Baseball Been Berry Berry Boring To Me
Uncategorized April 25th. 2007, 2:00pm
A-Rod is the shit. That’s about the extent of my baseball knowledge. OK, that’s a lie. I know a little bit more. I’ll save you from my laundry list of known baseball facts, because I don’t care enough about baseball to list them all. I’m about as emotionally attached to baseball, as a meth head is physically attached to his teeth.
There’s been a lot of discussion lately about the dearth of black baseball players and the subsequent lack of interest from the black community. I can’t speak for the entire race, so I figured I’d give some personal experiences on the matter.
It all leads back to childhood. I could never get into the game as a kid, so I never really built a good relationship with it. Here are a few reasons why.
Too many players – You need way too many players to get a good baseball game going. Six people per team is the minimum. You need a pitcher, 1st-3rd basemen, and two outfielders. Where the hell are you going to get 12 kids who are really interested in playing baseball? We usually only had 4-5 total people which led to really short and boring games, once every six or so months.
Now take football or baseball. All you need is six total players to have a good game. Which sport do you think we picked, nine times out of ten?
No fields – Whenever we did happen to play, it was in a backyard. We used trees for bases. We couldn’t use real baseballs for fear of broken windows, so we used tennis balls. Not exactly the requisite tools for an optimum sporting experience.
Shit talking – Don’t underestimate this one. “Hey batta batta! Swing!†Just doesn’t have the same ring as “I got your game in my back pocket. I’m eating you for breakfast. I’m pissing on you.€
Basketball, of course, is the best game for trash talk. You can get served in one moment, then do the serving in the very next. You start mouthing off, he starts mouthing off, that false bravado rears its ugly head, and you start having fun. And fun is what it’s all about.
BOOORING – Baseball just isn’t all that exciting. Playing a baseball game is like shooting a movie. There’s a lot of standing around and waiting for something to happen. When it does, it usually lasts only a few moments.
We would play football for a couple of hours, then head to the basketball court and play for another few hours. I can’t remember spending nearly that amount of time playing baseball. Usually someone would say, “Hey this is boring. Let’s play football.€ There was never a disagreement.
So there you have it. Baseball just didn’t resonate with me as a kid. Maybe if I was forced to join little league, I would’ve felt different. But the shitty backyard games we used to play turned me off to any organized aspirations. I played plenty of basketball and football as a kid, and hence became an avid fan of both.
Latuh
41 Responses to “Baseball Been Berry Berry Boring To Me”
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April 25th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
The best thing about baseball is the hotdog. Cant explain why or how it tastes better than other places but the hotdog is the best in town. Thats the only thing that interests me when i go to games. Otherwise, I rather watch Log rolling than baseball
April 25th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Is that Bernie Williams in the background? ‘Cause I’d like to know what he’s been up to.
One of the weaknesses of baseball is that it’s harder/more expensive to play than basketball and football, which is why MLB needs to take a more proactive approach to building it within communities. If MLB wants to get more black kids into baseball, then it should market its black stars (Howard, Willis, Delmon Young, Juan Pierre, etc.), give away a lot of bats and balls, and harp on the fact that there are more paying jobs for professional baseball players than there are for basketball and football. Until then, kids like D are going to be throwing tennis balls at each other until the next game opens at the b-ball court.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
the shit-talking part is right on.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Automatics, home run derby, and the all-important “pitchback” net thing from Sears … the keys to playing baseball in the street. But I agree, you really can’t get the same thrill from beaning someone with a tennis ball as you could with a real baseball.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I happen to like baseball, a lot. We played all the sports when I was a kid and I loved them all.
But I liked the post and can’t really argue with his points. Well written, and funny. Loving the guests this week.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
I agree. The warehousing of kids has a lot to do with it as well. Children aren’t allowed to play outside as much as they used to, and with baseball requiring so many players, not many games are going to spring up. My neighborhood friends and I would play Flyer’s Up, but never baseball. We’d regularly play football, basketball, and powerball (from American Gladiators), but baseball was never really an option.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Baseball tends to weed people out faster than other sports because if you suck, which you usually figure out at a young age, you quit because it is boring. However, I suck at basketball and football but would play all day because it’s still fun. Baseball doesn’t carry that. As for Black kids not playing, it’s a shame and I think you are right on with your logic along with the fact that not many black kids get involved with organized baseball at a young age.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
How many more meth references can we expect today?
