Posts
Last weekend the Sunday night football game between the 49ers and the Eagles beat out the Giants/Braves playoff game in the television ratings.
There's no denying the NFL is a perfect media machine. The NFL promotes their sport like no other, attaching their moniker to anything with or without a pulse. And since the games are only once a week and have the added caveats of gambling and fantasy football, even the weakest contests are crowbarred onto fans' radars.
But is football the greatest game? Many will give you a definitive "yes," before you can even finish that question. However, after further review, the ruling on the field does not stand, baseball is the greatest game . . . FIRST DOWN!!
Now of course the triumphs of baseball and football can be argued until Favre decides to retire or baseball installs full instant replay. I'm going to skip over all the usual suspects like "football has more action," or "the hardest thing to do is hit a baseball," no one can ever describe the subtleties between the two better than the late, great George Carlin. There is one true practical reason why baseball stands alone over all team sports . . . the inability to impose will.
What do fans talk about right before a rematch between a great team and the team they shouldn't have lost to their last time around? "Oh this time, they're gonna kill 'em," "No way they get pushed around again," "It's gonna be a massacre." And usually this can be a factor in sports like basketball, football, or hockey. A pissed off team with superior strength and speed in these sports can use emotions to impose their will over a lesser opponent. Defenses can hit harder, forwards can rebound more aggressively, and a hockey line can decide to plow their opponents into plexiglass for 60 minutes.
In baseball though, all that bravado loses its heft. The only thing an angry baseball team can work their frustrations out on is the baseball itself. In fact, 9 out of 10 times the team that's more emotional is also the team that loses. Pumping Eminem or 'Lil Wayne in your head right before game time isn't going to help with a Cliff Lee knuckle-curve.
Baseball makes its players face off with their greatest opponent on a nightly basis . . . themselves. If golf were a true team sport, it would be baseball. Concentration is king on the diamond. Lose track of the situation on the base path and an inning can go from busting out a possible 4 or 5 runs to leaving the field with nada. No amount of pent-up revenge can help a batter lay a perfectly placed bunt with runners on 1st and 2nd, or a pitcher paint the outside corner of the strike zone on a 3-2 count. The nature of the game is a restrictor plate on just how angry or pumped up a team can get. Pure skill will always rise to the top.
Sure you can say a batter is going to get mad and swing for the fences, but if they’re a home run hitter that was the intention anyway. Who could tell when Gary Sheffield was angry or not? It's just the way he hit. Pitchers pitch with the same amount of intensity that helps them throw strikes every time out. Any more or less can take them off their game completely. How many times have you seen a pitcher come on to the mound in a big situation and throw 95 mph to everywhere but the strike zone?
Baseball remains the greatest sport because the game is impervious to the persuasions of its illogical participants. On any given day in team sports the worst team can beat the best one. However only in baseball, the "want," to beat that team counts for nothing.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Standings
Flix66.com
I Want That!
Jason's Examiner
-
▼
2010
(224)
-
▼
October
(16)
- The Fall of Evil Empires.
- Say Hello to da Bad Guy!
- Our Favorite Subject....Besides the Yankees.....
- Don't make the FAU guy angry . . You wouldn't like...
- Gumby Replies
- Madden Guy - 2nd Down
- My grand return is delayed...
- Someone give this man a play by play job immediately!
- The Greatest Game
- Best Fan Made Superman Trailer Ever!
- Back to the Future 25th Year Reunion
- Curb Your NYC Enthusiasm
- Rays Game - Edit
- Whaaat?
- Gotta love Iron Mike
- The Perfect Pie
-
▼
October
(16)
Next Game
'10 Sumr Champs
Featured Trailer
KaiTunes
Blog Archive
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
29 comments:
Well said Koko. This makes up for your last post. And make no mistake; I am a big Superman fan, but best fan trailer? I guess it is, since it’s the only one I have ever seen. Doomsday looked like a character from those 2 am commercials from Dave’s School of Design.
Oh, and you get mad points for the Back to the Future post. I think I know the movie dialogue by heart. Hoverboards are real!
Great Read Koko.....Thanks for keeping the Dojo a great place to visit with your witty and insightful thoughts. Many of us (Big Fish Recaps??) have been slacking quite a bit....and for that I do apologize. I will try to catch up......but my latest travels found me on Continental airlines where I was focused on writing both recaps.....but instead DirecTV was another option........and I was Weak and couldn't resist. DirecTV and Internet access on planes is unreal.
But I digress.........
