It's better than politics....it's baseball

I like politics, but I love baseball. Unlike the other major team sports in America -- football, basketball, soccer, hockey -- baseball has a linearity that makes it at once predictable, and not so much. It's a lopsided game, where half the time a player can carry the team, and the other half must depend on eight other guys to do their jobs. Those other sports are all very similar to each other: one bunch of guys getting the ball into a goal on the other end of the field in more or less a straight line, against another bunch of guys, all working simultaneously and in concert to achieve success. Not baseball. It is dominated by one mano a mano matchup after another, where everything else stops until their joust is complete. It goes in a circle, and the goal is where you started. It's the only sport where going out of bounds in the right direction is a grandiose event that cannot be responded to other than by standing and watching the opposing player make the circle unchallenged, basking in his greatness.

It is not a contact sport. When contact is made, it's usually an error on someone's part. It is not a particularly violent sport. It is the only major sport where men and women could plausibly play with or against each other. Athletic might doesn't mean as much as skill. In this game, right now in the Major Leagues, one person can throw a pitch 105 mph(1). Another person can throw 65 mph(2). Both are successful pitchers. One could be a short, wiry, fast person outsprinting ground balls(3), while another could be a hulk who gets on base by hitting the ball so far no one can retrieve it(4), or -- in many cases -- intimidate the opposing team so much they choose not to pitch to them at all(5). One could be a fresh face not even done with high school(6), while another can be within reach of their AARP membership card(7). It has been played by a man nearly 7 feet tall(8), and by a man less than 4 feet tall(9). It has been played by at least two men missing limbs(10).

It is America's pastime, the last great government-sanctioned monopoly, with the most visible labor union. Yet its operation reflects capitalism. Sure, baseball teams can't move at will like those in the other sports, but its lack of a salary cap makes sure nobody complains too loudly. Trading and free agency are much more influential on baseball than on the other sports. It's the only sport with a credible professional developmental process, the minor leagues. Yes, hockey has minor leagues, but to a much lesser extent. Football and basketball assume that college students will major in their sport, paying for the privilege, or at least not being paid (officially). This dichotomy serves to level the playing field. Money can buy you success(11), but skill at drafting players and developing them can lead you to success too(12).

It is a sport that lends itself to constant analysis. Because of its linear nature, it is easy to record statistics about it. It is slow enough that it can be sufficiently analyzed while the game is going on. It can, in fact, be more easily simulated by computers than any other sport. And yet, it is full of unpredictability. As Captain Ben Sisco told the wormhole aliens in the pilot episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, "It's linear! No one knows what's going to happen next. That's why we play the game."

It is a celebration of human ability, and human fallibility. Errors are an explicitly tracked statistic. A batter who fails only two-thirds of the time is considered a star. So ingrained in baseball is failure that perfection is an event that has happened for pitchers less than two dozen times in 125 years. Unlike every other sport, baseball has no time limit. It takes however long it takes to finish the game. That means no lead is insurmountable, ever, and complacency can still lead to loss(13). Unlikely heroes can appear at unlikely times, and then just as quickly vanish once again into obscurity(14). Errors can be introduced by the games judges, the umpires. It can extend a World Series to an unlikely outcome(15), or it can wipe out perfection(16).

For all of these reasons, I have never been able to really get into other sports. Sure, I follow hometown teams in other sports, but the only game I have passion for is this linear, lumpy, unpredictable combination of athletics, skill, and plain dumb luck.

That's why I tell people, it's better than politics....it's better than sports.....it's baseball!

Notes:

(1)Aroldis Chapman

(2)Tim Wakefield

(3)Rickey Henderson

(4)Babe Ruth

(5)Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols

(6)Joe Nuxhall

(7)Jack Quinn

(8)Jon Rauch

(9)All-time, Eddie Gaedel (3'7", played one game in 1944); among "serious" players, David Eckstein (5'6").

(10)Pete Gray(OF), Jim Abbott(P)

(11)New York Yankees

(12)Tampa Bay Rays

(13)In 2001, Cleveland beat Seattle by scoring 12 runs, going from losing 14-2 to winning 15-14; three times, teams scored 9 runs in the 9th inning to win

(14)Brian Doyle

(15)Don Denkenger

(16)Jim Joyce