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Baseball Is Better Than Football
By John W. Kennedy | March 24, 2008
Ah, tis spring, the time of year baseball fans are rejuvenated. By May, some of our teams already will be out of the running for the playoffs.
Baseball always has been my favorite sport, and I suppose a lot of that has to do with my dad taking me to St. Louis as a boy to see the likes of future Hall of Famers Lou Brock and Bob Gibson perform.
The Cardinals remain my favorite team, even if there isn’t much to look forward to this season. But the experts said that two years ago and St. Louis won the World Series.
Apparently I’m out of step with culture when it comes to sports. According to a HarrisInteractive poll published last month, twice as many Americans (30 percent) consider pro football their favorite sport as baseball. While pro baseball still is America’s second most popular sport, a quarter-century ago it and pro football had the same fan following. For most of the 20th century, until the Super Bowl came along, baseball reigned supreme as America’s favorite pastime.
But there’s nothing like the drama of baseball: the strategy that goes into what pitch is thrown with the bases loaded on a 3-2 count; the thrill of a double steal; the unassisted double play; the diving catch to save a run; the unanticipated excitement of a walk-off home run.
Baseball fans usually are civilized and family-friendly, whereas sections at pro football games can be full of profane drunks. I’d much rather sit outside on a warm summer evening and take in a baseball game than freeze in the winter watching football.
Younger people prefer the speed and violence of football. But the fact that there is no clock in baseball is one of the beauties of the sport.
For all its problems—steroids, out-of-control free-agent salaries, a weak-willed commissioner to name a few—baseball is still king. Play ball!
Topics: baseball |
March 24th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
football is far superior to baseball, which is the second best sport. nothing else is close.
March 25th, 2008 at 3:48 am
The absence of a clock is indeed one of the great things about baseball. In football, basketball, and hockey, a team with the lead in the final minutes plays a game of conservative cowardice. This makes it hopeless for the loser, and cheap for the victors. In baseball you always have a chance. No matter how far ahead you are, you still have to throw the ball over the plate and give the other team a chance.
Incidentally, my second favourite sport (tennis) also demands equal competition throughout. You must play the same at the end as in the beginning.