You make a Fantastic argument. However, I think your argument as to why baseball is the greatest is the reason it is NOT the Most Watched Sport.
In todays Fast paced, I-Phone ADD entertain me instantly world most people don't care about the boring subtelties as you described.
Everyone reading this blog included. None of us really see each other during the week and then when we are at gators most of us are still looking at our I-phones and prefer the I-phone entertainment rather than what is in front of us.
And.......the NFL is so intoxicating because something tremendous can happen on any given play.....something you may have never seen before and it will most likely impact your very world....(Fantasty, Gambling, Rooting interest) etc......
Also, the NFL has characters. We all know the stories and backstories of every player most of the time.
How many people have watched a Rangers game this year? How many people have watched a Cowboys game?
Most of America would rather watch the douchilishous gang on Jersey shore do something douchetastic like sing the T-Shir song (or whatever that noise was Prosthetic posted) than watch a TV Show about truth wisdom and the American way.
America wants instant entertainment. Instanst Gratification and the NFL provides that like no other sport. You will stay tuned into a 34-10 route fest on Monday night......but no way you watch a 10-1 route fest in baseball.
Unfortunately, Time has passed baseball by. I am still a big fan....but will my kids??? And their kids??? If I was running baseball I would be nervous about that question.
And Koko, You may enjoy watching baseball cause your a Yankee fan and they buy their way to winning every year. However, as a non-yankee fan the majority of baseball fans teams are out of contention 3 months ago. That means nearly 3 MONTHS of Worthless boring baseball?????
Come on.....even in week 14 if My packers are 5-9 that Sunday Game is a MUST Watch for me. However, a brewers game......ehhh......if I happen to see a highlight or something cool but MUST Watch....No Way.
In Summary....The Yankees have ruined baseball.
Oh and in addition....here is the first paragraph from Peter King this week that pretty much sums up why Football is better than Baseball right now.
"It's Oct. 11, the Monday morning of Week 5, and the league is fresh out of unbeatens. (Last year, after five weeks, five perfect teams remained.) The Colts go 55 minutes without a touchdown, at home, against Kansas City. Half the free world picked the Cowboys to play the first home Super Bowl ever; instead, they're the worst team in the NFC East and have rendered Jerry Jones speechless.
The Packers were supposed to waltz into the playoffs with an Indy-like offense, and we look up this morning to find they've been outscored by Shaun Hill's Lions. Atlanta coach Mike Smith admitted to me the other day the Falcons could be anywhere from 1-3 to 4-0, but after a gritty slugfest next to Lake Erie against the Browns, there's a good chance they're the best team in the NFC at 4-1.
Carolina, San Diego, San Francisco and Cincinnati ... 4-16.
Jacksonville 107 points scored, New Orleans 99.
Max Hall 1, Drew Brees 0.
Kansas City and Tampa Bay, three wins each. San Diego and Dallas, three losses.
Randy Moss, a Viking."
That doesn't exactly say......oh let's put on the Eminmen and go beat up Kansas City or Tampa bay Koko??? Anybody can beat anybody and ANY GIVEN SUNDAY.
Back to Baseball:
Yankess in AL Championship (Yawn...no surprise or drama there)
Phillies in NL Championship: (Yawn...no surprise or drama there)
There you are Dinger, I was beginning to worry about you.
I haven't called anyone a douchebag in days. I think I was going through douchedrawals.
Of course you would take this and turn it into a Yankee hate discussion, because when it comes to baseball you are one of the biggest and most jealous Yankee haters I've ever met. You don't even know you're doing it. You are so unhappy with your own team and so incredibly jealous of the Yankees and the product they give to their fans, that you'll always skew an argument into disparaging them.
Even if you have to just make shit up, which you did. Again.
First of all the point of the article was to show why baseball is the greatest game no matter how us flawed humans see it.
Now yes, football gets huge ratings on TV and wipes the floor with baseball or any other competition. And that is solely to gambling and fantasy football. I'm not watching a bad game if I don't have a stake in it. No way I watch that 49ers/Eagles game last week if I'm not playing fantasy football, so don't make the NFL out to be some kind of hypnotic spell that no one can resist. It's all about fantasy football and other forms of gambling, which does not work very well with baseball.
Stop saying baseball is in trouble. You're 1 step away from a wearing a sandwich board ranting "the end in nigh," in Times Square. I've been hearing this for the past decade over which baseball has brought in record setting attendance.
