“Baseball is BORING. I love fast things!”

The baseball season is in full-force and with it comes the yearly refrain of “baseball is boring.” I’ve heard it, in some form or another, at least three times this week:

“hey, are you gonna come to the a’s game tonight?”
“no, i can’t really get into baseball. it’s just too slow.”

My first reaction is to always scoff at these people and call them cruel, unsavory names. After all, what IDIOT doesn’t recognize the beauty of America’s pastime? What are these people, NASCAR fans?!

But I’ve been doing some thinking and I realize there’s a very objective/logical reason that many people find baseball to be boring - it’s the subtlety of the sport (stay with me here).

In most popular spectator sports, the average sports fan is drawn in by either a) the consistent fantastic athletic prowess of the participants, or b) the very obvious strategy of the game that is exposed to all. Basketball players consistently perform seemingly super-human feats. Football games are marked by a plethora of constant strategic decisions that are actively pointed-out by commentators between plays. Soccer (futbol) is a constant symphony very athletic plays and fluid tactical moves. These are all easy to see and appreciate, even for those who barely understand the rules.

But what about baseball? Well, in an average baseball game, a non-fan will probably “see” 2-5 incredible feats of physical prowess in a 3+ hour game. A home run here, a double-play there. Whoa, that guy made a diving catch! Simply put, the volume and consistency just isn’t very high. For comparison, in basketball, a 2-hour game can provide 40-50 fantastic physical feats.

So that leaves the strategic aspect. Any fan who truly understands baseball knows that the most interesting part of the game is the pitcher-batter strategy. The changing of speeds and spins of pitches. The careful (or not-so-careful pitch placements by the thrower). The effect on the pitcher of a baserunner on second. Basically, the whole “setup”. It’s a beautiful, intricate strategic battle… And for the casual sports fan, it is completely lost. To the uninitiated, it looks like the pitcher rears back and throws the ball as hard as he can, followed by the batter swinging as hard as he can. Does he hit it? Maybe, maybe not. Who cares!

The problem is compounded when the most interesting strategic decisions by coaches in baseball (hit-and-runs, fielding shifts, etc.) are so rarely examined on television.

When you compare the obscurity of baseball strategy to football strategy, the difference is apparent. Even casual football fans now understand the concepts of run-pass balance, 8-men in the box, zone blitzes, and double moves. On every play, the commentators are constantly analyzing routes, pulling guards, and wide receiver blocks. And even when a viewer doesn’t understand all that… well, people are getting hit! Hard! Woohoo!

So the next time you think about calling baseball boring, think about this: maybe you just don’t understand it. That’s not a knock on you, it’s a knock on the sport, the television productions, and the game’s ability to explain itself to you. Maybe it’s like art museums, operas, reality tv shows, and rap music: you can’t stand it until you “get” it.