Says Edward Steed, interviewed about his New Yorker cover this week:
ADDED: I really like this:
In recent years, there’s been a lot of discussion about speeding up the game. Is it fair to say you are against such measures?I like it as a general principle: It's not about how fast or slow anything is. It's about how beautiful...
I don’t mind how fast or slow the games are. It seems that they are trying to market baseball to people who don't like baseball. I think they should just be trying to make the games more beautiful.
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As a kid, I got hooked on baseball simply by playing catch and shagging fly balls with my Dad. We had a lotta issues, but baseball helped over come those issues and cement our bond.
Baseball cards also helped.
Little league baseball also helped.
As an adult, though, I find a full game pretty tedious to watch. If I'm doing yard work, and listening to a game on the radio, that works best.
Huh? I don't watch Baseball to see the batter step out of the box 12 times and re-adjust his shorts. Or see the Pitcher and Catcher exchange endless signals. Or wait around while we get six different pitchers from the bull pen. Just stay in the damn batters box and pitch the damn ball.
I watch to see them play baseball, not spit, re-adjust their shorts, pound the ball in their gloves, and discuss what to do with the manager. Limit the pitcher changes to 3. And limit the number of times a batter can step out of the batters box. And once the batter is in the box, the pitcher should have x seconds to pitch. This isn't "destroying the game" its getting it back to what is was before, when games took 2 hours.
It seems that they are trying to market baseball to people who don't like baseball.
This is a complaint I've had for years. Especially on TV, they focus on the wrong things, they muck up the screen with stupid graphics. In the stadium, the organized cheers never stop so that most fans have forgotten how to do their own cheering.
It's not just baseball. But baseball especially is a subtle game. Marketing it to non-fans means they want strike outs and home runs, but real baseball fans can appreciate the crisp play, the small ball, the little shifts that, offensively and defensively, can make the difference but you need to know to see them.
The game will start speeding up again as the hitting is now catching back up to the pitching.
Alex Bregman is what more hitters will look like. He doesn’t strike out a lot, walks a lot, and has a good percentage of extra base hits. 5’10” and 180 pounds.
The strikeout strategy will then change and you’ll get more guys to pitch to contact again.
Bregman baseball is beautiful
I'll say this about Baseball. Its almost as good listening to it, then it is watching it. that's because its easy to visualize what is going on. Of course, you miss some thrilling plays, but 90% of it repetitive (as stated) and a good announcer makes it more exciting. This is unlike basketball where how its done is almost is more important than what is done. Saying so and so singles to Right, explains almost everything. Saying Jordon dunks on Malone, is something you need to SEE to be really enjoyed.
Baseball on TV is much better then Tennis which is the pits. As MacEnore would say. The constant endless shots of the crowd and the Tennis players girlfriends or family looking "Concerned" - almost made me turn off the set.
Baseball with little but the "three true outcomes"--walk, strike out, and home run--is ugly. It isn't really baseball any more. It's throw-and-swing ball.
The game is fine the way it is. If you don't like it? Watch something else.
All the sports seem to have this notion that they need to speed up their game. I've never understood it. My question has always been, "Don't you like your own game?"
As an adult, though, I find a full game pretty tedious to watch. If I'm doing yard work, and listening to a game on the radio, that works best.
As a kid, you played at the field.
Sitting home in front of the TV, thinking of other things you could/should be doing if you got up off the couch is different than being at the stadium drinking beer , enjoying sunshine, looking at women, thinking about the things you could/should be doing.
Not a big fan of either but enjoy minor league San Jose Giants sometimes. Parking easy and cheap, tickets cheap and the crack of the bat never gonna sound the same on TV.
Blogger rcocean said...I don't watch Baseball to see the batter step out of the box 12 times and re-adjust his shorts. ... Just stay in the damn batters box and pitch the damn ball."
I do agree with this, though.
"It seems that they are trying to market baseball to people who don't like baseball."
So very true, trying to grow the younger audience to replace the older one that is dying off. It is also true that many games are anything but beautiful, if they all were beautiful those of us that like baseball as a spectator sport would probably become bored.
I like the game but rarely sit down to watch an entire one.
I like how the media exonerated Hunter Biden and his father - and there wasn't even an investigation.
Cool beans.
Speeding up the game is a bad idea. I might suggest a few between innings devoted to silence or at least the absence of games, blaring hip hop music etc. No one comes for that. No one.
So maybe doilies instead of bases?
You can't criticize any sport for being repetitive. Is there one that's not? Any sport seems very repetitive when you are not a fan?
"I'm not sure what I like about baseball"
Easy. You have about 3 hours with not much going on, allowing you to drink to your heart's or brain's content. And if in the rare instance something happens on the field, or if outside the diamond some manager piles dirt on the shoes of an umpire, there's video replay.
"It's not about how fast or slow anything is. It's about how beautiful...”
