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2013
The Super Bowl: 3 Hours Closer To Opening Day
An article by Tie Dyed
Hall of Fame second basenan Rogers Hornsby was once asked what he does all winter. He replied, “I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
After champagne is poured in the locker room and the commissioner presents the World Series trophy to the winning manager, I start the countdown to Opening Day. There are a few ‘obstacles’ to get through. Perhaps an election. Thanksgiving. Christmas. New Years. And last but not least, the Super Bowl. Today, finally, we can get through this final roadblock and get back to what’s important.
I write this blog somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Posting on a baseball related website, I’m hoping not to get crucified too much. I know I’ll probably burn in a red, white and blue hell for being anti-Super Bowl, but here goes.
I used to be a big football fan. Back in the day, I rooted for the Cowboys. Over the years, however, I’ve lost interest in the game. True, Baseball has always been my first love. But as I enter my 40th year of watching America’s National Pastime, I not only still love the game but perhaps, more importantly, I appreciate the game. The nature of its very essence. Is there anything more beautiful than a perfectly executed 6-4-3 double-play? The majestic way a first baseman stretches, scoops the ball out of the dirt and brings his arm up as if it was easy. Poetry in motion. I love how an outfielder turns and races into the power alley to snag a sinking liner, then trots off the field as if he had it all the time. That’s Baseball.
Today one hundred million Americans will tune in to watch a Football game. But yet, for the next several days, what will the nation be talking about? Commercials and the half-time show.
I no longer follow football with any interest. I know the Niners are facing the Ravens. Honestly, I’m not even sure where the Ravens play. But I sure do know that Beyonce is singing at Half Time and Coke got in trouble for some controversial ad.
With apologies to George Carlin, the differences between baseball and football are vast. I’ll take Baseball.
In game 4 of the 2012 World Series the Giants went to the bottom of the 10th winning 4-3. With the Tigers down to their last out, 3 pitches away from being swept, who stepped to the plate but Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera. Sergio Romo, a man who was not even supposed to be the closer, looked in for the sign to face Cabrera. He didn’t “fall on the ball.”
This is baseball. You can’t run out the clock. Each team has an equal number of chances. I get 27 outs. You get 27 outs. And then the victor is determined.
We’ve all heard the criticisms about Baseball: The game moves too slow. There’s no action. Nothing happens. It’s boring.
Well, imagine this scenario for a moment: The pitcher throws a fastball. Strike one. The catcher walks to the mound, calls in the infield and they discuss the next pitch. The players return to their position. A curve ball that just misses. Ball one. The catcher walks to the mound, summons the infielders and discusses the next pitch. And so on and so on. Now, wouldn’t that be ridiculous? But if you think about it, that’s exactly what they do in football.
Here’s a typical possession: A team huddles, talking in secret about what to do. Then they walk to the line of scrimmage. They count. The quarterback steps back, turns left, hands the ball to a running back. He gains 3 yards. Now, they all walk away, get into their little secret huddle and discuss what to do now. They again saunter to the line of scrimmage where the QB counts. He steps back, turns right this time, hands to a running back. He gains 4 yards. Now what? Well, time to have a meeting. They walk back, have another group meeting and decide the next play. Again, they go to the line of scrimmage. The QB counts. He fades back, looks downfield and throws a 20 yard pass. His tight end catches the ball. First down. Whew! Good, now we sit and watch as the referees, line judges and both teams take a walk to the new line of scrimmage. And what’s the first thing they do? They have a meeting about what to do now.
You tell me. If you think about it, which is more boring? I’d prefer to watch Miguel Cabrera dig in and Sergio Romo looking in to Buster Posey. I’d prefer to watch a speedy base runner dancing off first base, the pitcher holding the ball just a second too long, trying to break the concentration of the speedster while maintaining focus on the batter. To me, that’s more thrilling than watching a bunch of guys talking in a huddle.