To add on to what Slickbomb said, one of the problems with baseball is definitely the cost, but I’d argue the other big hurdle is organization. You need baseball fields, coaches, umpires, equipment, uniforms, scheduling, etc. for kids to even do the sport justice. Like D said, without the organization of a little league, kids are you just gonna pick up a basketball/football and go play.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Should baseball even try to reach out to the black community? A lot of time, effort, and money needs to be spent to attract more black players and increase the awareness in the black community. But is it worth it to MLB? Has that ship sailed? Say Selig starts a multi-year multi-million dollar initiative, but there are no appreciative gains made. Was that money well spent? Do they owe it to the great black stars of the past to at least try? I don’t know the answers.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Diallo,
Do they owe it the great black stars? I don’t think so. But should they risk isolating an economic segment of the population, white, black, whatever? Absolutely not. Would an inner-city program be called a failure if it only led to a few urban white kids improving themselves and making to the majors? Let’s not let baseball turn into another golf – i.e. a rich, white sport. At least make it an option.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Hey Diallo, I came across something a while ago that said MLB is doing what you are talking about in inner cities in an effort to get more young black kids playing. It’s called the RBI program or something like that, the only problem is, it is going to take 10-15 years to see if it actually works and some of these kids make it to the big leagues. That’s alot of time and money, hopefully they’ll stick with it and it’ll work.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
After reading the title of this post, I wanted to throw it back at you something fierce, but I agree with the other poster, it’s tough to argue your points. Baseball is my favorite sport by far. I grew up playing little league and lived around kids that loved to play baseball, whether it be home-run derby, 500, 4 on 4 on 4, etc. I guess like anything else, it has a lot to do with environment. Nice post, man.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
nice. we just need to hook you up with a photobucket account so you can re-size some of these photos.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
D,
MLB owes it to themselves to try and get as many people as humanly possible to play baseball. This means black, asian, alien, whatever. One of the reasons the NFL and NBA are popular is because people have played those organized games and thus have an appreciation of how incredible the professionals are. Part of the reason hockey lacks popularity is because of this. The ship on blacks/baseball hasn’t sailed, otherwise elite athletes like the BJ Upton’s of the world are still playing. But this is only in the south. Getting kids in New York and Chicago to play baseball would be a big step back in the right direction.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I guess they are rather large. My bad fight fans. I shall remedy the problem.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
So…you won’t be talking about the Brewers-Cubs game?
Seriously, though, interesting post. I think the biggest obstacle that you mentioned (even more than the dearth of trash talk) is the difficulty in just putting together a pick-up game. The players quorum, the field, the equipment. It’s all a big to-do. That’s where community organizers – with support from MLB – need to step up. Without that, the tendency will always be toward basketball and football.
April 25th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I agree – all good points. But why can’t the trash talking in baseball be as good as basketball? Most people kind of suck at baseball and do something stupid on a regular basis – plenty of opportunity to talk shit (and I’ve never actually heard someone say “Hey batta batta”). I can’t be the only one who’s heard some truly impressive insults while playing/watching baseball? Right?
April 25th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
I agree with what everyone says here, but it goes much deeper than just baseball. Sure everyone can go out and play pick-up games in football and basketball and have fun. But what your are talking about is kids making to the professional level and that is where the disparity lies. To get to the pro level you need to play in travel leagues, aau leagues, which cost crazy amounts of money if you can even get to one. I absolutely agree that inner-city programs work, but they work to another end, and that is to get these high risk children out of the dangerous elements that are getting them into trouble. That should be the main goal of these professional organizations from the start. Not to breed future players and superstars, but to get the community involved with their kids and get them off the streets and into parks and ballfields. If a few pros come out of it , then something good happened. If not than something great happened and that is that some kids may stay out of jail, trouble or whatever terrible path they may have taken that was available other than the inner-city programs.
April 25th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
I disagree with your reasoning, Gangsta D. Most of all, I disagree with the “you need lots of people to play, while with bball you don’t” excuse. Sure, going down to the courts and running full court 5-on-5 is easy to do at any playground in America. But is that really basketball? No. It’s a bunch of guys trying to take their own shots, there’s no offense, traveling, no offensive fouls, and so on. It’s basketball, but not really.
And with baseball, you can play with 2 or 3 guys. The people who say you need 18 guys obviously never played when they were kids. With two people you can have a battery if you like to pitch. With two people you can hit grounders, and flies to each other. With two people you can hit–over this line is a single, past the bush is a double, over the fence is a HR, and the catcher is the wall. And if you add a third person, there’s even more you can do. It’s just like pickup basketball; it’s not ‘real’ baseball, but it’s close enough.