That’s what I tell my girlfriend! Anyway, I love baseball, I love being in the park. Fenway is great, but I am sure most parks this side of Tropicana Park can say the same thing. I love how stuff happens sometimes like a slow motion train wreck and sometimes as instant surprise. It’s sort of magical. If I lived in a major league city I would have season tickets.
I like baseball a lot, but due to the stately pace of it, I prefer listening to it on the radio while I fix something in the garage or work in the yard. Football, basketball, and especially playoff hockey, are better TV.
" "three true outcomes"--walk, strike out, and home run--is ugly.”
I liked what Earl Weaver said, and it’s still true, was of the Red Sox last year anyway. “Baseball’s easy! Good pitching and three run homers.” or something like that. It was fifty years ago.
Listening to baseball in the barn, or under a shade tree, or even in your garage, while repairing something mechanical is pretty close to heaven.
"Baseball with little but the "three true outcomes"--walk, strike out, and home run--is ugly. It isn't really baseball any more. It's throw-and-swing ball."
You didn't watch the National League Wild Card game or I am mistaken and the Brewers are still in contention.
In the 70s, the A's had a radio guy, Bill King, who was spectacular. He also did the Raiders and the Warriors. Finally, after his death, King made the Hall of Fame. .
As a kid from age 8, I used to fall asleep at night with the transistor radio, listening to Bill King broadcasting the A's game. He was like a treasured Uncle!
A fun game to play, but except for the playoffs and series, not so much to watch for me any more. My wife and I went to an A's - Tigers game a month or so ago and we hadn't gone to an MLB game in nearly 30 years.
As a kid in Anaheim, my cousins (all Dodger fans) lived across the street. I was the lone Angels fan. In the mid-60s (before free agency), we used to have Angels players and their families living in our housing tract... Lew Burdette, Jim Fregosi, Bob Lee were just a few... we made friends with the kids and had fun until the next trade, lol.
Like Bay Area Guy, I used to listen to the games and fall asleep with the radio on. One memory I have is listening to a game in June of 1968 and waking in the wee early morning hours to hear the news of Robert Kennedy's assassination.
After watching Chipper Jones catch a foul ball in the Atlanta stands the other day, it occurred to me that baseball should institute a rule that says that when a foul ball is fielded cleanly by Hall of Fame player in the venue of the team whose jersey he entered the HOF with, it is scored an out. That would add to the beauty of the game.
I've always thought that I should like baseball. I played little league as a kid (mostly hated it though, because I sucked and my teams sucked except once when we played for the championship (and lost)), and my Dad really liked it, but for whatever reason I just can't get into it. I get it, I really do; oddly, a few years ago after noted baseball fan SJ Gould died, I may have channeled him for a year and got kind of into it.
But no, it didn't last. Even repeated viewings of Field of Dreams can't get me into it. Maybe I have an aversion to baseball fans for some reason, who I always did kind of think of as faux-intellectual snobs (I'm looking at YOU, George Will, SJ Gould, etc.). I wish the announcers would just STFU and call the game instead of their stupid banter all the time*. And I, too, can't stand all the scratching and adjusting and spitting and general dicking around. Thus, I have resigned myself to following college football and NASCAR.
And really, what kind of people actually like singing the same stupid f***ing song at every stinking game in the middle of the 7th?????
Interestingly (or maybe not), I've noticed that a lot of women seem to develop a passion for baseball around the time the kids leave the house for good.
* I have the same problem with college football announcers as well. But at least when Keith Jackson and Bob Griese called games they knew when to STFU.
I can only watch baseball on TV if I have a large emotional investment in the outcome. Then it’s great, hugely dramatic. The Florida Marlins used to have a centerfielder Chuckie Carr, and he would make the most fantastic catches almost every night, he had such speed, and once his glove went up, you knew that the ball was dead meat, no matter how unlikely it seemed.’ If he could have hit, he would have been Willie Mays.
I could only find one catch on YouTube https://youtu.be/NRYQ1mzY138 I remember once ESPN did a compilation to “Drive My Car” of his catches one season.
Good baseball is listening to Dizzy Dean, on a yellow plastic tube-type radio, talk about Falstaff beer between pitches, on a lazy summer weekend, while dozing on the couch.
Haven't watched any games on TV since the Cubs won the Series. Quit going to games - major or minor league - since every second the ball isn't in play there is loud music or some activity on the scoreboard. In my mind this is subtraction by addition. But I'm old.
At they cover their shorts with pants, silly as they are.
Go Bernie Brewer!
If I'm doing yard work, and listening to a game on the radio, that works best.
I put on the radio and surf the web. Makes both more enjoyable.
"they should just be trying to make the games more beautiful"
Score a point for the prettiest curveball?
Anyway, I propose: no more spitting, chewing, unruly facial hair, sloppy uniforms, scratching in certain places etc. etc.