And think about this. If Football truly is more exciting, has more action and is faster moving than Baseball, why exactly does it take 3 hours to play a 1 hour game? The game is designed into 4 15 minute quarters. That’s one hour. But yet it takes 3 hours to play. Therefore, the point can be made that for 2 hours, nothing happens.
Let’s say it’s a big game. The clock is ticking down. The team on offense is trailing 21-14 with 35 seconds left. They’re driving down field. They get into their opponents territory. The fans are going wild. After another meeting and some more counting, the QB fades back. He avoids one defender, sidesteps another one. He sees his man open. He fires into the end zone where his receiver is double covered. The clock is ticking. The entire game is on the line. The receiver jumps in the corner sandwiched between 2 defenders who also jump. The receiver comes down with the ball. Touchdown!! Wait. Maybe it’s not a touchdown. There’s a flag on the play. Was there pass interference? Were both his feet in bounds? Hmm, well, let’s check with the officials. Personally, when I’m watching sports and in the heat of an exciting contest, heart beating in my chest, an entire season on the line, is there anything more thrilling, exciting and heart-stopping than watching a guy in a striped shirt talking on a headset to a guy in booth who is watching the play in slo-mo? I just love that tingly sensation I get waiting for the officials to tell me if what I just saw really happened or not.
What about that thrilling moment when a team is at 4th and one. The QB hands off the ball. The player dives through the air. Opponents jump on top of him. His own teammates jump on top of them. Did he make the first down? I don’t know. Let’s wait while the officials untangle the cluster of bodies to see. Oh, they’re still not sure. Time to wave to the sidelines and bring in a ten yard chain that has a stick in the bottom.
When Jesse Orosco struck out Marty Barrett, I didn’t have to wait 3 minutes to see if he really struck him out.
On a Sunday, if a quarterback completes 21 of 30 passes, it’s a great day for him. To me, that means he made 9 errors. Imagine if David Wright made 9 errors in one day.
People complain about baseball players making millions of dollars. However, the season starts in mid-February when pitchers and catchers reports. Six weeks later, they begin a grueling 162 game schedule that extends into October. And if you’re lucky to make it to the post-season, into late October. Eight months of being away from your family, your kids, your loved ones. On average playing 5 games a week. By comparison, football players play once a week. For 3 hours! And even then, after 2 quarters, they need a rest. Halftime. Really???
I don’t watch football anymore. The only Super Bowl I watched recently was the one the Giants won. I don’t even recall what year that was. That, and the one I turned on only to watch Bruce Springsteen perform during halftime. Or maybe that was even the same one.
Keeping in mind, I’m a baseball fan and not a football fan, Baseball creates memories. Over the last 15 years we’ve witnessed countless indelible Fall Classic moments: Edgar Renteria’s shot up the middle to give the upstart Marlins a shocking 7 game victory over the heavily favored Indians.Seven years later it was that same Renteria who hit a comebacker to the mound, thereby ending an 86 year curse. JT Snow crossing the plate, yanking a young Darren Baker to safety. The 07 Rockies, who stormed into the post-season winning 21 of their last 22 games, only to get roundly swept by the Red Sox. Luis Gonzalez getting an unforgettable hit against the best closer in the history of the game. Roger Clemens throwing a shattered bat at Mike Piazza. Guys named Sandoval and Pujols going deep three times in a single game, forever linked with the names Ruth and Jackson. 55,773 fans sitting in The House That Ruth Built, their cheers getting shoved back down their throats as a 23 year-old kid named Josh Beckett silenced the Bronx Bombers. The 2002 Giants were led by the bats of Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent. Yet, it was Adam Kennedy and Scott Spiezio who were remembered for big HR’s. That’s baseball memories. What’s the most talked about moment of the Super Bowl in the past decade, the one single event that people still remember? A wardrobe malfunction.
As I sit here writing this, I hear my neighbors cheering and shouting. Maybe an exciting play just happened. Or since this is the Super Bowl, maybe it’s some really awesome F-150 commercial.