April 25th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I think the real indictment of baseball’s increasinly irrelevant place in the American sports consciousness can be seen in the fact that not a single person here is defending it. I mean, can you imagine if this Diallo cat had shown up and started ripping football or basketball? Even if he made good points, people would likely still be ripping his head off. But with baseball even the real baseball fans here are basically saying, “I like it, but, yeah, I can see your point. It is kind of boring.” Isn’t that the death knell for a sport: it’s boring, not terribly accessible, and not even the true fans seem to care about those facts?
April 25th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Whoa there Don, I never said I thought it was boring. I said he made good points.
Also, great points from Ben on how the “system” works. AAU and such was never big when I grew up. After I was 12, I never thought I would play in the MLB, I played baseball because it was fun, so I never worried about AAU or traveling teams.
April 25th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Yeah have to agree with Ben. When I grew up playing baseball my parents fronted the money to play in all those leagues so it was easier for me to get noticed (which I didnt because I wasnt a top tier player)..The shoe companies pay for a lot of the basketball camps and football is just about getting noticed at the HS level to get a scholarship. Baseball and hockey on average are more costly and I think rule out a segment of the American population (whether it be black or white)
April 25th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Good post, D. I love baseball (had to quit playing because of my vision), but you can’t argue with those points, and the extra one about traveling all-star teams of players makes it even more so. The only pick-up baseball games my friends and I could get going at youths were of the 4-on-4 variety, and there were always some “ghost runners” going on for those.
Also note that college baseball, which could be another route for minority players to the big show, only has 11.8 scholarships (why the .8? Don’t know) per team, since it’s a non-revenue sport.
April 25th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
looks like i’m the only one not loving the guest posters this week – oh well.
anyway, for the author, two observations: 1. it’s much easier to be bored by something you don’t understand. i used to not like baseball, then i learned a little about it – totally different game. 2. you’re not Bill Simmons – lose the “i will not argue this” or “ok, i’m rambling.”
April 25th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Don, I never said it was boring either. Baseball is awesome, and I think it’s the best game in the world. But baseball does struggle with attracting the black athlete, which is what D first pointed to.
April 25th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
The real question is, in pick-up baseball, can the ghost runner score from second on a ball hit to the outfield?
April 25th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
For all the peopl that say baseball is boring, do they realize that football (especially college football) has probably the same action-to-standing ratio? And that’s not even counting half times. Plays last about 8 seconds with about 30 seconds in between them usually. I think it’s about 7-10 seconds between pitches (not counting games with Steve Trachsel). I gather that baseball action is less intense because people arent always running into each other (though they sometimes do) but dont try to tell me that football has (that much) more action time in it. Also, the people that say that baseball isn’t popular are probably overlooking the Latino and Asian fan bases.
April 25th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
[...] Gangsta D (guest blogging)Â is not enjoying baseball. Courtesy of The Big Lead [...]
April 25th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Good points but when we were kids we never had to play a total game of baseball, instead we just focused on the individual skills and made games out of those.
Also, baseball is the best shit talking sport bar none…especially basketball. There is so much downtime, sometimes you have nothing else better to do than talk shit. And then there is the ultimate shit talking act of any sport – you can order a hit on a batter, i.e. throw a baseball at his kidneys. It doesn’t get any better than that.
April 25th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
I grew up in northwest florida where baseball is king for alot of blacks. However, its the most expensive sport out of the major 3 on a parent! Basketball is the cheapest so if you don’t have to spend alot of money on a sport to play, and you have alot of single family incomes which leads to parents not encouraging their kids to play baseball. Its even more expensive in high school!
April 25th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Great post here… I’m a white boy from the burbs and I’ve always loved baseball and always had the means to play it, but I stopped playing organized ball after little league for a lot of the reasons listed here. Basketball is just more fun, its more fast paced and you can use your athleticism more… and getting enough dudes together for a baseball game almost never happens. You can shoot jumpers by yourself all day, throwing up a baseball, hitting it, then going to get it gets old quick.
Could you imagine someone like LeBron or D-Wade playing baseball? They’d be wasting so much of their natural talents, and the adults knew that when they were kids, so they guided them towards basketball. I dont think thats a bad thing, I actually think its a good thing… I dont wanna see King James playing for the Indians. As long as the professional sports leagues are at a high level and aren’t actively trying to keep anyone out, what is actually the problem?
April 25th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
I’m not sure where my comment I submitted before went, but I’ll say it again. The whole “you need more people to play baseball” argument is a joke.