Baseball was over 73 million in attendance this year, finishing only 200,000 below last year. What you have to understand is that baseball is a local game. The games are not broadcast on national network television until the playoffs or the few marquee matchups here and there. And the local TV ratings across the country are very high, even for the Rays.
The top 9 teams in attendance broke 3 million. And 2 of those teams are small market teams.
Even your sorry Brewers pulled in over 2.7 million people to watch a product that never had a chance of winning a damn thing.
Don't judge baseball on the fans in this state. You have to realize we live in the absolute worst state for baseball. A small market team like the Rays goes out and put a team on the field that beats out the Yankees and the Red Sox to win the division and they pull in under 2 million for the season. That's just a shitty market, and if I were the Rays owner I would move the team ASAP.
And just because your team gives you nothing to watch on a yearly basis, do not speak for everyone else. Plenty of other fans enjoyed this year very much. Ask people in San Francisco if they're enjoying this year. Another small market team that has been building its talent slowly and wants to win. Now they have one of the best pitching rotations in all of baseball.
The Rangers are a bankrupt team and they still went out and got Cliff Lee to give their fans a product that can compete with the Yankees.
You're real problem Keith is that you have incredible pent up anger towards your own team's horrible management. You don't understand why they, even with great attendance and a very loyal fan base, will not give you a competitive team to watch each year.
I don't understand it either. There's no reason they shouldn't. I suspect a lot of that money is being pocketed just like all the other "woe as me," teams in the MLB that bitch and wine. That noise is getting old and it's been proven wrong again and again by teams with owners who put a priority on winning, no matter what kind of market they're in.
And what the hell kind of argument is that the NFL is better just because all the teams are playing like crap.
No one is saying good football is being played right now. Everyone, yes every damn analyst right now, is saying that a poor quality of football is being played, that's why there is so much parity.
That's good? You can find just as many people that like a league with some dominant teams as you can people who like everyone to go 8-8. Your point is very weak.
By the way the Yankees and Phillies are not in the LCS's alone. And the last time there was a World Series rematch, I was 3 months old. So don't make it out to be a common thing, if it even happens at all.
Why don't you try somthing different and actually know what you're talking about before you write. It will be a refreshing change.
I was waiting for your retort Broko. I love reading you and Keith go back and forth and knowing that The Minister just loves pushing buttons. You two guys remind me of the Salsbury/Clayton duo. I hated Salsbury bullying but loved Clayton's knowledge and how nobody ever won until Salsbury was dropped and Clayton is still around. Knowledge is power!
for the record, neither of you win, we the Dojo readers do.
I thought the Goat was Broko?
Broko, for the lopsidedness of the NFL right now, I read somewhere that it is almost cyclical every other year. The bottom two teams in a division usually get better the next year b/c the bottom teams improve to be more competitive in their respective divisions while the top teams try to improve to beat their playoff shortcomings. Don't know if u agree, just throwing it out there. Sorry to interupt you and Keith,....bored.
I stand corrected...You are correct sir. Yes sir...you my friend are Hot Koko and I can't believe I screwed that up. I'll just take a mulligan.
Yeah that sounds about right, I'm definitely not knocking the NFL system. It gives every team a chance to win even if they finished last the year before.
It's a great system for parity, but parity is what you'll get.
Plus it's a system that cannot last forever. This system is completely based on the flash paper that NFL players' contracts are printed on. And they don't seem to be too happy with it anymore. The salary cap has very little to do with it.
Yeah I think I'm uncomfortable with "hot koko."
I think that my nickname is "Koko," to begin with should be enough.
At least an attempt is being explored in regards to rookie contracts and draft position...it's a step that seems started in the right direction. I am getting tired of unproven kids demanding to get reimbursed after draft day for a yet to be seen product. A players full body of work should be including a minimum of years in the league and durability while in the league...geeze..I see visions of Grant Hill sitting, not running through my head. Shoot the owners, let the fans run the teams. I'm sure they could actually help their teams then hurt them.
How about The Swiss Miss? just playin Jason, er Krazy Legs, er Koko
If I get to choose, I would like . . .
"The Everlasing Know-It-All . . . Kogurt."
hahahahahah, you just made my coffee time go projectile...Kogurt is too fucking funny. I love that shit. Thanks for the laugh, I needed a good laugh for no reason.
Its a good argument how baseball in it's purest form is fantastic.
No doubt.
But the reasons football is more entertaining goes well beyond gambling and fantasy football.
Ive been arround sports gambling a lot and baseball still has a lot of action in the gambling circuit, as much as football , no cause footbal is more popular.
