11/05/24
November 29, 2003
Is Baseball No. 1?: This discussion over at ESPN wiriters bloc started out as "Is baseball better than football?" -- the archtypical perpetual argument, the winner always depending on which sport had the most compelling recent season. For now that would be baseball -- there was more drama in one inning of the last baseball playoffs than there has been in this entire football season. There can be no debate about that -- the highlight of this football season so far has been Parcells versus Belichick. Doesn't quite have the juice of Yankees versus Red Sox, does it? It then devolved briefly into "What is the best sport?" where it was good to see a couple of writers made arguments for the NHL -- certainly the fastest and, at playoff time, most intense sport. Someone even came out in support NASCAR (riiiiight). No one had anything positive to say about basketball. (Yes, this is a North American centric article.) After years of football ratings primacy and basketball cool-quotient primacy, is baseball the hot sport again?
Soccer is Number one...
posted by StarFucker at 02:54 PM on November 29, 2003
Always!
posted by worldcup2002 at 05:46 PM on November 29, 2003
Well - my first reply got butchered by my goddamned browser - that espn website often leads to that. So the good news is this response will be tempered a bit. It's a bit disingenuous to compare "one inning of the last baseball playoffs" to the regular season in football. This is not how we determine what sports are most excellent. Football has had plenty of good drama and action this year. The year started with white boy Joe Jurevicius making two of the finest touchdown catches you'll ever see, which led to Dante Hall and Jamal Lewis and the Cincinnati Bengals and all kinds of great performances. Baseball gave us Roger and his 300th win/4000K milestones in the same game, as well as Pudge and Dontrelle and Barry and Red Sox/Cubs drama etc. Both sports had their sorry bastards, the Romo's and Sosa's with the cheating, always with the cheating. There's no right answer of course, it's all personal preference, but the 162 game season just wears on me, and I will take a football game over a baseball game seven days a week and 12 times on Sunday. Both sports need to iron out issues. IMHO baseball's issues are bigger. The lack of an effective commisioner, lack of an effective drug policy, a union that is a player advocate to the detriment of the organization itself, the situation with les Expos, and ancillary stuff like Pete Rose and a luxury tax that needs some time before it's effectiveness at bringing parity can be gauged. Football has its problem individuals (see your local crime blotter), drug suspensions, and others of course, but there's more parity and the league in general seems to me to be a much more well-oiled machine than baseball. * This comment typed in drunk, by a died-in-the-wool, hardcore baseball junky.
posted by vito90 at 05:50 PM on November 29, 2003
Earthquakes 4 - Fire 2!!!
posted by billsaysthis at 08:08 PM on November 29, 2003
he lack of an effective commisioner, lack of an effective drug policy, a union that is a player advocate to the detriment of the organization itself, the situation with les Expos, and ancillary stuff like Pete Rose and a luxury tax that needs some time before it's effectiveness at bringing parity can be gauged. And this is why baseball is better. I'll take off the field problems over on the field problems every day. This comment reminds me of the crawl text in the phantom menace. Trade embargo? Union problems? It's just not compelling. I do think the Wild Card is a problem, but they'll solve that by going to 4 8 team divisions and letting the top 4 in (basketball style).
posted by djacobs at 10:35 PM on November 29, 2003
all i have to say is 84 days until pitchers and catchers report. amen, sister.
posted by kjh at 04:24 PM on November 30, 2003
You're all on crack. The answer is Hockey. The PR campaign even spells it out for y'all....It's the coolest game on earth...(coolest athletes too)... And you people call yourselves fans. Paalleeze. Oh yeah, hockey also has the best play-offs...not to mention the best damn trophy. Remind me again why is this even being discussed?
posted by garfield at 10:19 AM on December 01, 2003
Best damn trophy no question. I'd even say that some of the secondary trophies kick the ass of some of the feature trophies in other sports. The NHL knows how to do the silverware. I'd say hockey has more of a regional (or a more limited regional) appeal though. Hence, less money thrown at it by the networks? I like hockey best and basketball and baseball less so but I can appreciate the appeal and gridiron will do for me now and again and football has some appeal to me and NASCAR really doesn't interest me at all. And I can happily watch a race like the Indy 500 where they turn left for 200 laps.
posted by gspm at 12:04 PM on December 01, 2003
There are arguments to be made for every sport, but the huge growth of NASCAR baffles me. The only answer I can produce is that it mirrors the American daily commute: solo overweight aggressive drivers going in circles. Of course that just shows how much I hate it - any NASCAR fans have an explanation?
posted by dusted at 01:40 PM on December 01, 2003
I was thinking the most entertaining sport would be one I would watch even if I have no link / intrest in either team playing. I love hockey, but even I would have a hard time sitting through 3 hours of a ducks vrs. pathers hockey game during the regular season. During the playoffs that changes. Every game played by every team is important to your 'hometeams' playoff chances. In reality what is probably the more tangable factor is the number of games played. In hockey, baseball, or basketball there are so many games played, the regular season becomes rather un-important. At least with footbal everygame matters (simply because there are so much fewer of them). Even sports like Indy / Cart / NASCAR benfit from fewer actual events. The most entertaining sport during the regular season has got to be football (as much as it pains me to say so), however no sport can match hockey when it comes to the playoffs. The Stanley cup is the most difficult championship to win (although that might be a whole new thread), and I agree is simply the coolest trophy around.
posted by camcanuck at 01:46 PM on December 01, 2003
Hockey - cuz its in the blood (and occassionally the blood is on the ice, jersey and coaching staff) and Basketball - cuz every 24 seconds you have the opportunity to see something you've never seen before (and, like hockey it's a game of transition and momentum, played in the moment at incredible speed). Baseball is great for all the intangible, esoteric reasons - the stats, the fact that the ball is used to prevent scoring, the chance that in any given match-up there is a winner and a loser and that there's no time limit, and someone always has to win. Plus, it's just weird and full of strange personalities. However, on a Tuesday night in May it can be exceedlingly boring. But I will say that the more important the game, the better the game - baseball playoffs are top-notch for drama and entertainment.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 02:29 PM on December 01, 2003
One thing about NASCAR (and F1, CART, et al) that's at least a bit different from the team sports is that all the drivers face each other in every race. No Panthers-Ducks type matchups. Golf has it too, to a lesser extent since not everyone plays every tourney, and tennis sort of does. If Earnhardt is hot but you're a Martin fan, you can see your boy take on the top man every time. Still, driving around in circles is boring enough (to me) that the idea of watching two or three hours of it seems nuts.
posted by billsaysthis at 04:04 PM on December 01, 2003
all i have to say is 84 days until pitchers and catchers report.