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Is there a greater game on earth than baseball?

No other game or sport is followed as closely by as many people, written, argued, and debated about year-round, and statistically tracked and quantified more than the grand old game, which was played professionally as far back as 1869 by the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

You can put basketball, cricket, football, hockey, and soccer all together, and you won't find as much printed or electronic literature about them as you will about baseball. It's not even close.

Posted - December 2, 2018

Responses


  • 53509

      It depends on who answers your question. Personally, I have not only never been a fan of baseball, I also find it to be an extremely and dreadfully boring sport, it is not at all my favorite. While some people consider it to be my nation's past time  pastime, I do not number myself among them, and there are many other people who do not think it is either.  
    ~




    This post was edited by Randy D at December 3, 2018 7:31 PM MST
      December 2, 2018 8:13 PM MST
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  • 13277
    past time pastime. You can't put anything past me, with or without a ~!
      December 2, 2018 8:51 PM MST
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  • 1812
    No there isn't. 
      December 2, 2018 8:18 PM MST
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  • 34282
    Probably my least favorite sport. It is too long and I find it boring. I will take NFL or NBA over baseball all day. More action. 
      December 2, 2018 9:15 PM MST
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  • 46117
    Go Steph Curry.  Go Lebron James.

    They ain't going to no White House with Trump at the helm.
      December 3, 2018 5:52 AM MST
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  • 17596
    Those are leagues.  What are your favorite sports?
      December 3, 2018 11:36 AM MST
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  • 34282
    If watching football and basketball. 
    If I am playing the it would be basketball and bowling.
      December 3, 2018 12:03 PM MST
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  • As I am not a big fan of history ... "I certainly hope so."

      December 2, 2018 11:52 PM MST
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  • 13277
    Great clip! "If that were as interesting as baseball, they would make cards about it and sell them with gum."
      December 3, 2018 9:52 AM MST
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  • 23577
    I've not seen this movie but I agree with Stu -- that clips works on a lot of levels to me.

    Whoa- - I am late and procrastinating This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at December 3, 2018 7:01 PM MST
      December 3, 2018 10:07 AM MST
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  • 13277
    LOL! What is AM good for if not aiding us in striving for lateness and procrastination?
      December 3, 2018 10:17 AM MST
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  • 23577
    :)
    :)
      December 3, 2018 7:02 PM MST
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  • 23577
    I've not seen this movie but I agree with Stu -- that clips works on a lot of levels to me.

    Whoa- - I am late and procrastinating 
     
    This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at December 3, 2018 7:04 PM MST
      December 3, 2018 10:07 AM MST
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  • Put it on your "to watch" list.  You won't regret it.  :)
      December 3, 2018 9:02 PM MST
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  • 23577
    Maybe I should. In just this short clip, I certainly liked very much the characters. 
    :)
      December 4, 2018 8:26 AM MST
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  • 16781
    Cricket is followed by more people in India than the entire population of the USA, which is the only place on Earth that gives a toss about baseball. It has been played professionally since the 18th century, and the Laws of Cricket were codified by the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1788, before baseball was even invented. This post was edited by Slartibartfast at December 3, 2018 8:39 AM MST
      December 3, 2018 5:24 AM MST
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  • 53509

      Even though I'm not a baseball fan, I do have to defend validity here: baseball is a popular sport in some countries other than the USA, in fact, it's the number one sport in some of those countries. As such, the first part of your sentence above is 100% accurate, and the second part is not. 
    ~
      December 3, 2018 5:30 AM MST
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  • 16781
    I'd still venture to state that cricket's following outstrips baseball by a considerable margin. India is rabid about it and that's a quarter of the global population. It's an older game too, played before the city whose citizens can't spell "socks" was even founded.
    European football ("soccer") would also challenge for the mantle,  being #1 across the continents of Europe, Africa and South America.
      December 3, 2018 5:42 AM MST
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  • 53509

      Slart, I'm not disagreeing with you about cricket's popularity, only  with the reference that USA is the only country where people care about baseball. I thought I was crystal clear about that when I used "100%" in my reply. 
    ~
      December 3, 2018 5:45 AM MST
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  • 16781
    I'm intrigued - where else, exactly? Canada perhaps?
    In Asia, cricket is #1 on the Indian subcontinent,  it's soccer elsewhere (including Japan and South Korea, although Americaball comes close there). Cricket, athletics and basketball in the Caribbean. Soccer throughout Latin America from Mexico down. Rugby in the Pacific Islands. Who outside North America takes baseball seriously?
      December 3, 2018 5:55 AM MST
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  • 53509