Perhaps the difference between the two sports can be summed up in famous statements made by some revered men from each game. Vince Lombardi said, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” Bart Giamatti said, “The game of baseball is designed to break your heart.” Lombardi’s quote indicates that you’re a failure if you lose. In everyday life, we experience more losses than victories, more failures than successes. Which statement rings truer?
As I said earlier, I write this somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I realize (sadly) Football is more popular than Baseball nowadays. More people watch the Super Bowl than the World Series. I’m not saying Baseball is a better game. I’m just saying, in my opinion, it is.
I’m happy today is the Super Bowl. Good luck to the Niners. Good luck to the Ravens. In three hours when this 60 minute game is over, we’ll be that much closer to Opening Day.
About the Author: Rob Silverman
It was 1973 when my dad introduced this 7 year old kid to Baseball and the Mets. It's been a love and passion that has lasted for 40 years, much longer than my first marriage. Since I was little, there've been 2 things I've always dreamed of: 1) Being a successful author and 2) playing right field for the Mets after Rusty Staub retired. Although 4 decades have passed and based on the current condition of the Mets, I have not given up on either dream
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 24 | 18 | .571 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 20 | .535 | 1.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 32 | .256 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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I’m with ya! Nice comparisons…
Thanks
Hi Rob,
But baseball has done this to itself. Nobody even watches the world series for commercials, no less the game. Even I have little interest in the world series and won’t until the Mets make it. Why? Because it used to be a battle between league champions after the league championship was decided by a winner take all, grueling 162 game pennant race.
Leo Durocher once said “nobody remembers who finishes second”. That was the beauty of the game. It was unique to any other team sport – it was winner take all. Now, there are watered down divisions and two wild card and a post-season tournament in which mediocrity is rewarded.
Like the DH, major league baseball ruined itself by gimmicks. If this was the set-up back in 1969, even the miracle year would have lacked something. No tension about the showdown with the Cubs – both teams were going to have better records than the runners-up in the west or central if broken down like it was now. No living or dying with each game in August and September. No scoreboard watching. No euphoria that erupted against Montreal when fans yelled out “we’re number one” and the Daily News front page headline the next days was “AMAZING METS IN FIRST PLACE!” No early September arranging our rotation for the playoffs. There was something to win first.
Then, even though they blew the division, 1969 could have still been the year Ernie Banks found himself in a world series.
I totally agree with ya. While the extra wild-card spots add to the excitement of a pennant race (and therefore keeps attendance figures high), it is watered down. A team that’s only a few games over 500 can win it all. (Another reason that caused my diminished interest in Football. Teams that go 9-7 and win it all)
Baseball added the wild-cards simply for money reasons.
Hi Bob,
Yes, indeed forgot to mention that despite the way MLB has screwed things, baseball by far is the greatest game in the world for all the reasons you stated PLUS the fact that anybody can play it – from the mighty mite Al Weis to the big hondo Frank Howard.
One other point about the new playoff system. Anyone born from the time we last won a world series would not appreciate the season long tension of the winner take all pennant race. It’s not like today when it could be said the same for those still contending down to the wire for a wild card spot for that is a battle of also rans.
Think of it, neither the Giants or Tigers would have made it to post-season – let alone the world series – under the old set-up. The 2011 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals would have gone home after game 162 as well. In 2010 there would have been a three way battle between the Giants, Reds and Padres going down to the final day of the season. Texas would have never have made it to post-season or the world series.
In 1995, the first year of the new system in which there was a post-season, the Padres and the Dodgers were tied for the western division lead after game 161 and were facing each other the final day of the season. Most all their regulars rested knowing they were in the post season anyway. Now, if the Mets on the last day of the season had the chance to win a division or get a one-game wild card berth, would they have the better of their two pitchers who could start either of those games go or would they save him just in case – the move Yogi Berra didn’t do by holding back Tom Seaver for game seven.
Getting back to the 2011 wild card races that went down the the last day – Boston had the tougher chore than Tampa Bay. The Yankees weren’t going to risk anything heading into the playoffs and thus all players were used to get in a little work. Baltimore, on the other hand, played it like it was their own mini-world series.