The parody factor does have a HUGE role due to the facts Keith said , with no real salary governship the disparrity is too large and certain fan bases tune off by july.
I love baseball and follow my Marlins very closely, but in no way am I entertained like I am in a game of football. Fantasy or not , to me fantasy makes it worse cause I cant enjoy it as much as I did before , rooting for certain guy on certain team sucks if you ask me.
It's like the Eminem argument here koko , your sticking up for whathas become the underdog compared to what everyone lse is buying.
Like i stick up for the not so poular rappers with closer ties to original hip hop over the public hero in Em.
I luckily can enjoy both with or without gambling aspects.
Nicely wrote by the way koke.
I know ive said it before , but what the hell are you doing not being a sports writer or something.
YOUR THE REAL DOUCHEBAAAAAAAG !
cos he likes slummin it with us Kai's...
No, no and NO!!!
You guys are completely missing the point.
First of all, I'm not saying baseball is more entertaining than football. As big a baseball fan as I am, even I admit that football is definitely more entertaining for a variety of reasons.
My point is that baseball is the better "game." In fact, it's the best game, due to the points I made in the article. Entertainment is a very arbitrary and illogical thing that can only be measured by each individual's own experience.
It's like giving a 2-year-old kid a birthday present. After he unwraps the toy, he plays with the box it was wrapped in. That's the NFL, the fucking cardboard box.
And Juan, I really appreciate the compliment. And yeah I know that baseball still is popular in gambling circuits but come on it's a drop in the bucket compared the action football generates.
And I'm not sure if you were talking about "parody," in baseball? But as the great Inigo Montoya would say, "I don't think it mean what you think it mean."
Mel Brooks is not creating a new professional baseball or football league. Although that would fucking rock and I would get season tickets yesterday.
"Parity," is what the NFL has with all of the teams having a small amount of difference in talent from top to bottom.
Baseball is simply the epitome of capitalism. Put out a good product and the people will buy it. The more money you make, the more you can spend on an even better product. Although many owners seem to forget that last part.
In any case, what I'm saying is that it does not matter if 99% of the population is watching football over baseball. Nothing can change the fact that baseball is the most pure, skill vs. skill team sport there ever has been.
I didnt know you were such a capatalist?
It's fine for sports where the worst thing that happens is Pirate fans are treated to an unwatchable product in stadium that's more interesting than the team itself.
But for an economy where people are left sick and everything is skewed towards the rich. Not so much.
And I'm talking about "pure," capitalism, something we never had but it's what this country moved towards during the 8 years of Bush Vader.
Ok...For the sake of not wanting to argue with Koko......because I respect him so much I will focus on his original sentiment and what he appears to want to stay focusedo on and that is what is the best "game"?
By the way, just cause the rest of these douchebages are kissing your ass and telling you how witty you are you are Still a MAJOR DOUCHEBAG!
But once again I digress:
Baseball is not the best game. In baseball you have isolated one on one slow moving part of the game. 1 guy pitches to another and 10 more sit around doing nothing waiting for something to happen....and maybe 3 times a game the RF gets a ball hit to him. And, during the majority of "Games" 250 pitches are thrown and maybe...maybe.......15 hits occur and something mildly entertaining happens.
Football is more of a TEAM Sport and so many things can happen on any given play. If one player happens to dominate another a team can capitilise on it and make a play. Strategy is involved in every aspect all around the field.
In baseball it is mere skill vs skill with a little strategy sprinkled in. A manager is there to babysit the players. Why do you think Bobby Cox is considered one of the greatest coaches yet he gets tossed most games. He know he does more for his team by firing them up getting tossed than he does sitting on his ass chewing tobacco.
Oh wait.....that is against what you said how getting pumped up doesnt work in baseball??? Human emotion is the most interestin aspect of anything.....and baseball lacks a lot of it....but it still greatly effects the game. The main effect it has is PURE BOREDOM!!!!!
Why do you think so many players did greenies and other uppers.....cause they are bored out of their gords sitting in RF waiting to contribute their 1 minute of total contribution to a fricking 3 Hour GAME!
Not that theres anything wrong with that..............I'm just sayin.
It's just completely obvious that all of the years of horrible torture watching bad baseball in Wisconsin has created a Bizarro effect on the game in your mind.
So sad.
"1 guy pitches to another and 10 more sit around doing nothing waiting for something to happen . . ."
