# Enough with the baseball already **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 22, 2010, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973 "2010-04-22T11:14:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CreamKr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7feea3/32.png) [@CreamKr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CreamKr)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/1 "2010-04-22T11:14:47Z")
There has been six columns about baseball lately and frankly, it is getting annoying. Us international readers don’t give a flying u-know-what about the most boring game since cricket and curling. The game seems to be based on rules and exeptions undoubtly making the game so slow that they can sell enough hot-dogs and to air enough commercials. I know that since it is an old sport in US standards there are a lot of not so clear definitions and concepts that has evolved over the years. But it still doesn’t make it interesting. I tried to watch a baseball game once and got thru half an hour before i fell a sleep. I get it, nothing is happening and you need to give the commentators something to talk about so let’s make rules and definitions enough to fill good six volumes of encyclopedia out of, what is basically, the most simplest game ever. I hope not to see another line of text of someone hitting a ball with a bat. ---
**Author:** ![DerekBlank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7bcc69/32.png) [@DerekBlank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekBlank)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/2 "2010-04-22T12:41:36Z")
I’m afraid I have to agree with you. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/3 "2010-04-22T12:43:36Z")
No one’s forcing you to read it. In case you hadn’t noticed, The Straight Dope is written for a general American audience. It is based in Chicago, which is near the middle of the North American continent, where baseball is very popular. The baseball season just began, so the editors apparently took the opportunity to run some old baseball columns. It happens; get over it. Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/4 "2010-04-22T15:28:38Z")
Sorry that the free content doesn’t meet your exacting standards. I’m sure the editors would be delighted to offer you a refund. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/5 "2010-04-22T15:32:18Z")
Boy, this one came right out of left field. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/6 "2010-04-22T15:37:37Z")
I don’t know, I thought he hit it right out of the park. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/7 "2010-04-22T15:40:08Z")
Aah, relax. Whoever it is that decides what “classic” columns to run in between the new ones very often clusters several together with a similar subject or theme. So this particular theme is one you’re not personally interested in. Big Deal. We’ll be on to something new soon, I’m sure. Meanwhile, click on “Read a random Straight Dope column” and take a chill pill. (ETA: **CreamKr** , I notice you registered here specifically to post this complaint. Welcome, and I hope you’ll stick around to voice your opinions on other stuff too.) ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/8 "2010-04-22T15:43:42Z")
The columns are often thematically related. They’ll get on some other kick soon. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/9 "2010-04-22T18:23:06Z")
> [@CreamKr](#): > > There has been six columns about baseball lately and frankly, it is getting annoying. Us international readers don’t give a flying u-know-what about the most boring game since cricket and curling. The game seems to be based on rules and exeptions undoubtly making the game so slow that they can sell enough hot-dogs and to air enough commercials. I know that since it is an old sport in US standards there are a lot of not so clear definitions and concepts that has evolved over the years. But it still doesn’t make it interesting. I tried to watch a baseball game once and got thru half an hour before i fell a sleep. I get it, nothing is happening and you need to give the commentators something to talk about so let’s make rules and definitions enough to fill good six volumes of encyclopedia out of, what is basically, the most simplest game ever. > > I hope not to see another line of text of someone hitting a ball with a bat. Well, mate, one of the great joys of baseball is musing through arcane scenarios. It is perhaps a necessary characteristic of a game largely composed of, as one commentator put it, “pondering inaction”. As such, questions about the US’ National Pastime are natural fodder for an engine like the Straight Dope, and a run like the one we are having is not only forgivable–it is largely desirable. I should expect a clusters of columns about sex or flatulence at some point. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/10 "2010-04-23T04:41:40Z")
Baseball isn’t a matter of life or death. It’s more important than that. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/11 "2010-04-23T05:17:46Z")
> [@CreamKr](#): > > I tried to watch a baseball game once and got thru half an hour before i fell a sleep. I get it, nothing is happening and you need to give the commentators something to talk about… Watching a major league game on television probably isn’t the best way to introduce yourself to the game. Listening to the crap the TV announcers go on about is _definitely_ not the path to understanding it. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/12 "2010-04-23T11:12:26Z")
> [@CreamKr](#): > > … the most boring game since cricket and curling I don’t agree with you sir. Both cricket and curling can be very exciting (American football on the other hand …). ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/13 "2010-04-23T13:31:44Z")
