Space Oddity: Or Why Baseball is Better Than Football

Space Oddity: Or Why Baseball is Better Than Football →

Does football not enthuse you? Would you rather watch a fifth straight pick off throw to first base than see another play action pass? Don’t worry, it’s completely acceptable and you’re in good company. So even if you’re hootin’ and hollerin’ and enjoying the pizza and beer, if you notice that something is missing in your soul, give in to it. That just means you have Spring Training on the heart.

Fully aware of this feeling, Bill Ivie of I-70 Baseball has set up a day full of guest posts to explain just why baseball is better than football. I’ve contributed and here is part of mine below:

If you were to bring a space alien without any previous human contact to a football game, he would quickly understand that men in one colored shirt are trying to get a ball to one side of the field while the men in the other colored shirt were trying to do the reverse. But baseball’s a weird game, a surprisingly popular cultural oddity. Baseball, unconcerned with linear storytelling, features one man throwing the ball to another man carrying a large stick, with eight other people wearing the same shirt as the thrower standing around. And sometimes the guy with the stick doesn’t do anything and other times he swings and if he hits the ball then the men standing around run after it and…you get the point.
Unlike football, baseball is not about hurling your strongest guys at each other and seeing who emerges from the pit. Football is all about aggression, while baseball is about patience and stillness suddenly breaking into moments of chaotic movement.

You’ll need to click through for the rest of the juicy stuff because that’s just how it works. So go on, check it out and be sure to keep looking throughout the day as other writers offer their evidence.