"Tennis which is the pits"
True, in the way it's presented -- also for people who don't like tennis, for women who are into the human interest BS.
But many top men's tennis matches in recent years have been amazing feats, amazing to watch (though I rarely do for the whole stretch).
"Baseball with little but the "three true outcomes"--walk, strike out, and home run--is ugly. It isn't really baseball any more. It's throw-and-swing ball."
You didn't watch the National League Wild Card game or I am mistaken and the Brewers are still in contention.
You are right. After watching many games in the regular season, I just got turned off. I don't seem to have any interest in the play-offs.
Waiting for the long ball isn’t beautiful. That is what the game is now.
Waiting for commercial breaks to end isn’t beautiful either. That is what people really mean when they say too slow.
Baseball is a ritual practiced by boys from youth. Therefore we understand the details like Episcopalians understand the Book of Common Prayer and when to stand and when kneel and how to take communion. And we know heros from celebrities. It is a great American game. And it is rarely ruined by bad calls like NBA and NFL's rigged games.
Being at a football game that is televised is very annoying with all the TV timeouts that interrupt the flow of the game, but baseball is perfect for TV with convenient half inning breaks, so the pace of the game is rarely affected by the needs of TV broadcast.
It seems that they are trying to market baseball to people who don't like baseball.
Yes.
"You didn't watch the National League Wild Card game or I am mistaken and the Brewers are still in contention."
It's an exception that proves the current rule: all runs scored outside of the eighth were scored on homers; both of the batting outs in the eighth were strikeouts. The nightmare/miracle doesn't change that sequential offense is tough to sustain right now.
They're extremely likely to change balls next year, and it will be interesting. Changes concerning the ball, mound, and strike zone always have unexpected consequences, so we'll see what happens.
ken in tx said...
Good baseball is listening to Dizzy Dean, on a yellow plastic tube-type radio,
Provide your own radio, only so much I can do on short notice:
Here ya go, Dizzy Dean broadcasts
AA said: "I like it as a general principle: It's not about how fast or slow anything is. It's about how beautiful..."
Wholeheartedly agreed, esteemed Hostess. That is true wisdom. It is nice to hear it.
There are many things in that rubric of the slow pleasures, e.g., observing Nature, Mahler symphonies, watching plants grow, raising children, etc. Maintaining marriages and friendships, also. Learning to be an artist.
Having said that, the new comment moderation scheme sucks. I have already told you how I would fix it, if I were you (whom I am not) and I will not rehearse it here.
I think that the good Doctor K has it right: Our Hostess has tired of this exercise and is transitioning to new things, which will not include this blog.
If that is so, good luck, godspeed and carry on. Our time is limited. We must use it well, and as we see fit to do. We have not been ill-used here in my opinion, but have enjoyed the generosity of Our Hostess' time.
Regarding baseball, I was a fan in 1964 when I was 12 years old. Phillies. Yeah I'm still sore. You don't do that to a little kid.
It's only worse these days with all the commercials and reviews and so on. Whitey Ashburn (with many others) is lucky to be dead now.
Baseball is 'slow' and 'boring,' but soccer is the New American Sport?
Always fun to read comments on a baseball thread about how people hate baseball! When I don’t care about a subject, I give the thread a good leaving alone.
Here's a modest proposal
IF you want more people to follow your games,
Maybe
DON'T have your games be pay per view in the middle of the night, on weekdays??
Just Saying
Baseball, like golf, exists what the Greeks called 'kairos' time, rather than 'chronos', and that distinction is part of what makes baseball so beautiful and enjoyable. It is also the #2 game in the world, particularly in East Asia and the Americas, but also Australia and parts of Europe
There is nothing subtle about the astounding athleticism of today's players, and it is remarkable to watch. Nothing subtle about a steal of home, any close play at the plate, a triple deep into the corner, a no-hitter going into the 8th, any 1-run game (especially a low-scoring one) for that matter, and so on.
My only complaint about baseball is that so many of the games are at night. I understand why, especially in places with hot summers, the the Royals' home stadium is 50 miles away and we have an 8 yo daughter. She loves the game, so we get to as many day games as we can.
And for sheer drama, you can't beat the 2014 World Series here in KC. From that amazing comeback win in the wild-card game, to running the table in the AL playoffs, to ending up 90 ft away from sending Game 7 into extras ... it was one of the most exciting World Series in decades, and I actually enjoyed it more than the Royals' Series win in 2015, which at 4-1 was a rather boring affair.
Most of the changes MLB have made in recent years are good ones -- limiting mound visits, intentional walks, player safety at the plate and second base, restricting time between innings, and so on -- and they have also created the space for video reviews and challenges on important close plays.
The ability of modern scoreboards to show hi-res replay has also added to the beauty of the MLB-level game.
Average of four games yesterday: 3:47. Two went over four hours.
I find baseball incredibly monotonous. But I will happily spend five days watching a game of test cricket.
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