That’s why at least for some of older guys, by trying to imitate football’s playoff system MLB actually helped football take over by watering down the prestige of the world series.
Agreed 100%.
I’m a traditionalist like you, Joey. Personally, I’m still hoping the whole DH thing is a passing phase. LOL
I just dont agree that mediocrity should be rewarded.
5 teams in each league make the post-season. 1 out of 3.
Or to put it differently, basically the 10th WORST team in the league gets into the post-season.
Hi Rob,
And think of it. St. Louis didn’t deserve a chance at the world series in 2006. They would have been 14 games behind us in the old system. Just shows the most mediocre team put in the playoffs can either get hot or simply go 11-8 in post-season and become a world series champion. Now it’s 12-8
And the Dodgers and Padres tied for the division lead after 162 games so they gave the division to the Padres based on head to head competition. If it was that way 34 years ago nobody would know of Bucky Dent and if it was that way the year I was born nobody would have remembered Bobby Thompson and Ralph Branca.
No drama. Joe Torre would never had said the playoffs was a crap shoot prior to the 1994 season. And that’s all the world series is as well – the winners of a post-season crap shoot and nothing more.
Football is flat out more entertaining. Just compare that game tonight to that total DUD of a world series we had. Christ just about every year lately, one team jumps out 2-0 in the Fall Classic and that’s all she wrote. No comeback drama…nothing. The Niners were down 28-6 and made it a tremendous game.
I love baseball, but the NFL has it beat easily.
Hey Matt–well, you got me curious. And since I really need a life, I did some research. Here’s what I found out:
In the World Series, a team has come back down 0-2, 5 times in the last 24 years alone.
By comparison, in the Super Bowl:
the team that has scored 1st has won 30 of the last 43.
the team that was leading after 3 quarters had won 13 straight, 17 of the last 19 and 35 of the last 43.
And really, it’s much harder to come back down 0-2 in a best of 7 than simply to come back in one game (the Super Bowl). To come back from 0-2, you need to win 4 of the next 5 games! Even during the regular season, how often does a team win 4 out of 5 games , much less in the pressure of a World Series
After typing this I realize it can seem like a rant, and I understand you obviously have a bias to baseball(dont blame ya, I do too) but I think this is a reasonable non-bias comparison of the two, which actually are more similar in the way they approach things than you would believe, obviously not in gameplay, of course.
While I do agree, and I enjoy baseball much more, I think you are down playing what NFL players put themselves through. Lets remember, just like baseball, they report way before the season actually starts. Mid-June Voluntary workouts and mini-camps start back up, and I imagine playing in an NFL game would be much like being in 6 or 7 car accidents in one day, your body gets beat up over and over again, and they are right back out there after one day of rest practicing for 8-10 hours prepping themselves for their next game. I’m obviously not saying baseball players do not get injuries or beat up over the course of the season, but saying they take anywhere near the beating NFL players take would be a flat out lie.
I think you are unfairly judging offensive stats of NFL players. When David Wright goes 1-5, he did not have 4 errors? In terms of offensive, a perfect pass that was dropped by a Wide Receiver is a fair equivalent of a line drive directly at an infielder. Yes, you made excellent contact and absolutely drilled a line drive, it was just unfortunately right near an infielder.
If anything, a missed tackle would be comparable to an error, or blown coverage that results in a receiver being wide open for an easy touchdown.
I’m generally just playing devils advocate here, but even for a knock on football post, I think you unfairly judged things in certain ways. Yes, i hate a 1 hour time limit, that is equal to 3 hours sometimes 4. But, in a fair comparison, in baseball, the pitcher gets to come back out and throw warm up pitches before every inning, Pitching changes take time, we also have replay now, if you are not forgetting, we to can be told if what we just saw, really happened or not. Outfielders play long toss between innings while the pitcher throws his warm up pitches, and the infielders get a couple grounders tossed to them by 1b at the same time, football does not get practice reps, QB’s dont get to throw 4 warm up passes before each posession.
