Why I Hate Baseball

[Jagshund]

Just finished watching "Prince of Persia" flick with my wife and decided to see what's on television. Once I caught sight of the Series I immediately switched over to some other station- can't even tell you what we're watching right now, might be one of the Resident Evils. It won't be the WS even if I'm left with that or watching QVC.

Wife wanted to know why I dislike the sport so much so, in an attempt to explain to her the moments that have been ruined by governing authorities (and the prevalent strictly-business mentality of franchise owners) I tried to find an unedited clip of Gibson's entire at bat. No dice. I know it was there two years ago and all over the web. Now MLB has tracked them all down (there may be one left somewhere) and provided us with a sanitized, 3:50 version on their website lead-in by advertisers. Really doesn't do it like the original broadcast. They've done the same with other great moments but, hey! Now I know what brand of dressing to buy!

Added to the growing focus on content protection (which, unless used for profit, really only serves to emotionally connect fans to the sport) is the issue of broadcast scheduling: baseball is a three hour + game they're trying to serve up while we're all at home . . . late. MLB doesn't care about the fans, only the demographics of their advertisers. I'm hoping they add full-time instant replay so they lose their entire viewing audience and shut the league down for good.

[Hugh R]

So what did you think of Prince of Persia?

[Taz's Master]

"The love of money is the root of all evil"

You don't hate baseball, you hate MLB.

[rattlsnak]

I thought PoP was pretty good actually, although the whole ostrich racing thing was kinda wierd, and Scott, i dont even know what you're talking about. Who is Gibson?

[Jagshund]

What?! I'm going to assume that Gibson crack was supposed to be green. "Talk about a roll of the dice . . . this is it!"

PoP was entertaining. Not too much substance, but I didn't expect much. Ostrich racing had me thinking back to The Swiss Family Robinson.

[RWebb]

it's slooooooow

also the ball is too small and is not even pointed at the ends

[pwd72s]

Stick and ball games are all okay by me...Baseball, golf, and...

[widebody911]

Baseball is too slow. If you edited out all the BS, ie standing around scratching, spitting, signalling, etc. the game would be 15 minutes long. Same goes for football.

[pwd72s]

Pool can be slow too...but I'd watch Angel (above) play for hours. How she makes it through a long tournament playing in stilleto heels, I'll never know.

[Jagshund]

Originally Posted by Taz's Master

"The love of money is the root of all evil"

You don't hate baseball, you hate MLB.

You have a great point. I watch the LLWS on occasion (not every game by far but more than I've ever watched the MLB). Probably because the players exude more passion than those in the pros. Same with college vs. pro football- don't see any primadonna wide receivers sitting out a game because they didn't get the same text book money increase that another school did.

MLB is making a tremendous error. By scheduling late games, they may be raking in sponsor money but they're not building a fan base. If they put on more day games that younger generations could watch (ostensibly with their parents or family), they'd be forming emotional ties to the game that would be hard to break down the line. I believe that really stupid people are running companies these days- marketing opportunities and matches are being blown. Suppose I'll simply sit by the phone until one of them is fired.

[Drdogface]

I love baseball no matter who is playing....MLB to Little League....just love the game...

It's much more complex than you think....

[JavaBrewer]

Originally Posted by Drdogface

I love baseball no matter who is playing....MLB to Little League....just love the game...

It's much more complex than you think....

+1 however the Pros can ruin it if you let them.

[Drdogface]

Originally Posted by JavaBrewer

+1 however the Pros can ruin it if you let them.

Yeah, they can...some of them, and I hate that. Then there just seems to be teams that bond and scrap out wins. The ones that ruin it, in my opinion, are some of the super stars that are just out for their own ego and $$... The Players Union is not great for the sport either. Minor League, College, and Little League are more pure fun...

[Tobra]

I quit watching MLB when they cancelled the world series due to greed about 20 years ago.

I always liked playing baseball, always came very easy to me. Where the ball is going to land the moment it left the bat, hitting, running the bases all that stuff. Making that kind of dough off of a simple kid's game and it was not enough for them.

Baseball, complex? Come on Mark, seriously you must be joking.

[trekkor]

I also left the game when the millionaires couldn't play nice.

I've only recently started watching again.

I went to one Giants game this year.

I can't even begin to understand why people will pay $1000's to watch a single World Series game?!?


The cost of concessions alone keeps me out of the park.
An $8-10 beer is not cool.



KT

[Schumi]

Baseball has it's famous moments... but they are few and far between. It's great, and everyone has some moment when they were at a game where something memorable happened (at least in St. Louis..).

I saw Ozzie Smith in his last home game before retiring.

You can be standing on a street corner in St. Louis wearing some obscure player's shirt/number and get comments like "I saw Bob Gibson's 3000th strikeout" or "I saw Lou Brock steal home plate"....


Watching on TV... not so great.

[James Brown]

For me, baseball signals spring, time to sit in the bleachers, drink a few brews, read the paper and look up when you hear the crack of the bat. Double-headers, no-hitters, bench-clearers, hot dogs and fries, and hope for October. Yes baseball might not be perfect but it holds a lot of memories for me.

[skinnerd]

I dislike all forms of modern professional sports in which there is NOT pay for performance.

That leaves me watching golf, tennis, motor racing, etc.

To me there is too much wrong with pro basketball, football and baseball in America.
Haven't watched any to speak of in the last 15 years.

I think the worst part of major league sports are the players.
There are so few that are classy, respectful and down-to-earth any more.
Most are just thugs.
IMO

[Heel n Toe]

Scott, "Don't hate the game, hate the playa."

[GH85Carrera]

Baseball is the most boring thing on TV. They need a 20 second play clock.