Baseball is a sport of the proletariat because it is (a) heavily unionized, (b) most commonly watched while skipping work, (c) dirt cheap to attend, and (d) affording you ample opportunity to radical your coworkers in between innings.
Once you get into the pitching, baseball is at least as suspenseful as football from a play-by-play perspective. I'll agree that extra-innings can get kinda rough. But, especially with the intro of the pitch clock, its pretty well paced and compelling.
As someone who was a baseball fan as a child but haven't watched in years, I caught baseball fever again while witnessing Ohtani's record breaking performance this past June. That was history in the making and he singlehandedly redeemed the sport.
Football is literally one of the most complex sports that exists in the world, where every play has basically 8-10 highly specialized things by professional athletes happening at once, including one of the most difficult singular sports position of all time (quarterback). You can literally spend a half hour breaking down each piece of a single football play because there is so much going on on the field.
I am not a huge fan of football culture, as the tendency in the past was to oversimplify the sport, and there isn't really any excuse for how damaging it is to the players nor the pervasive ownership culture that exists within it, but football in theory is one of the coolest and most unique sports of all time, and I am absolutely looking forward to flag football in the Olympics.
Football is a sport for nerds who were shamed out of their other nerdy hobbies. There's collectables, data and statistics, fantasy leagues, and like you said every game is back-to-back complex interplay of strategy and tactics. I prefer different nerd shit, but I respect those nerds.
bruh there's 8 minutes of action in a 3.5 hour broadcast of an nfl game. no amount of complexity or amazing feats of athletics is gonna make up for that
How is this objectively any different than any other of the most popular sports, where the majority of the game is passing shit around with maybe 30 to 40 attempts on goal per game with maybe scores once every half hour. You'll know a football game is bad when you wake up after an hour and nothing has happened, but that's your average soccer game. Every second of those 8 minutes matter.
Unless you are talking about basketball where defense has essentially become a joke in the last decade. I like basket-ball alot though, they are just in a rough spot analyically for the game.
In the field sports model, rugby and hurling are superior games for the spectator, however, there is way less going on on the pitch for either of those sports during moments of play.
and none of those games/activities are hugely popular spectacles which form the cornerstone of people's social lives. football is way, way more popular it should be based on pure entertainment value
If you're interested in football (or any similar activity where there are built-in pauses to strategieze), the pauses are largely entertaining, too. It really comes down to whether you understand/care about what's going on.
A few seconds to think "wonder what they'll do here," a few seconds to think "what does it look like they'll do from the alignment," and a few seconds to think "OK they're moving some guys before the ball is snapped, what's that going to mean?" are not boring if you are interested in the sport.
Most of the people saying "football is boring because there is too much downtime" would find an 8-minute condensed version of a game similarly boring. They just don't like football.
American football was bad before TikTok existed mate
Not really a few seconds if there's two minutes of downtime for every minute of play.
You can compare that to other football sports like soccer or Australian Rules football where it's pretty much continuous play and more exciting for it.
That said, some people are really into cricket and that drags on for days. Days.
Is there an eight minute condensed version you can link?
Soccer is an interesting comparison, because if you don't understand or like it most of the action just looks like dribbling the ball around. What's interesting is much more a function of if you like and understand the thing than some sort of objective standard. Plenty of people liked Bob Ross and that was a dude painting forgettable landscapes!
I don't know of any condensed games that are all the way down to 8 minutes, but there are ~40 minute versions like this that are pretty common.
I am absolutely looking forward to flag football in the Olympics
Genuinely would like to see this,. Although with as many players moving as quickly as they are, I suspect we're still going to see a lot of injuries. Hopefully far fewer TBIs, though.
I love baseball but MLB is getting harder to watch with the amount of ad creep I’ve noticed in the last season or two. It’s sounds strange but I’ve actually gotten into MLS in the last year since it feels like the least advertising-intensive sport right now. I actually dropped watching the NHL because covering the ice in ads started bugging me too much.
The lack of commercial breaks during a soccer game is why the sport was so unpopular in the US until recently. Well that, and the growing immigrant population that come from soccer-loving nations. But now with streaming and digitally inserted ads during the game broadcasters are willing to promote it now.
The pitch clock has definitely sped up games, ~but that time saved has been filled by more ads.~ Just make the pitchers suffer more so we can get more big hitters 🤑
I don’t know how I didn’t even realize the broadcasts were shorter. Maybe they still seem long to me because baseball is one of my only interactions with ads in general.
Baseball is a sport of the proletariat because it is (a) heavily unionized, (b) most commonly watched while skipping work, (c) dirt cheap to attend, and (d) affording you ample opportunity to radical your coworkers in between innings.
Football is a trash sport for trash people.
Counterpoint, baseball is boring as fuck to watch and sucks
Once you get into the pitching, baseball is at least as suspenseful as football from a play-by-play perspective. I'll agree that extra-innings can get kinda rough. But, especially with the intro of the pitch clock, its pretty well paced and compelling.
As someone who was a baseball fan as a child but haven't watched in years, I caught baseball fever again while witnessing Ohtani's record breaking performance this past June. That was history in the making and he singlehandedly redeemed the sport.
Football is literally one of the most complex sports that exists in the world, where every play has basically 8-10 highly specialized things by professional athletes happening at once, including one of the most difficult singular sports position of all time (quarterback). You can literally spend a half hour breaking down each piece of a single football play because there is so much going on on the field.