      Japan, Cuba, Dominican Republic, South Korea, to name a few. I do not follow the sport at all, and nit not being a fan, I can't speak to its specific locations of fan base, so I don't know why you're coming to me for Stu's argument. This post was edited by Randy D at December 3, 2018 12:07 PM MST
      December 3, 2018 6:16 AM MST
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  • 13277
    Approximately 323 million in the US plus 625 million in Latin American countries plus 127 million in Japan plus 37 million in Canada equal a number close enough to India's population to prove your statement wrong and show how little you know about baseball. And nobody anywhere gives enough of a "toss" (what a quaint little term) about cricket to write about it and record its history nearly as much as is done with baseball. Does anyone argue about statistics and player transactions going back 150 years and happening today year-round with cricket? Check out sites like sabr.org, baseball-reference.com, and mlbtraderumors.com, writers like Roger Angell, Thomas Boswell, Jim Bouton, Peter Gammons, A. Bartlett Giamatti, Roger Kahn, Lawrence Ritter, and Jayson Stark, and films like Bull Durham, Fever Pitch, Field of Dreams, For Love of the Game, 42, and A League of Their Own and then talk to me.

    Ever hear people say things like "bench strength," "playing centerfield," "touch base," "out of leftfield," "knock it out of the park," "cover all the bases," "batting a thousand," and "fielding questions," to name a very few? That's right, baseball metaphors used in business, other sports, and life.

    And to top it all off, what terms in cricket compare to or are used in any way like baseball's getting to each of the four bases as progressive measures of a guy's sexual success with a girl?

    Take your cricket tossing and enjoy. I rest my case. This post was edited by Stu Spelling Bee at December 3, 2018 6:25 AM MST
      December 3, 2018 6:12 AM MST
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  • 16781
    Yes, they do. Wisden has been published longer than baseball has existed. It's far more genteel, which is why it isn't used as a sexual metaphor - have YOU ever heard the expression "no sex please, we're British"?
    Hollywood is American, so movies don't count (although Bollywood's cricket-referencing movies are slowly catching up).
    Hit for six. Bowled over. Hat-trick. "Fielding questions" is quite as much a cricketing term as a baseball one.
    You. Can't. Claim. Latin. America. Soccer is King there, no question. If the home team loses, the referee sometimes needs a police escort to get off the pitch still breathing, they're mad down there. Pele and Maradona are household names (Diego has blotted his copybook of late, but he's legend enough to almost get away with it), I couldn't name even one South American baseball player. Ditto Japan - there it's golf. This post was edited by Slartibartfast at December 3, 2018 7:18 AM MST
      December 3, 2018 6:24 AM MST
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  • 13277
    Apparently, there's even more you don't know about baseball, but that's no surprise. Boys play the game year-roubd in places like the Caribbean basin, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. US major league teams run baseball academies in these countries that offer young players baseball coaching as well as instruction in American culture and English. Between 15 and 20 percent of major league players hail from Latin American countries.

    More from brittanica.com...

    The dramatic increase in Latin players in the major leagues is due to several factors. First, the major league expansion that began in 1961 eventually increased the number of teams from 16 to 30 and forced owners to look farther afield to fill player rosters. Second, the increasing competition for young athletes in other professional sports, such as gridiron football and basketball, decreased the number available to play baseball. The popularity of football (soccer) in the suburbs, the unsuitability of baseball to the inner city (because of the need for large fields), and fewer collegiate scholarships being offered in baseball in comparison with gridiron football and basketball also served to make the game less attractive to young men in the United States. By contrast, boys play baseball year-round in the warm Caribbean basin and Panama, and there is little competition from other sports. In Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, and Colombia, football plays a more important role than baseball, but, particularly in Venezuela, baseball is also a strong component of the national culture. Further, baseball’s lifting of the color barrier with the signing of Jackie Robinson in 1947 permitted black Latin players to play major league baseball and thereby greatly increased the number of players eligible to play in the United States.
    This post was edited by Stu Spelling Bee at December 3, 2018 12:17 PM MST
      December 3, 2018 10:14 AM MST
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