baseball as involved as reading a book-- there's strategy and tactics in every single pitch. Even if the game is a blowout, it can still be worth watching. You can play lackadaisically in a blowout in any of the other major sports, but it's hard to pitch lackadaisically.

I recommend Total Baseball by Keith Hernandez, despite my being a Red Sox fan. His in-depth discussion of game strategy changed the way I watch the game. The Hardball Times and, more informally, Fire Joe Morgan are very good sites for discussion of statistics you may never have heard of.

I'll defend fantasy baseball, too. It makes you pay attention to every roster, and know about young players and farm systems.

Matsuzaka threw 7 shutout innings tonight, good enough to beat Sabathia 1-0. And Julio Lugo is on a 14-game hitting streak, one that started about 4 games after his 0-33 streak ended! Every day I love baseball a little more.

I don't get baseball. Sorry, I don't hate it or anything, but I just don't understand the first thing about it, although I played softball as school (isn't that exactly the same, but with different pitching and a bigger, softer ball?).

Money and corporate interests have corrupted sports too much for me.

I love seeing athletes compete in earnest. Playing at 100% and damn the consequences. Since that almost never happens in any major sport in the world, I don't have time for sport. Decisions are made based on money and injuries and 'the rest of the season'. The richest teams always win. BORING. It's bullshit.

Life is too short for crooked, biased pro baseball. I'm 38, already. The fucking clock is ticking.

The richest teams always win. BORING. It's bullshit.

If that were true, I wouldn't be enjoying watching the Yankees suck so hard this year.

The richest teams always win. BORING. It's bullshit.

Here's the current break down. One of the "shocking" things about the Brewers (First place in the NL Central) is that many of its "star" players are making very little money (due mainly to the rules of arbitration and the like).

The richest teams have a much better shot at winning. And it is bullshit. Salary caps (and salary floors), please. The Yankees can afford All Star talent at every position, and the Red Sox come darn close.

But wealth isn't predestination, as drezdn and gaspode point out. The 2003 Florida Marlins and recent Twins, A's, Indians, and Brewers teams make the point.

Peter Angelos pumped sick amounts of cash into the Orioles in order to buy a championship, and they've rewarded him with bitter tears. As an O's fan, I hope they keep wasting his money until he sells the team. He's a creep.

I like Memorial Stadium.

I like the seventh inning stretch.

I like Wild Bill Hagey.

I like Rex Barney.

I like Ken Singleton, Al Bumbry, and Sammy Stewart.

I like the Earl of Baltimore.

Last night, Biggio announced his retirement ... and then hit a grand slam. Wish I had been there.

If you haven't seen it, Ken Burns' Baseball documentary is excellent.

Current standings and 2007 payrolls.

Division leaders as of today:

AL East: Boston Red Sox (#2 payroll)
AL Central: Detroit Tigers (#9 payroll)
AL West: Los Angeles Angels* of Anaheim (#4 payroll)

NL East: New York Mets (#3 payroll)
NL Central: Milwaukee Brewers (#19 payroll)
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers (#6 payroll)

Rounding out the top 10 teams by payroll, the New York Yankees (#1) are 53-46 and trailing two teams for the AL wildcard, the Chicago White Sox (#5) are 43-55 and in fourth place in the AL Central, the Seattle Mariners (#7) are 54-44 and trail the Cleveland Indians for the AL wild card by four games, the Chicago Cubs (#8) are 52-46 and trailing two teams for the NL wild card, and the Baltimore Orioles (#10) are 45-53 and in fourth place in the AL East.

So five of the top 10 payroll teams are division leaders, and five probably won't make the playoffs (the Cubs have a shot at the NL wild card). Two of the top 10 have losing records.

Moving on to the second-place teams not in the top 10 payroll teams: The Cleveland Indians (#23 in payroll) are 58-42, 1.5 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central, and they're the current AL wild card leader, so they'll probably make the playoffs one way or another. The Atlanta Braves (#15) are 54-47, three games behind the Mets in the NL East, and second for the NL wild card. The San Diego Padres (#24) are 54-45 and the current NL wild card leader.

* AKA "The the Angels Angels"