In the spirit of Super Bowl XLIX, we are going to count down forty-nine reasons that baseball is the best sport on god’s green earth. This isn’t a stab at all of the other major sports, but baseball fans are tired of hearing about how their beloved pass-time is inferior to others. Nothing could be further from the truth.
49. The home run. The visual shot of a blast over the wall is instant elation. Very few things can compare. That’s the simple reason why we call all things through-out life a ‘home-run’ if it is great.
48. The ball parks. Baseball parks have a personality of their own. Each unique and they only get bet better with age.
47. The Negro League. Though their reason for existence was horrible, the story the Negro League created still captures the minds of young and old. Jackie Robinson was the beginning of the civil rights movement.
46. The inside pitch. The fear of a mid 90s fastball sizzling inside towards your ribs, will grab any batters and fans attention.
45. Baseball on radio. No sport lends itself to the methodic pace of conversation on radio like baseball. Between pitches stories are told and fans are born.
44. Manager tirades. Instant replay has dialed it down, but a good old-fashioned baseball manager loosing his cool is priceless. We all remember Lombardi complaining, but that pales in comparison to Lou Pinella’s base throw, Bobby Cox’s screaming matches and Earl Weaver’s explosions.
43. Souvenirs. If you catch it you keep it. Plain and simple.
42. Ball park food. Give me a Dodger-dog, some cracker-jacks, an ice-cold beer and the boys of summer.
41. Field of Dreams. The movie’s theme of sharing time with your father, is why it’s one of the greatest stories ever told on the silver screen. A simple game of catch with your dad beats a game of horse in any era.
40. 6-4-3 double play. The play itself is a thing of beauty. The pitch that induces it, is pure genius.
39. The sacrifice. Only in baseball, is the art of giving yourself up for the greater good of the team, rewarded and applauded.
38. Substitution strategy. Once a guy comes out of the game, he is gone. Not being able to mix and match all game long, adds to a manager’s decision to substitute. Basketball, football and hockey don’t have this finality in strategy. The second guessing makes for great fan debate.
37. Celebration codes. Celebrating is acceptable in baseball, just as long you don’t show the other man up. It’s the code that kids and adults should live by in the real world.
36. The minor leagues. The maturing of a young player, both as a man and a player, makes for a better game. The NFL and NBA would benefit from true minor league systems. Maybe then we would see made free throws and form tackling.
35. The triple. A batter flying around the bags, digging for three, is poetry in motion.
34. Rain. One might complain in this day of instant gratification, but rain can let a team and a fan reset the clock. Take a step back, and regroup for tomorrow.
33. Beach balls and waves. You can hit a beach ball and join the wave around an old ball park. The simplicity is refreshing. You can keep your soccer hooligans.
32. Abner Doubleday. The legend has proven to be false, but the myth extends the romance of baseball.
31. Personalities. The slower pace of the game tends to lend itself to more colorful characters. Pranks and jokes in baseball, are as old as the rules themselves.
30. 162 game schedule. The marathon that is the season is like no other. With only a few teams making the playoffs, each game is extremely important.
29. The broadcasters. Each town and each team has their own hometown heroes behind the microphone. Those long seasons make your teams’ broadcasters an extended family.
28. The great outdoors. Except for a few parks that just don’t get it, baseball has had a resurgence of what makes it the best: green grass, blue skies and the warmth of the summer sun.
27. The game is just as important in the beginning as the end. Call me when we hit the 3 minute mark in basketball, fourth quarter in football or midway through the third in hockey. All of these sports tend to go through the motions until the game winds down. The first inning can give way to a four-run lead that is impossible to rally from if the opposing pitcher is on.
26. Cal Ripken Jr. and Lou Gehrig. These iron men are the epitome of how baseball is played. You won’t see major stars take many nights off like Pop’s Spurs, because the games are just way too important.
25. Rollie Fingers. Mustache wax, spit balls, scuffed balls are all apart of gamesmanship in baseball. Though we all think that should be punished when caught, we secretly snicker and root for the bending of the rules.
24. Patriotism. From Jack Buck’s speech, to World War II and further back, baseball has always marked the time. Who could ever forget how we all came together, as President George W. Bush threw a perfect strike in Yankee Stadium shortly after 9/11.
23. The dog pile. It never gets old watching a whole team dive on top of each other after a long season ends in victory. No other sport has it quite like America’s pass-time.
22. Baseball’s terms. We still say somebody who is clueless is ‘out in left-field’. In the days of Babe Ruth (a right-fielder and a left handed hitter who hit his bombs to the right field seats), folks who bought tickets in left field, were looked upon as clueless.
21. The records. The average fan doesn’t care about how many touchdown passes or career points a guy has scored, but we all were glued to the summer of McGwire and Sosa.
20. The radar gun. Nobody oohs and aahs the way they do when a pitcher hits triple digits.
19. The seventh-inning stretch. Fan singing take me out to the ballgame, is one of the most beautiful spectacles in all of humanity. Fans are legitimately happy just to be at the ballpark.
18. The no-hitter and the perfect game. You will never see a regular season celebration, on the same level, as you do in a MLB no-no.
17. Charlie Hustle. Pete Rose’s lifetime ban is a polarizing subject, but his hustle was unquestioned. Nobody in any sport, has ever put it all, into every play the way he did.
16. Pine tar. George Brett’s explosion will always be iconic.
15. Spikes-high. No roughing the passer calls here. Second and short aren’t for the faint of heart.
14. Babe Ruth. Not even Michael Jordan has a bigger image. The Babe stopped playing over 90 years ago, and is still the king of sports.
13. The National Baseball Hall of Fame. Cooperstown is still the most revered hall of them all. Only the truly elite get in.
12. The managers wear the uniforms. This goes back to the days of old, when managers played. Though it is no longer relevant, it is still a nice throw back, to yesteryear.
11. No PATs. No runs in baseball are easy.
10. There are no free throws. Once again, no runs scored in baseball are gimmes.
9. If the ball touches the ground, it is not a catch! See Dez Bryant. See Calvin Johnson.
8. You can not foul out. No matter how many fouls you hit or errors you make, you can’t be disqualified. You may, on the other hand, find yourself on the way back to the minors.
7. The numbers tell the tale. Throughout history, players can be compared by batting averages and ERAs. There aren’t many other sports, or anything in life, that can say that as well.
6. The rules are still the same. It’s still 60 feet, 6 inches and 90 feet down the line. Balls and strikes and traps are still called, not ignored, like basketball’s traveling rules.
5. Family time. Nothing beats a day at the old ball park. It’s an escape and soothing relief to watch a game live. Unlike other sports, it is a much leisurely experience with the whole family.
4. The game polices itself. An official doesn’t have to tell a batter not to show boat around the bases and embarrass his competitor, the next pitch coming his way will.
3. The end of the game is the same as the rest. We don’t spend the last inning fouling and sending the guys to a free-throw contest. A sneak preview to the number one reason, but time is not an issue.
2. There are no flags. When you see a home run leave the yard, nobody looks around to see if the play stands. “Go crazy, folks go crazy.”- Jack Buck
1. There is no clock. No matter the deficit, you still have a chance.
“You can’t sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You’ve got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That’s why baseball is the greatest game of them all.”– Earl Weaver
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