They are fairly, very different sports. I see baseball as a more analyzed and precision type game, obviously hitting a Major League Fastball, let alone any pitch that moves, is probably the hardest thing to do in sports. But football is very much similar, its just a more violent, physical game, i can’t imagine how hard it probably is to lead a wide receiver sprinting down field when you have 3 blitzers about to run over you.
A fair comparison to your watching a speedster on first trying to steal a base and the pitcher trying to catch him, is an easy comparison to a linebacker trying to get a perfect jump on the snap to be able to get the QB, the mind game the QB and linebackers play is absolutely similar to that of pitchers and base stealers, both things really on reaction time, anticipation, and quickness, ability to translate incomplete information (you dont know what the pitcher is thinking, as QB doesnt know what linebacker is thinking, can go visa-versa for both examples.) into an educated decision and developing a plan in that second or two.
Sorry for this being so long.
Hey Random. Thanks for the feedback and for making valid points—without resorting to name calling as sometimes happens on comments. I appreciate the difference in opinions and the points you raised. Someone reading this may insist Golf is the best game there is. Someone else can claim Tennis is. To each his own.
Part of what I wrote was tongue-in-cheek. I’ll even play devils advocate to myself: The analogy about 9 incomplete passes equating to 9 errors is not really valid since, in my example, David Wright doesn’t have someone trying to stop him from making the play, whereas a WR does.
I will counter your claim about watching pitchers taking warm-up tosses or OFers playing long toss. Valid point. But—and this may be a cop out—I don’t have to watch it because that occurs during commercial breaks.
Your point about replays in baseball? Again, valid. And I hate that, too.
Those instances are few and far between. Football plays happen on the field—and then if there’s a flag, we sit and wait to see if what happened really happened. On a play by play basis, officials have more direct impact on the game than umpires do in Baseball. Sure, umps blow calls all the time. But overall, how many times does an umpire have an impact on the play by play? Much less than football.
I really did used to love Football. No, never as much as Baseball. That is true. There are several reasons I stopped watching/stopped following. I wont bore you with them here. One reason, however, is the commercialization of the Super Bowl itself. Over the last 15 years or so, the game itself has become secondary to the commercials and the halftime entertainment. You know that old joke: I went to a fight and a Hockey game broke out. It’s almost the same. I was watching fancy commercials and the Super Bowl broke out.
Here’s an example—and keep in mind I’ve watched only 1 ½ Super Bowls in the past 25 years. But here’s my point: Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, U2, The Who, Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson, Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Black Eyed Peas, Kiss, Aerosmith. Now, I don’t even watch football and yet I’m aware that all of these acts performed during the Super Bowl. On the flip side, how many acts can you name that sung the National Anthem during a World Series game? Or God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch? I cant think of one off the top of my head. That’s my point. Who performs and what products are sold to us has been elevated to almost the same importance as the game itself.
Again, just my opinion. Thanks for the feedback and your valid points.
We can agree one 1 thing: That we’re counting down to Opening Day.
Thanks for the response.
I can absolutely agree that the commercialization of the Super Bowl has gone over-board. I believe I read that CBS made roughly 220 millions dollars off of commercial spots alone, for this season.
Yes, opening day can not get here soon enough.
Do you think replay will gradually become more and more integrated with our game? I believe it absolutely is, but in all honesty, I think it can be done in an extremely efficient manner. If you think about any bad call in baseball that you just saw happen, you know within 10 seconds, the replay is being shown on the big screen in the stadium showing the ump botched the call, and you hear the bemoan and get loud, but we cant overturn those calls? I think this is pretty unfair and unjust, I believe we owe it to the players to allow them to get the calls right, ya know?
season = superbowl* ^^
I am not a diehard to 1 team in football like I am in MLB. I grew up a Giants fan but I like rooting for Indy and Arizona also. The NFL Package/Gambling/Fantasy Football takes the diehard fan out and puts the traveling fan in. I watch as many games as I can. At the end of the day I’m a Giants fan first but anyway
My biggest peeve with the NFL is how they continue to get a pass on social issues. When MLB had a drug problem, the United States government had to get involved. When players like Brian Cushing, Tamba Hali, Shawne Merriman are getting caught taking PED – it’s talked about maybe, MAYBE for 15 minutes.