The link is to my personal blog about my feeling about that argument:
“You can just as easily play baseball with two people, just give me a tennis ball, a broomstick, and a 12 year old arm that allows me to chuck that tennis ball against a wall for 200+ pitches. With a real baseball, gloves, and a bat, you can hit grounders to each other. You can soft toss. You can throw BP to each other. You can pitch and catch to each other. For those who say, “well that’s not really a game, though” I say, “are pickup games at the local playground really basketball?” Of course not. Sure you can run a full court 5-on-5 game at any court in America, but it’s not ‘real’ basketball. Everyone’s looking to take their own shot; there’s the guy who just jacks up threes, there’s the guy who thinks he can bang like Shaq down low, and there’s the kid who think he’s as good a ball handler as Hot Sauce. The game’s have no defense, no organized offense, there’s traveling, there’s carries, and there are no offensive fouls.”
April 25th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
I disagree Mike..What you’re talkng about with baseball is practice..there no element of competition there. I can play basketball for hours but only do the things you mentioned for basbeall for a half hour with out getting bored (and I grew up doing all those baseball things) . You’re talking about repetition with baseball. In pick-up games I may not shoot much but its still a game with a winner.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
I’m not Bill Simmons?!? All these years my mother lied to me. How could she? All this time, I just thought I tanned easier than the other kids.
I know a lot about accounting, but I’d soon cut off a limb than attend an accounting seminar. Somethings are exciting to me. Some things aren’t.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Great discussion topic D. Never hear this kind of stuff in the “media”. At least not with real people discussing real issues and solutions, no canned PR crap. Not bad for a sub. Keep up the good work.
April 25th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
“I disagree Mike..What you’re talkng about with baseball is practice..there no element of competition there.”
True, to an extent. But if you have a third, you can have a catcher, pitcher, and a batter–there’s going to be some competition. Home run derby with a few guys–lots of testosterone and competition. Plus, I was saying pickup bball is a very greedy game. Of the ten players on the court at a time, only 3-5 of those will get touches, and be competitive. The other guys won’t get many touches.
April 26th, 2007 at 12:42 am
Great discussion going on here from where I left off earlier today, but for everybody saying you need too many people to play pick-up baseball, I remember when I was a kid we would play 2 on 2 or 3-3 whiffle or stick ball all day plus mix in a little HR derby and it was a blast. I just think most black kids don’t get introduced to those kind of games unless they live in a mostly white neighborhood. Whiffle ball was the shit.
April 26th, 2007 at 1:57 am
Hey Mike G,
Get of it dude…How many times have you heard a pro baseball player say they nevewr played baseball before college or high school even?
Sport is still about competition and fun for kids bro, and baseball is non of these at an unorganized level. It’s just an excuse when baseball pundits point to the lack of black players in MLB as the reason behind the sport losing appeal. It’s jnot a reason its a symptom. It’s boring. It is not competitive and it does not make use of physical prowess. You can scream hey batta batta all day or insult a guy but as long as you can’t beat a guy straight up physically it just does’nt satisfy in this generation.
Baseball is dying because we just don’t like playing it.
April 26th, 2007 at 4:52 am
Hey NFL Fanatic,
Learn some simple grammar and spelling, bro. I couldn’t even get through your diatribe, dude.
Eh, I shouldn’t have even bothered to respond, but I guess I am. First, how is baseball not competitive? Trying to strike out your buddy, or trying to crush one of your buddy is just as rewarding as crossing over someone on the courts. And I don’t even understand the “never played before college” comment. Learning to play the sport when you’re 17 isn’t the easiest thing. Then again, I really don’t even know what you’re talking about.
April 26th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Why pick up a baseball when you can become pro in basketball or football which takes better use of physical ability?
Its just common sense
Its nothing to do with social issues, race, daddy problems.
April 26th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Hey Mike G, how many times have you heard an NFL or NBA star who took up the sport in College or High school? Never having played the sport at all. Case in point? Amobe Okoye, had’nt even heard of football till he entered High School, he’s 19 and slated to be a top 10 pick in the draft! You know why guys can excell so quickly? Cause these sports take advantage of skills you ALREADY have, not force you to practice from 5 yo. And what ius there to be competitive about n the backyard? “Hey i got better hand eye coordination than you?” Notice i did say unhorganized, as opossed to organized? Cause where does the passion begin? You ask any clear thinking baseball pundit today and they’ll tell you if baseball was just getting a start in this times, it would be worst off than Hockey.