Why baseball is PERFECT

I have been thinking about this Hub for sometime and have been trying to figure out how best to convey what I believe is why baseball is the best sport to watch in person.  In order to do it I have to tell you, the reader, upfront that I like almost all sports, played most growing up, but am still drawn to America’s Pastime because of what you are about to read. 

To me, no other sport is more dominated by statistical talk than baseball.  Everything that happens, every day, is dissected and over analyzed throughout the 162 game season by sports-talk shows, ESPN, and office workers.  And as statistically driven as baseball is, no amount of analysis or research or scouting can predict who will throw a Perfect Game or a No-Hitter, or what batter will hit for the Cycle or which player will record an Un-assisted Triple Play.  These are rarities not comparable to any other sport, and they are why I love going to baseball games in person. 

When you go to a football game what is it you want/expect to see?  Your team win?  Maybe see some kicker break the longest field goal record (63 yards, Tom Dempsey & Jason Elam)?  I doubt you walk into that stadium thinking your QB is going to go 50-50.  Football, at times, is way more fun to watch than baseball, but it lacks the novelty I am discussing here.

So, too, does hockey.  I am not excited to go see a hockey game because of the chance that a player will score three goals.  It happens.  A lot.  How often you ask?  Last season alone there were more than 70.  Not very rare.  By compassion, I very much look forward to seeing a baseball player hit for the Cycle; that is get at least one single, one double, one triple, and one home run in one game.  Furthermore, this also means that a player must get at least four hits - - also not that common since most players are lucky to get two per game.  Last season in all of Major League Baseball (MLB) there were six players that hit for the Cycle.  Six.  And since 1882 only 294.  That’s called rare.  A professional bowler rolling a “Perfect Game 300,” not so much. 

The rare is what I love to see at a baseball game and is why I know that even a crappy game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals has a chance to make history.  Sadly, I have yet to be at a game where any of these things have taken place.  This past Monday Tampa Rays pitcher Matt Garza threw the team’s first-ever No-Hitter.  I had tickets for the next night.  Oh well. 

Before I really get into the meat of this, I want to also add that I played soccer in college.  I kind of turned my back on baseball in high school because of some personality differences with the coach’s son, but it didn’t mean that I stopped caring.  And as much as I love soccer, and still play as much as I can now at 33, it lacks the draw of the novel.  The World Cup, which just ended, comes every four years.  The best I could hope for by way of excitement is for the U.S. to do well.  When Landon Donovan scored the go-ahead goal in extra time against Algeria I nearly cried with happiness.  But goals are expected in soccer, just as field goals are expected in football.  Un-assisted Triple Plays are not expected in baseball, but I still go to games hoping I get to see one. 

An Un-assisted Triple Play is when a single defensive player records all three outs without the help of any of his teammates.  To do this there must be at least two runners on the bases.  Usually this will occur when a sharp line drive is hit at an infielder and the defender makes the catch and is able to tag a base and runner.  You will usually see this during hit-and-runs.  But that’s the thing, you don’t usually see this.  In fact, there have only been 15 recorded Un-Assisted Triple Plays in MLB history.  And again, I was not in attendance for any of them. 

Tangents galore.  I apologize.  But this is not an easy Hub for me to write because I am really trying to tell two stories in one here.  One being baseball has a few unique individual feats that can happen in any given game, despite it being a team sport.  Additionally, no sport but baseball can truly captivate the imagination of those watching in so many ways.  Many sports are exciting and many sporting events have brought me to the edge of my seat, but none nearly as often as baseball. 

I don’t get worked up when a golfer shoots under 60 for a round.  I don’t email my friends that I was at a game when Bimbo Coles recorded a Triple-Double.  And I certainly don’t secretly wish I had been there when a sprinter broke the 100 meter record.  That’s great for them, and for their respective sports, but it isn’t a consideration when I think about going to those other sporting events.

At each baseball game I attend I have this running joke with my wife.  The first hit given up by either pitcher is immediately followed by, “There goes the no-hitter.”  I say it all the time in the hopes that one day I won’t.  I have seen two-hitters.  But never a No-Hitter or better yet, a Perfect Game.  Even with as many No-Hit and Perfect Games as there seem to have been recently (5 total this year, 3 No-Hit, 2 Perfect-Os), it doesn’t increase your chances of seeing one by very much.  There have only been 269 No-Hitters in 135 years of professional baseball.  And 20, 2-0!, Perfect Games since 1880, if you don’t count the indignity of Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga having his Perfect Game stolen from him by one of the worst calls in professional sports history a few months ago.  That’s the crazy thing about these feats, they are individual, but the individual has no overall say into how it turns out.  Allow me to explain.

In bowling a bowler has his ball and the lanes and the pins.  It’s up to him to set up properly, do the stupid spin and, wow, knock them all down.  The only way that is exciting is if you are the one bowling.  And the bowler is not influenced by another bowler.  A pitcher however, can have no-hit stuff, meaning he has command of his fastball and curveball, or any other pitch, but each time a ball is put into play someone else has to field it, and/or throw it to a third person who must catch it.  Any number of things can go wrong.  Same with a batter trying to hit for the Cycle.  It’s all luck.  And then sometimes not even luck.  In the previously mentioned blown Perfect Game call by umpire Jim Joyce, his mistake, not a player’s, cost the pitcher his rightful place in history.  Instead, he got a post-game apology and a new Corvette.  But his name will not appear next to the 21^st Perfect Game thrown in MLB history. 

I love that a pitcher’s previous performance, or even season or career history, has absolutely no bearing on any given start.  Look at the names on the No-Hit or Perfect Game list and the casual baseball fan may recognize a few, but the lists are filled with guys you have probably never heard of.  The “One-Hit Wonders” of the No-Hitters (http://www.retrosheet.org/nohit_chrono.htm or http://www.baseball-almanac.com/pitching/piperf.shtml ).  Not all are baseball’s all-time best; most of them just the best on that particular day (though Nolan Ryan threw 7 No-Hitters!).  And that’s okay, because that is what makes these rare occurrences so special. 

I don’t know if I truly made my point.  I really do love most sports and seeing any game or event in person is usually more fun than watching it on television if you are with the right people.  I still love to see a guy get six sacks in a game or whatever, but it is only at a baseball game that I always hope for the rare, the historic, even perfection, to happen.

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The following is a list of things I have witnessed in person at the ballpark.  Please share your experiences in the comment section:

At least one two-hit game.

John Rocker’s first game back from his long suspension for bigotry; drops the ball on the mound to balk in the winning run against the Marlins.  My first and only “Balk-Off.” 

First Marlins Inter-League home game vs. The Yankees.  Marlins win in extra innings. 

Oldest player to hit a Grand Slam, Julio Franco of the Braves, vs the Marlins. 

I was at the Tampa Bay Rays first World Series game and got the very first World Series batting practice ball (picture proof). 

Saw Cody Ross of the Marlins steal home against the Cubs at Wrigley. 

(Author’s note: Quick thanks to my friend Graham Knight, baseball guru and owner/operator/editor of one of my favorite baseball websites, www.baseballpilgrimages.com for his insight and research assist.)