In the past few weeks, we have watched a lot of baseball in our house. In addition to our fondness for the SF Giants, we watch the games of our grandchildren on Apps called Game Changer or Iscore. The apps allow us to follow their games remotely. I never played baseball in school, but I find listening to baseball games strangely calming and very different from other sports.
I’m sure you all remember George Carlin’s famous comparison of baseball and football. I reprint it here because it explains why I like baseball so much more than football.
George Carlin:
I enjoy comparing baseball and football:
Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.
Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.
Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park!
Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.
Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything’s dying.
In football you wear a helmet.
In baseball you wear a cap.
Football is concerned with downs – what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups – who’s up?
In football you receive a penalty.
In baseball you make an error.
Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.
Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog…
In baseball, if it rains, we don’t go out to play.
Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.
Football has the two minute warning.
Baseball has no time limit: we don’t know when it’s gonna end – might have extra innings.
Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we’ve got to go to sudden death.
In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there’s kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there’s not too much unpleasantness.
In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you’re capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.
And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:
In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy’s defensive line.
In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! – I hope I’ll be safe at home!
One other difference I have observed is that baseball is one of the stadium game where the fans can actually touch the ball. When a ball goes into the stands, people scramble to get it, knocking over fans with popcorn and nachos . When someone finally gets a baseball in their hands, they will never forget that moment for the rest of their lives. In football, basketball, and hockey — the ball or puck rarely leaves the court. Fans don’t get to touch it or keep it. Baseball gives fans more chance to be part of the game, which may be why the return of baseball after the pandemic gives us all so much joy!