Well this totally explains your play at 2nd base. Just busting balls, your welcome to strand me at first anytime.
Just in playing softball, I know that statement is completely false. Fielders are always thinking of a million things at the same time. It's a concentration game. You gotta know the situation, the pitch being thrown, the probability of where it will go, the base to throw to in case of a hard hit or a soft hit, the game is mentally exhausting.
In football everyone has one task per play and repeats. For the most part, the QB is the only one that has to do a lot of thinking on each play. There is a lot of memorization in football because of all the plays and that is something I marvel at. But in baseball there is a lot more going on during a 1-1 pitch than a bunch of guys standing around. Especially if someone is on base.
Yes baseball seems to be very mano a mano with the pitcher and batter which is a great part of the game. But there's a lot more going on off camera. The fielders move around depending on what pitch is coming, the catcher is the one calling the pitches and has to be on the same page as the pitcher and the batter has to try and figure out how the pitcher and catcher are trying to trick him.
So really every time a batter gets up it's 9 vs 1. The game just takes way more concentration than football and the skill set to play it at a high level is the hardest to come by.
And I wouldn't expect you to understand emotion in baseball. Postseason baseball has more emotion than anyone can handle, hanging on every single damn pitch, but like I said, I wouldn't expect you be familiar with that.
Let’s not rattle that Pittsburgh cage. Uncalled for.
If I may weigh in; having been a longtime participant of both football and baseball, as well as a great fan of both sports, I think that each game is inherently different in two major facts: amount of games played and pace.
Amount of games: Baseball has 162 games per regular season. Football has 16 regular season games. Baseball has over 10 times the amount games to be played which may make each one less significant to fans. It’s almost not until September before teams see how it all pans out and therefore systematically eliminating 60% of the teams from the “run”. Yes, bad for fans; even in Pittsburgh. But football makes every week tense. The game will only be played once against this team, except those division opponents who you get two shots at. Nonetheless, only two maximum unless it’s the ultimate third meeting; the blue moon game of football! What’s greater than that? Yes, great for fans.
Pace: Game time usually last about the same. Baseball usually “scores” more. (When I compare the amount of times a person crosses the plate in baseball to the amount of times a person crosses the goal line, kicks the extra point or field goal.) An interesting article I remembered (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406.html) talked about the actual amount of time that is played in a NFL game. I guess football is like checkers and baseball is like chess. Checkers is definitely momentum oriented where once you have an opponent reeling and running, it is hard for them to turn the tables. And usually the dominant player will grind the clock down and eventually trap that last checker. Chess requires a little more finesse, where even an undermanned opponent can make a brilliant move and topple the un-expecting and over-confident competitor.
Even though both sides can argue both point for and against, know that I enjoy both sports for different reasons. Sometimes I like checkers, sometimes I like chess. FTF.
What?
Ok, so I know I am late to the party, but I actually had to work this week.
I will be short.
Baseball is definately a better sport than football. i like to call it athletic chess. the mind games that go on are unreal. In a good ball game, as a fan, you are thinking along with the pitcher and the batter, as well as the manager. In football, of course there is some of that, but when you really break it down, there are 2 plays, run or pass. And within those 2 plays there is left or right on runs and deep or short on passes. The defense either blitzes or drops back. i know it is a little more complicated than that, but honestly, that is the gist.
Where NFL football trumps major league baseball, however, is the way each league is run and promoted. Koko can argue about how the Yankees play on an equal playing ground as the rest of the teams forever, but the facts are that most Americans despise the yankees for what they are allowed to do. I.E. Stack their teams and outspend everyone. That resentment leaves a black mark on the sport. Football doesn't have that.
Every year, huge changes happen. It is the hardest sport to predict. At least half of the playoff teams change every year. This gives fans in every city a shot every year. In basball, we pretty much know who is going to be there every year.
Well I've absolutely never ever said that the Yankees play on an equal playing ground as the other teams.
I know they don't. But what everyone else fails to realize is why they don't.
It's because the Yankees made it that way. Actually Big George made it that way. By caring more about winning than any other owner before him. Win first, profit second. If you're not willing to do that, don't own a sports team. It's not the same as owning any other business.
And people's hate of the Yanks goes way deeper than the last 20 years Regs. It's an inherent NY jealousy that is passed down from generation to generation.
And "we all know who's going to be there." Really? You picked the Giants and Rangers to reach the LCS's? And if the Yanks and Phills do reach the World Series, it's the first rematch since 1978. Not what you would call a common occurance.
Post a Comment