Baseball is Back! Five Reasons You Should Be Excited...

by Chris Pollay

Opening day kicked off last night and what an exciting game it was as the Red Sox came from behind to beat the Yanks 9 to 7! Now that baseball finally is back, all is right with the universe once again. 

I get a tremendous thrill from the start of the baseball season that can’t be matched by the onset of any other professional sport. Why?

Quite simply, it's because baseball is the greatest game ever played.

I'll give you five simple reasons why.

1) A Time-Honored Tradition

Baseball fans are typically a civil and intellectual bunch that practice a fair share of odd traditions, such as, say, standing up to stretch in the middle of the 7th inning and randomly singing the lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” It's cult-like, admittedly, and quite surreal to be sure, but it's the absolute best part of the game. 


What other sport does something like this?  For that matter, what other major sport is 155 years old?

As Paul Simon sang once, “The cross is in the ballpark.” He was referring literally to the cross formed from the infield bases. A trip to the ballpark is almost like going to church, except it's a lot more fun. Fans spout volumes of statistics with solemn reverence. Kids wear worn-out baseball gloves with an undying faith that a foul ball will somehow come their way (despite the extremely unlikely probability of it). And, of course, people consume a copious amount of hot dogs for an extra dose of spiritual sustenance.

According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (who surveyed all major league ballparks in the U.S. in 2009), over 21 million hot dogs are expected to sell this season at the old ballgame. While this might be about as healthy as drinking a drano smoothie, I somehow find such astonromical numbers comforting. Baseball fans are nothing if not creatures of habit.

2) In Defense of Defense

In most sports, defense puts me to sleep, but in baseball, it’s when the athletes finally show their true agility and skill. Home runs will pump-start your heart, no doubt about it, but it’s probably more thrilling to see an outfielder leap with his glove hovering inches over the fence to rob a hitter of a slow trot around the bases. Watching a deftly field double play will make you jump to your feet without even realizing it.

As a kid, one of my favorite players was Ozzie Smith of the St. Louis Cardinals. He wasn’t the world’s best batter, but when he took to the field and performed an acrobatic back flip, I knew I was going to see something special from him at shortstop. 

Here’s something else to consider: Defense wins pennants. According to Baseball Digest, only two pennant-winning teams in the American or National League since 1900 led their league in errors. Only one of those (the 1925 Pittsburgh Pirates) went on to win the World Series (despite committing 224 errors).

3) Mixing It Up

I love the rivalries in baseball (more on that later) but it’s also refreshing to see two teams that rarely play each other compete on the field. The intriguing match-ups is just one of the reasons why the World Series is so exciting. A lot of fans grumble about Interleague play, but I think it’s a wise marketing move. I’ve already circled the date on my calendar when Arizona will play the New York Yankees later this year. Sure, it won’t be the same as the 2001 World Series, but it will certainly bring back those pleasant memories.

By the way, did you know the AL team with the best Interleague record is the New York Yankees (oooh, big surprise there)? They are 133-95 (.583). The NL team with the best Interleague record is the Florida Marlins: 120-99 (.548).

The teams with the worst Interleague records are: Baltimore Orioles, 101-128 (.441) in the AL, and the Pittsburgh Pirates, 71-110 (.392) in the NL. 

The American League leads the series overall: 1,673 to 1,534 in Interleague play.

Source: MLB.com.

4) Occasional Oddities

You simply never know what might happen during an MLB game. Will you witness an unassisted triple play? Will a pitcher achieve perfection? No matter how strange the rarity is, somebody will calculate statistics to show you just how impressed you should be over what you've watched.

Here’s a good example: Inside-the-Park Grand Slams. It was hard to find stats on this, so this one was taken from 2007. 

Between 1950 and 2007, there were only 40 inside-the-park grand slams (eight of which occurred between 1990 and 2007). Honus Wagner has the most in MLB history with five. Why does this man not have a shoe named after him?

If you can believe it, there has only been one MLB player EVER with a walk-off inside-the-park home run. On July 25, 1956, Roberto Clemente hit one to help the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs 9 to 8 at Forbes Field.

5) The Rivalries

No sport boasts rivalries like baseball, and of course, the biggest rivalry in all of sports is the one between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Let’s forget history for a second and just focus on last season (2009) -- even though the 2010 rivalry got off to a great start last night.

Both AL East teams won nine games each in their 18 head-to-head meetings, but that isn’t what made the rivalry so damn good last year.

This is...

During the first eight meetings between the ballclubs, the Red Sox absolutely decimated the Yankees. They won all eight games, outscoring the Bronx Bombers by a whopping margin of 55 to 31. The Red Sox only needed to win two games of ten remaining to hold the bragging rights for the season rivalry.

Yet, they couldn’t do it.

The Yankees won nine of the last ten, outscoring Boston 70 to 44 in an inspired comeback. The final win secured a sweep and even clinched the AL East title for New York. Nobody had seen that coming just a few months prior.

Overall, New York edged out the Sox with 101 runs to 99 for the season. That's pretty close. The teams averaged over 11 runs total per head-to-head contest. At one point, New York trashed Boston 20 to 11 on Aug. 21. One day later, Boston stormed back with a 14-1 drubbing. No other rivalry comes close.

No other sport comes close, either.