The Classics are often run in the same order they were published in the original Straight Dope books. If you look at the books you’ll see that the chapters are arranged thematically, so you tend to get columns in a row about similar topics. Your friends here on the board have made some excellent suggestions as to what to do when you don’t like today’s offering. On Monday we’ll be moving on to other subjects so you can read about something other than baseball, I promise. And today it’s a new column as well, which has nothing to do with baseball at all, I promise. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/14 "2010-04-23T14:17:02Z")
Explaining the strategies, game situations and nuances of baseball to an outsider, most likely who grew up on soccer or basketball or hockey, is like trying to explain Einstein’s Theories of Relativity to a kid that just learned the multiplication tables. I’m pretty sure that kid would fall asleep pretty quickly too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BunnyTVS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BunnyTVS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyTVS)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/15 "2010-04-25T00:32:49Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > The Classics are often run in the same order they were published in the original Straight Dope books. > > If you look at the books you’ll see that the chapters are arranged thematically, so you tend to get columns in a row about similar topics. True true. If you look at the time when the big @$£%^&@£ kicked off about naughty language on the board, most of the dope colums were about rather… _intiimate_ subjects. ---
**Author:** ![CreamKr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7feea3/32.png) [@CreamKr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CreamKr)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/16 "2010-04-25T14:03:25Z")
Thanks for replys, didn’t think there would come so many… Indeed, i can’t watch baseball live but only thru the tv-screen and it just seems like nothings happening. And of course i enjoy the free content here and can appreciate that. But enough is enough. Usually the articles here are very interesting and every time they are well written, the latter which seem not to be the norm around the interweb… I just raised my opinion of the amount of space this subject has been getting lately. And since internet is very much international the concentration on one nations favorite past time is, well , little narrowminded. USA is not the whole world… But that’s my opinion only, don’t take it too serious. I still read every column that comes here. I wouldn’t like to read articles about one subject, whether it’s sport, politics, religion all the time. Sites that concentreate on one subject only are a plenty and you can find the information you’re interested there. Everybody’s right and nobody’s wrong… or was it the other way around? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/17 "2010-04-25T14:34:21Z")
What is strange about your complaint is that if you don’t like the featured article, _there is plenty of other stuff to read_ on the site. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/18 "2010-04-30T17:36:38Z")
> [@Powers](#): > > No one’s forcing you to read it. In case you hadn’t noticed, The Straight Dope is written for a general American audience. It is based in Chicago, which is near the middle of the North American continent, where baseball is very popular. These columns were also _originally written for, and reprinted from, an actual hardcopy newspaper_ that is sold in a major American city (Chicago). They were not originally written for the Internet — the dates on many of them should make that much obvious. Cecil was not writing with an international audience in mind, he was writing for Chicago newspaper readers. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/19 "2010-04-30T21:04:29Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > These columns were also _originally written for, and reprinted from, an actual hardcopy newspaper_ that is sold in a major American city (Chicago). They were not originally written for the Internet — the dates on many of them should make that much obvious. Cecil was not writing with an international audience in mind, he was writing for Chicago newspaper readers. /really shitty little nitpick/ _The Chicago Reader_ is not sold at all - it’s a free paper. /end shitty little nitpick/ I continue to be mortified that I have to pay for a paper here in Atlanta that’s nowhere near as quality journalism as the paper I read for free when I lived in Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![Negative\_Lite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Negative\_Lite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Negative_Lite)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973/20 "2010-04-30T22:17:09Z")
> [@CreamKr](#): > > And since internet is very much international the concentration on one nations favorite past time is, well , little narrowminded. USA is not the whole world.. Since you’ve made this point twice, I’d remind you that baseball is also popular in many other countries besides the U.S. It’s _extremely_ popular in Japan, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic and is played throughout North America from Canada to Venezuela. ETA: Not that the Straight Dope gets many page views in Cuba or Venezuela. I’m just saying … [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-baseball-already/536973.md?page=2)