When Ray Lewis is in a story about taking a spray that is banned just days before the super bowl, it’s the devil’s work bringing that story up – nevermind golfer Vijay Singh acknowledged the legitimacy of the article. And it’s gone.
Meanwhile, Alex Rodriguez is in a story and we’re in the WINTER and the baseball PED story is bigger than the NFL PED story days before the Super Bowl. Why? Because there’s too much $ on the line in the NFL to talk about anything but the game.
If the Miami New Times story came out days before Game 1 of the World Series with the Yanks in it – it would be have mass hysteria.
The NFL also has an attitude problem. Would you rather your favorite players inject themselves so they can work out more – or have them be involved in a double homicide refuse to give accurate testimony and walk and then say “god never makes mistakes.” Or have a car service for players who get drunk and need a ride home yet they get behind the wheel and kill a teammate in the process? Or walk into a NYC club and shoot themselves in the league?
If those 3 instances happened to a MLB player, it’d be magnified 10 fold.
We have hall of famers being kept out because they have zits on their back… but you can bet Ray Lewis who was charged once with murder, felony murder and aggravated assault and magically came back from a torn triceps and was RECORDED ordering a banned substance – he’ll go in 1st ballot.
Since 2000, there have been 629 NFL players arrested. Let that sink in for a minute.
I really enjoy watching NFL games. But I see through the double standard which is why I cannot put as much emotional stock in the sport.
Excellent points Jessep,
I wanted to talk about how presumptious the NFL is when it comes to hyping itself and how that turns me off altogether but the reason I didn’t is because, MLB does its part in trying to do the same thing.
I mean the total BS about refererring to super bowls as number 32, 18 or whatever. Though it is now a tradition with the fans, it was not a tradition that developed over time, fine. The sudden emergance of those Roman numerials came out of clever marketing ploy which was part of the consistant attempt by the NFL to sell the product as the sport of gladiators minus the slavery bit (just like Citi Field when the Wilpons tried creating their own immediate traditions instead of letting them just develop over time with fan sentimentality). It was the time of the Vietnam war when football was being was being associated with courage and the NFL took full advantage of it.
What I really hated in the seventies and eighties was the CBS pre-game show. Broadcast out of “NFL Control” (or was it “CBS Control”?) behind Brett Mussberger and others was a slew of technicians sitting glued to big screens, intensly monitoring all the detailed information from around the county as if they were covering a moonshot or national elections. Yes, there are studio sets to help make the program more entertaining but that was just over-kill.
And there is always the connotation about the players being like the brave, courageous, sacrificing soilders in the trenches giving their all for the good of the team. I once met a guy who told me he was a professional football player – although getting into further discussion I found that he had never made the cut past the final exhibition game. He told me though the players like to win, their first concern is how well they did their own job. Team work? Now true, this is just one individual, however, I would tend to believe that one putting himself through that grueling, rigerious training would be more concerned about his own self considering the short life-span of the average NFL player
http://www.livestrong.com/article/15527-long-average-career-nfl-player/
Of course, had MLB been able to hype itself with the same success as the NFL machine, it would have done so. Perhaps it’s because the baseball fan doesn’t go for that. We don’t buy the all-star hype about the game really meaning something nor are the playoffs presented like a circus or carnival atmosphere.
What MLB has lost is the tradition and connection to history that no other league sport could boast about. No more pennant races like we knew it and the watering down of the regular season and really taking away the glamour and mystic of the post season when we anticipated who could win the league championship series. The steroid era took away the mistique of the record books. Baseball used to be a past-time. Now, for many of us, it is just hanging on more to the past than it being a continuation.