I am not a huge fan of football culture, as the tendency in the past was to oversimplify the sport, and there isn't really any excuse for how damaging it is to the players nor the pervasive ownership culture that exists within it, but football in theory is one of the coolest and most unique sports of all time, and I am absolutely looking forward to flag football in the Olympics.
Football is a sport for nerds who were shamed out of their other nerdy hobbies. There's collectables, data and statistics, fantasy leagues, and like you said every game is back-to-back complex interplay of strategy and tactics. I prefer different nerd shit, but I respect those nerds.
bruh there's 8 minutes of action in a 3.5 hour broadcast of an nfl game. no amount of complexity or amazing feats of athletics is gonna make up for that
Death to America
How is this objectively any different than any other of the most popular sports, where the majority of the game is passing shit around with maybe 30 to 40 attempts on goal per game with maybe scores once every half hour. You'll know a football game is bad when you wake up after an hour and nothing has happened, but that's your average soccer game. Every second of those 8 minutes matter.
Unless you are talking about basketball where defense has essentially become a joke in the last decade. I like basket-ball alot though, they are just in a rough spot analyically for the game.
In the field sports model, rugby and hurling are superior games for the spectator, however, there is way less going on on the pitch for either of those sports during moments of play.
You could do the same math for a game of chess, or any other activity where you get some time to think about your next move.
Pausing to think about your next chess move: fun.
Watching someone else pause to think about their next move: most likely boring.
and none of those games/activities are hugely popular spectacles which form the cornerstone of people's social lives. football is way, way more popular it should be based on pure entertainment value
Death to America
If you're interested in football (or any similar activity where there are built-in pauses to strategieze), the pauses are largely entertaining, too. It really comes down to whether you understand/care about what's going on.
"the pauses are actually a good thing"
I'm not a TicTok kid
A few seconds to think "wonder what they'll do here," a few seconds to think "what does it look like they'll do from the alignment," and a few seconds to think "OK they're moving some guys before the ball is snapped, what's that going to mean?" are not boring if you are interested in the sport.
Most of the people saying "football is boring because there is too much downtime" would find an 8-minute condensed version of a game similarly boring. They just don't like football.
American football was bad before TikTok existed mate
Not really a few seconds if there's two minutes of downtime for every minute of play.
You can compare that to other football sports like soccer or Australian Rules football where it's pretty much continuous play and more exciting for it.
That said, some people are really into cricket and that drags on for days. Days.
Is there an eight minute condensed version you can link?
Soccer is an interesting comparison, because if you don't understand or like it most of the action just looks like dribbling the ball around. What's interesting is much more a function of if you like and understand the thing than some sort of objective standard. Plenty of people liked Bob Ross and that was a dude painting forgettable landscapes!
I don't know of any condensed games that are all the way down to 8 minutes, but there are ~40 minute versions like this that are pretty common.
Genuinely would like to see this,. Although with as many players moving as quickly as they are, I suspect we're still going to see a lot of injuries. Hopefully far fewer TBIs, though.
baseball is also the only sport to have 10 cent beer night.
Also the only sport to have a Disco Demolition Night.
What country is this? Every sportsball game I've been to the beer was overpriced af.
An American baseball team sold beer for a dime and had predictable results.
It was in the 70s, but it was still cheap for the time
Less than a dollar per beer adjusting for inflation.
Counterpoint: the MLB's disgusting efforts to facilitate the "defecting" of talented Cuban and Venezuelan baseball players.
Simple human trafficking. But not the kind you'll ever find the western media complaining about.
I love baseball but MLB is getting harder to watch with the amount of ad creep I’ve noticed in the last season or two. It’s sounds strange but I’ve actually gotten into MLS in the last year since it feels like the least advertising-intensive sport right now. I actually dropped watching the NHL because covering the ice in ads started bugging me too much.
They put ads on the back of the pitcher’s mound for television audience. I yelled at the tv when I first saw that
Tell me about it. The oldest continually operating team in the league now has a big yellow sack of concrete on their shoulders.
That's fair. Whenever I can get a pirated stream, I genuinely enjoy the big blue MLB logo and total silence where the ad-breaks are supposed to be.
Never got into NHL, but I'm down in Texas, so... I do feel like the live games are getting better entirely due to the relative lack of ads everywhere.
The lack of commercial breaks during a soccer game is why the sport was so unpopular in the US until recently. Well that, and the growing immigrant population that come from soccer-loving nations. But now with streaming and digitally inserted ads during the game broadcasters are willing to promote it now.
fwiw I don’t get any digitally inserted ads when I stream MLS
The pitch clock has definitely sped up games, ~but that time saved has been filled by more ads.~ Just make the pitchers suffer more so we can get more big hitters 🤑
Surprisingly, no. Games are shorter end-to-end now, with the reduction coming during the actual broadcast.
They're jamming more adds on jerseys, superimposed behind pitcher's mounds, etc., but the whole game has been significantly condensed.
Oh shit you’re right!
I don’t know how I didn’t even realize the broadcasts were shorter. Maybe they still seem long to me because baseball is one of my only interactions with ads in general.
Wow I don't see people who watch baseball tailgating in the parking lot getting blackout drunk and swinging on each other?
Nope. Never happened. Must have been a different sport.