Baseball is Broken

[Salesmonkey]

I'm in a house of people watching the college world series. If I could convince them to sober up and hold a paintbrush they could watch paint dry. The amusement value of these two are equal.

Baseball needs to change in order to be NOT BORING. They need a larger diamond, a smaller outfield, and a PLAY CLOCK. If we don't have a base hit or an out in 90 seconds, we need a penalty.

Or else the penalty will be that nobody cares about baseball anymore.

[Boozy]

A play clock would destroy everything interesting about the game of baseball. It's about artistry and strategy.

If you need something more fast-paced to hold your attention, go watch basketball. Leave my baseball alone.

[Greenday]

I generally find that the people who make these kinds of statement just plain don't follow anything about baseball and have no favorite team. Having a favorite team and actualling know about the team makes it a lot more interesting.

[AdminAssistant]

Personally, I don't "get" baseball. I think it's extremely boring and monotonous. (And this is from someone who used to regularly watch NASCAR.) So...I just don't watch it. Fiance doesn't particularly care for it, so there's no need to. I'll just stick to college basketball.

[Andara Bledin]

I've been to a couple of baseball games for the local teams. Hell, my high school band was one of several bands to play on opening day for the Angels one year. I couldn't tell you a single thing about the game except that we left early and it wasn't soon enough.

That said, I see no point in a penalty clock. It's completely outside the concept of what baseball is. I'd still rather watch, say, golf over it.

^-.-^

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Baseball will implement a play clock at about the same time I nail Jillian Michaels. Which is to say never. She'd snap me like a twig anyhow.

Baseball is about strategy and individual matchups. It's about things like watching your manager bring in his 8th-inning guy, despite the proven fact he sucks out loud, to give up the winning run to a glorified AAA team of slap hitters, and justify his decision after the game by saying "Well he's the 8th inning guy.".

Not that I'm bitter. It's just the Cubs.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

One of the big problems with Baseball is that the professional teams are made up of carbon-copy clones of each other when it comes to their skill in the game.

This means that you're watching strike out after strike out with the occasional hit to keep people from falling asleep.

Give me the smaller leagues any day. I like watching the Maryland Blue Claws which is a local team in my area.

The league that they're in is interesting because they make mistakes. They'll swing at things, they'll run, there's crowning moments of awesome when someone gets in a triple play or manages to left-foot the players on the field and manages to get two of his team mates home.

I like Baseball the way that it is. I just don't like watching the college-level and Major League games since they can be as you say "Like watching paint dry".

Besides the Washington Nationals suck. I've been to 5 games now and they've lost all of them. I've been to 6 Blue Claws games and they've won 4.

And Greenday - Totally agree. Baseball was not interesting to me until the 87 World series when my local team made it into the World Series for the first time in 20+ years and won it for the first time in 60. We really got excited over that.

[Greenday]

I guess I'm just lucky that my team makes the post-season every single year. Being a Nats fan has to be rough.

Which league is your Maryland Blue Claws in? Back home we have the Lakewood Blue Claws and they are a Class A team, I think.

I like the MLB for the complete opposite reason. I enjoy perfection. I hate watching sloppy play because it means someone won since the other team sucked more, not because both teams are good and one proved they were better.

[IDrinkaRum]

I <3 my local team, The Potomac Nationals. They're one of the minor league teams for the Washington Nationals. Once when Mr. Rum & I went to a game, we saw a guy literally (and yes, I mean that in the literal sense) go vertical to catch a ball. That was awesome.

Child Rum loves to go to the baseball game. Not sure why. She doesn't really watch the game. Maybe if we sat in seats that were closer to the actual playing field and not far off in right (or left) field. (Those are the cheap grandstand seats, wherethere's not a lot of people to around so she can do whatever it is she does do and not get on people's nerves.

I love to go to Baseball Games with my dad. He gets a program, and he actually follows all the plays and notes them in the program where they have that area. (I have no clue what it's called). He knows how to fill it out too. I'm thinking of starting to do it myself. I'll just need to drag my dad along with me so I can copy him.

[Andara Bledin]

My local team won it all some years back. Hell, they may have won it all again, more recently, but I have no idea. I only know they won that last time 'cause I was only a few miles from the stadium and we asked someone else what all the fireworks were about.

At this point, it's which owner has the most money and which players can manage without doping or manage to hide it entirely, somehow.

^-.-^

[protege]

One of the big problems with Baseball is that the professional teams are made up of carbon-copy clones of each other when it comes to their skill in the game.

Uh, who exactly are the Pittsburgh Pirates a clone of

Seriously, they haven't been in the playoffs in nearly 20 years, and haven't had a World Series...since 1979 I watched them, went to the games in the '80s and part of the 1990s, but soon lost interest in them. I was willing to give the team a chance, I really was. But, seeing them lose so often...it got a bit boring. Then, after they begged for their stadium (shafting taxpayers in the process), and still continuing to suck, I got pissed.

Instead, I'll drive south to Washington (PA) to see the Wild Things play. They've been in the top 5 since 2002. Also, the tickets aren't expensive, nor are the concessions--I'm not about to pay $5 for a damn Coke

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Did I mention strategy?

Like refusing to intentionally walk a guy even though the situation calls for it, because you graduated summa cum laude from the Ned Yost School of Bullpen Mismangement and you manage your pitching staff like a horny nerd trying to take off a girl's bra?

I swear, if the Cubs sweep the Brewers, I will end up on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Being a Nats fan has to be rough.

Never was a fan. A friend of mine usually gets tickets through her work a couple of times every year. We go there and they suck.

Which league is your Maryland Blue Claws in? Back home we have the Lakewood Blue Claws and they are a Class A team, I think.

Don't know. They're a part of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and other than that? Don't know, never really cared enough to find out. It's fun, the games are interesting, and they usually have fireworks after the games. Bonus.

If you can figure out what class or whatnot they're in I'd love to know. Just never had the driving urge to find out.

I like the MLB for the complete opposite reason. I enjoy perfection. I hate watching sloppy play because it means someone won since the other team sucked more, not because both teams are good and one proved they were better.

But the definition of perfection is that there is no room for improvement. If you have two teams that are "perfect" then the innings drag on and on with little excitement. You have those games where the final score after 9 innings is one to two. That's 9 innings in an ass busting hard as a rock stadium seat waiting for the outcome of the irresistible force/immovable object conflict.

Which goes back to the OP's gripe.

The lesser leagues on the other hand have more going on. Scores of 9 to 7 are common place and you actually see people running around doing something rather than walking out to the field, tossing a ball several times, then walking off the field only to be replaced by the next batch of perfection clones.

It's like that episode of Star Trek Voyager where two members of the Q Continuum had sex on camera. One touched the other, there was a little noise and one then said to the other "Was it good for you too?" leaving the Voyager crew wondering "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?"

That's MLB for me. Give me the leagues populated by humans rather than the MLB Gods. I can relate to them better.

Besides, the Blue Claws were more than willing to sign autographs which thrilled my son no end. The nats? Couldn't get one of those fuckers to even look at my boy much less sign a baseball.

[daleduke17]

The nats? Couldn't get one of those fuckers to even look at my boy much less sign a baseball.

You could remind them they could still be playing in Montreal where there were like 50 people in attendance. Seriously, the last year the Expos were in Montreal they topped 10,000 people 24 out of 80 games (and that includes the games in Puerto Rico). They also had 24 games where there were less than 7,000 people in attendance (none of which were in Puerto Rico).