I am one of those who frequently called baseball the most boring sport but got more into it lately. Your insight of how the pace and reward system is opposite of TikTok is so on point. We’re bombarded with adrenaline boosting intensity of today’s media landscape, but baseball is of a different era. It’s got an old soul. It’s a stoic game, until something breaks through that tension. I’m curious to see you explore that.
There's a potential parallel to chess too. It's turn-based; a single move at time, and most of them are uneventful, until it all unfolds at once. I will emphasize the slowness!
I loved this video and relate to every part of it. I’ve always cringed at people who call baseball boring but never have the time to make my case in a fleeting conversation. The fundamental forces of the universe and human will are at play. What could possibly be boring about that?
Let me know if you’re interested in collaborating on this in some way, Michael — or on another essay about baseball. I’d enjoy writing something lyrical about its aesthetic appeal and it’s mythology.
This is also coming from someone who’s been on a multi-year hiatus from sports-watching, and I’ve been watching the Royals in the ALDS last night.
Very true. You'd think baseball is a very American sport, but it's origin doesn't come from Civil War generals or even cricket, but "Rounders" a sport played shrieking British elementary school girls.
Love your interpretation of running around the bases as taunting the pitcher - never thought of it that way!
As another NY native, I’m also finding myself a bit nostalgic this year watching both our teams make a deep playoff run. I was 10 years old during the 2000 subway series and the kid inside me is excited by the possibility of a rematch, even though I haven’t followed either team seriously in >20 years.
IMO: the duel between the pitcher and the batter is definitely the most important component of the game for newcomers to understand. Boredom is alleviated when you realize that every pitch changes the advantage that either player has, and therefore, the advantage that either team has. Learning all the other weird rules comes naturally once you’re attentive to the outcome of each pitch (though I still couldn’t tell you what a balk is).
I am one of those who frequently called baseball the most boring sport but got more into it lately. Your insight of how the pace and reward system is opposite of TikTok is so on point. We’re bombarded with adrenaline boosting intensity of today’s media landscape, but baseball is of a different era. It’s got an old soul. It’s a stoic game, until something breaks through that tension. I’m curious to see you explore that.
There's a potential parallel to chess too. It's turn-based; a single move at time, and most of them are uneventful, until it all unfolds at once. I will emphasize the slowness!
I loved this video and relate to every part of it. I’ve always cringed at people who call baseball boring but never have the time to make my case in a fleeting conversation. The fundamental forces of the universe and human will are at play. What could possibly be boring about that?
Let me know if you’re interested in collaborating on this in some way, Michael — or on another essay about baseball. I’d enjoy writing something lyrical about its aesthetic appeal and it’s mythology.
This is also coming from someone who’s been on a multi-year hiatus from sports-watching, and I’ve been watching the Royals in the ALDS last night.
An Australian, a Brit, and a child under 5 in the same sentence was unintentionally hilarious.
I also loved the video format and the passion conveyed for baseball! You are a natural in video form
There’s nothing more American than a “team sport centered around a duel”
Very true. You'd think baseball is a very American sport, but it's origin doesn't come from Civil War generals or even cricket, but "Rounders" a sport played shrieking British elementary school girls.
What does perplexity search say about the baseball
primer
Perplexity does a decent job, but the challenge is to make it clear *and* entertaining.
If the ringer were still around I could imagine a piece coming from there
Ohhh I should feed that 200 page pdf to NotebookLM
Need to be logged in to google to view public notebooklms. 10 min AI convo https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/b3424521-666d-4389-9a4c-8b72a779d5e3/audio
Love your interpretation of running around the bases as taunting the pitcher - never thought of it that way!
As another NY native, I’m also finding myself a bit nostalgic this year watching both our teams make a deep playoff run. I was 10 years old during the 2000 subway series and the kid inside me is excited by the possibility of a rematch, even though I haven’t followed either team seriously in >20 years.
IMO: the duel between the pitcher and the batter is definitely the most important component of the game for newcomers to understand. Boredom is alleviated when you realize that every pitch changes the advantage that either player has, and therefore, the advantage that either team has. Learning all the other weird rules comes naturally once you’re attentive to the outcome of each pitch (though I still couldn’t tell you what a balk is).