Pitchers and Catchers Report: Football vs. Baseball

I have started to watch some baseball games and, frankly, have been bored before the game is even half way through. It moves at such a slow pace.

So, to me, American Football is miles better. NHL is watchable though, but still is not as good as football.

and only recently (2-3 years) have I followed more closely. The Giants have always been my team, but it’s just recently that I’ve understood the technicalities.
So football, for me. Especially since I’ve played it organized.

because I’ve loved football since I was a kid. One of my earliest memories was whining to my mom, trying to convince her to let me ditch church so I could watch the Niner game with my dad. I’ve played schoolyard football from as early as I can remember – and one of my favorite x-mas gifts when I was little was a nerf football that was shaped like a brain. I threw that thing around until it was worn down to just a squishy core. When I graduated 8th grade, I spent weeks trying to convince my mom to let me go to a high school – different from the one that my friends and my older sister had gone to – specifically because it had a football team, and my parents’ first choice did not. I won the argument and, despite the fact that I was never allowed to play organized football before, managed to become a starter in each of the years I played high school ball.

So obviously, my love for football is deep-rooted. My love for baseball, however…was almost an accident. My freshman year, I broke my collarbone during the football season. My football coach convinced me that it might be a good idea to play another sport in the spring to keep me in shape for the upcoming season. Reluctantly, I chose baseball – a sport I had never before played, and never shown a particular interest in before.

Our school was known for its basketball team…baseball there was basically an afterthought. Thanks to this fact, I made varsity as a raw freshman. I knew little of the game, but I was enough of an athlete, and had a strong enough arm from playing the QB position to earn a spot in the outfield.

Something about the game appealed to me right away. Football, as much as I loved it, was work. Practice was exhausting both mentally and physically. Games were painful. Weight-training and playbook study sucked. But baseball…was practically a vacation. I remember only a week into playing, I already felt completely at home. Practices weren’t nearly as militaristic. We stretched, spat sunflower seeds, took some fielding practice, hung out, took some swings in the batting cage, spat some more seeds and then we were dismissed. The games were low-tension. There weren’t half as many people in the stands, there were no coaches yelling in our faces, and there were no sky-high expectations. Obviously, these were all factors of playing for a school that didn’t much care about baseball, but the end result was something special. I fell in love with baseball, because it was just a game.

Even now, years removed from playing, I take the same approach to the two sports. On the Sundays during football season, I can be a pretty intense guy. I’m in front of my TV, focused on it and nothing else. I watch every play and dissect it. I see the open receivers, I see the missed blocks, I see the perfect throws into tight coverage. When things don’t go the way I’d like…it gets to me. Football is the only sport than can get me pissed off, and the 49ers are a team that reminds me of this on a regular basis.

Watching a baseball game is different. I consider myself a die-hard A’s fan. The year I really found baseball was 2000, and that was a great year to become a follower of the A’s. Since then, I’ve been to no less than 15 games a year, and of the 162 that are played each season, I catch at least 100 of them on TV or radio. Unlike football games, I’m usually distracted. If I’m at the game, I’ll spend 4 innings roaming the Colesium, grabbing some nachos and checking out the merch, only loosely following the game itself. At home, I’ll have the game on the tube while I read or play videogames or something. I’m watching the game, and following every pitch…but it’s not a priority. If Crosby chases a ball at his eyes with the bases loaded, down one run in the 9th…I’ll be disappointed, yeah. But I’m not going to yell at my TV the way I do when Alex Smith throws a ball 3 yards behind an open receiver on 3rd-and-short.

You see, in baseball, there’s always another chance. With a 162 game schedule, you don’t have to win every one. I mean, baseball is a game of failures. If a guy gets one hit every three at bats, then he’s a great hitter. That dude’s failing 66% of the time, but he’s considered one of the best in the league. In a weird sort of way, baseball teaches you to deal with imperfection. You’re not going to make every throw, hit every pitch, get to every fly ball. No matter what. So there’s no reason to sweat over it.

Just take it easy. Spit some seeds, hang out, and enjoy the game.
It’s that sort of mindset that causes my love for the sport of baseball.

I guess with all that being said, I just have to say that I love both sports. It’s a completely different kind of love, though. It’s like that girl you dated back in the day that was great because she was nutty, adventurous and wild. You’ll never get over the chick, but…is that the kind of girl you settle down with? Is that the kind of lady you’d make your wife? Wouldn’t you want someone a little more…down to earth? Relaxed? Easy to live with?

Basically, I’m just really glad the two are during different seasons. Having to choose between the two would be tough, and I’m incredibly thankful that I’ll never have to.

always been a bigger baseball fan, although I love football too. I think what JFH says above is very true, but I also want to make another point -

part of the reason I love baseball is because I played it so much as a kid, and because of that I understand it better and I know more about how to play. Football is so complicated, and there are so many moving parts at the same time that I find it a little harder to really watch and understand. For example, I can watch a baseball game and see exactly what each player did on a given play and whether or not they did it well, such as a defensive play where a guy has to rotate to another base or someone has to hit a cut off man, etc. I can take all that in and analyze it quickly. But in football I can’t just look and see what kind of defense they are running or watch a pulling guard unless it’s in a replay and the announcers are pointing it out. Part of that is not having played organized football, and part is that it’s so damn complicated.

the other reason I think I get more into baseball is because it’s a daily thing. I religiously watch every niners game, but it’s only once a week. Baseball season is so long, and there is a game almost every day, so it impacts my day to day life so much more. so I miss it more when it’s not baseball season.

finally, I’m better able to evaluate talent in baseball, both because it’s easier to single out a player and watch them than it is in football (especially linemen), and because there are so many individual statistics, both traditional and otherwise.

if you’re a guy, and you’re American, you should love both (with at least a healthy respect for basketball thrown in)

Personally, I can’t say I like one better than the other. They are completely different – for different times of the year, moods, and experiences. I absolutely hate to see the NFL season go (this last Sunday was the worst so far), but then spring training starts again and the Giants put on their uniforms and we suddenly have something to occupy us.

These are also my two favorite sports to play when out in the park with friends – screw that yuppie shit – “frisbee golf” or whatever latest sports fad is coming and going. Throwing a football or going to the baseball diamond will never get old.

All you soccer freaks who keep saying how soccer is going to take over and become the major favorite sport of the next American generation of kids can suck it. I played soccer too when I was a little kid (it was fun), but that doesn’t mean I’m going to like watching it or waste my time rooting for a soccer team on TV. I’ve got better things to watch.

Overall I prefer football over baseball. However, I do prefer attending baseball games in person over attending football games in person while I prefer watching football on TV over watching baseball on TV. Also, I’d watch just about any NFL game on TV but its a rarity when I sit down and watch a baseball game that didn’t feature the A’s (less the playoffs).

Football’s a great game, and I really enjoy it… But baseball. So much so that I created my username after one of my favorite failed Giants prospects, and even worked for years in baseball.