TERRE HAUTE —
A long time ago some reporter wrote (or maybe it was some critic) that baseball is a three-hour game waiting for 10 minutes of action. And if the action in baseball drags occasionally, the statistics do not. I’m sure if you’re a lover of those kinds of things, and there must be many of you, baseball is, indeed, an American pastime.
America has been living with baseball since the 1840s. And it was a professional sport by the 1870s (thank you Cincinnati Red Legs). So if baseball has been surpassed by football and basketball as our favorite sport, it reigns supreme in the stack of “stats” it creates in every game, and in every season.
I think it’s considered a favorite of most Americans because many of us at one time or another played some baseball. It may have been in a sandlot or maybe Little League or high school. And no wonder … it’s a rather simple game. As they said in the movie “Bull Durham,” “You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball.” And, of course, there’s somebody in the stands or press box writing down every possible statistic.
The other night a batter came to the plate and the announcer told us he was batting .400 against right-handed pitchers with men on base, and in the same breath told us he was only batting .300 against left-handed pitchers. He had walked six times so far this season with men on base. And that’s just a dribble of statistics during one game.
Although the rules have changed since the 1870s compared to today, we Americans love it … all those statistics and everything else.
Ronn Mott, a longtime radio personality in Terre Haute, writes commentaries for the Tribune-Star. His pieces are published online Tuesday and Thursday on Tribstar.com, and in the print and online editions on Saturday.
Opinion
RONN MOTT’S MINUTE: Baseball and ‘Stats’
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Readers' Forum: May 15, 2013
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