Bring back the two division set-up. If need be, expand by two more teams and have two divisions of eight each – like the way the leagues were set up until 1961. There was something different even with a team finishing eighth year after year. Continue with the traditional 162 game schedule in which teams within the division battle each other 14 times each year (98 games) and outside the division 8 times (64 games). In time, MLB will notice that the watering down of the regular and post-seasons – while raising attendance for those mediocre teams who would otherwise be out of it – would benefit in the long-term by bringing the sport back to the way it was – when fans then took the post-season and world series more seriously. Have it where the flag can again say “World Champions” instead of “World Series Champions” which says a lot about things.
Tell me one individual who remembers winning the 2006 Eastern Division as something special or that it just got us into the playoffs? For those who remember, I am sure they will agree it felt like it was missing something from the prestige we had back 1988, 1986, 1973 or 1969,
Wait, which was it? Were you a football fan or did you root for the Cowboys?
Football is the ultimate optical illusion – the average game has about 11 minutes of action. 11 minutes of action inside of the 3 hours you prop yourself in front of your TV…thank goodness for Red Zone channel.
It’s easily the worst live sport of any “big” sport in this country.
If not for fantasy teams or gambling it would be virtually unwatchable.
Gambling? On football? No no no.
The NFL and the media only release those point spreads, fantasy stats, prop bets and such for “entertainment purposes”.
Nobody has mentioned the undeniable fact that baseball offers perhaps the most intimidating situation of the major sports. Whereas, hockey, basketball and football offer physical contact that will certainly cause injuries despite various protective gear, baseball offers the most intimidating situation of all. Where else can you watch a sport that has 200 plus reps of a thrown projectile that can instantly kill a batter each and every game!
It is a miracle that only one major league batter died from being hit with a pitched ball in 120 plus years!
Major League hitters have no time worth mentioning in deciding when to swing and when to duck!
While I see your take on this, Down playing the outright dangers involved in Football and Hockey is very unfair. People have been paralyzed from the neck down in football. Hockey? Some guy got checked a few years ago and when his legs flew in the air, he SLICED someones neck open, and im pretty sure if someone took a puck to the helmet from a slap shot, it would be nearly identical to a hitter getting hit in the helmet with a pitch.
While it is unfortunate that 1 person has died from a baseball being pitched, I don’t by any means believe its a “miracle” that number is so low. The Strike zone is nowhere near a batters head, and pitchers, shouldn’t be pitchers if they miss often enough and by that much for it to be considered a threat.
Never did my comment intend to downplay the dangers in hockey or football but more so to emphasize the tremendous intimidation involved when a batter has to face a Bob Gibson, a Randy Johnson, or a Rhoided up Roger Clemons. Then there was a famous Reggie Jackson comment after facing our own Hall of Famer in the 1973 World Series, noting that people come to “hear” Tom Seaver’s fastball!
Hi Alan,
Talking about intimidation facing Bob Gibson, remember when he beaned Agee his very first at bat as a Met in spring training, 1968? The first exhibition game of the year and Gibby was already head hunting Tommie, I think for digging into the dirt too much. Still remember Tommie laying flat on his back motionless.
Bill Hands did the same in that showdown game against the Cubs in 1969 and Tommie was able to duck out of the way. Koozman came back and threw his first pitch right at Ron Santo’s wrists – an area he knew the late hall of famer could not get away from – to protect his teammate and send the message that the Mets weren’t going to be intimidated. The play further worked against Durocher as Agee homered, took Williams by surprise stretching a single into a double due to the wet grass in left, and then sliding just under the tag as Hundley was “jumping up and down, up and down”.
Today Koozman would have been thrown out of the game for both teams would have been warned after Hands. Also, with the regular season being watered down, it is doubtful one is going to find such tension in a battle for first place.
Anyone else see the news report that worldwide soccer matches from 2008-2011 were fixed?
I’m not a particularly huge fan of soccer, but I respect it, and understand that worldwide it is probably the most loved sport, but this is unbelievable news, and I feel its on par with the unfortunate bad press we have with PED’s.