The one on one aspect of the pitcher and the hiter is quite appealing, especially when it turns into a bit of psychological warfare between the two. Also, being good at baseball requires such a combination of unlike skills; speed, dexterity, hand eye coordination, judgement, power and throwing.

After a close baseball game there is always something to analyze, something to talk about.

There's no clock. One team can't run the ball and set up a game-winning field goal, or take a knee and run out the clock. You have to earn all 27 outs.

Great post, David. I owe my love of baseball to many factors. One is its distinct rhythm, the flow between pitcher and batter and the endless variations and ways in which that flow can exist. (It's just as exhilarating for me to watch David Ortiz square off against Mariano Rivera as it is to see Hanley Ramirez Greg Maddux.)

Another factor for me is just the sheer beauty of the action involved. Yes, I'm probably dipping too heavily into the romantic idealism here, but I can't help it. Watching Paul Molitor swing the bat was, for me, watching genuine grace. Seeing Brooks Robinson in the field was equally beautiful, albeit in a completely different way. The game has a poetic quality to its movement, almost as if it's a dance, and I find it to be positively delightful to just sit back and take it in.

Perhaps more than any other factor, however, I owe my love of baseball to its lack of a clock. The game unfolds at its own pace, refusing to be controlled by any exterior element. In basketball, if you're down by three points in the last twenty seconds, you foul your opponent and try to save as much time on the clock for your own team. In football, coaches guard their timeouts obsessively, always thinking of ways to use the clock to setup the proper play.

You can't do that in baseball. You can't control anything, you just have to go out and play the game. Sometimes what you think will happen ends up happening. But sometimes it doesn't and the specifics of such moments are unique to baseball. I've been re-reading Buster Olney's "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty" and this factor appears again and again. Only in baseball would it possible for Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius to tie the game, on back-to-back nights, on late-inning home runs. And only in baseball could Mariano Rivera, the best closer in postseason history, give up two runs to the Diamondbacks in the ninth inning of Game 7. There is no conventional wisdom in baseball or at least, there is no conventional wisdom that can't (and eventually will) be turned on its head.

Yeah, I've yakked a bit too much here. But what can I say, I love this game. Truly and completely.

I think we are legally obligated to say the words "David Eckstein" at this point.

How about because it distracts us from life's major problems?

Great post and comments. I'll link to this in my blog post tomorrow. Although I love baseball for many of the reasons described above, I do think MLB needs changes if the next generation of fans is going to grow up feeling the same way that we do. One of those changes is certainly getting rid of steroids so it can remain true that anybody can play the game.

Agree with Jeter that body size isn't as important in baseball, I look at a couple of players and think that could be me.

Also the uniquess of the field & hitter vs. pitcher, & even the 25th guy can be the hero.

Plus, it's played when it is warm out!

i have to say because its a sport you can watch leisurely.... which is perfect for the summer.

also, is there another sport that comes through as well over the radio?

It is hard to compare sports, I mean every sport has aspects which make it superior or inferior to baseball...

But, baseball for me is pretty much synonomous with warm evenings, sitting outside, and listening to Tom Cheek (RIP) and Jerry Howarth on A.M radio. Good times.

dw

Aside from the point mentioned above that the game is NEVER over until it's OVER, I like the time to stop and think in between pitches. The anticipation; the guessing with the pitchers and the hitters.

I also like the fact that except for home runs hit out of reach (or other extra base hitshit out of reach), one player's brilliance can cancel a pitcher's mistake. The only thing close is a hockey goalie standing on his head in the face of overwhelming attacking play, or blunders by his own defense.

I only wish baseball had something akin to sudden-death overtime in Stanley Cup Hockey, especially in a game 7. It's true that the bottom of the 9th or extra innings gives you that effect, but it's one-sided; the home team always holds the hammer. In Stanley Cup overtime, the sword is double-edged; you can go from one team barely missing a chance to eliminate the other by inches, to the first team being eliminated itself -- in 5 seconds or less.

I love everyone's responses on here. Baseball is the world to me. There is nothing better if you ask me