# Things about baseball you just don't understand **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 12, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-about-baseball-you-just-dont-understand/480969 "2009-01-12T20:35:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-about-baseball-you-just-dont-understand/480969/81 "2009-01-14T21:44:46Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > What? How did “hit the ball” in your first paragraph become “get a hit” in the second? A good batter can _make contact_ on any reasonable pitch, and that’s the batter’s only responsibility on a hit-and-run. The infielder in motion increases the chance that a routine ground ball will _become_ a hit, and if it doesn’t, the runner advances and it has the effect of a sacrifice. It’s still a bad play because it forces the batter to swing at whatever crappy pitch he happens to get. When it works it looks brilliant, but usually it just gives away a strike (if the batter fouls off the pitch), or has an effect no better than a bunt (if he hits a groundout) or worse (pop up, line drive caught, etc). ---
**Author:** ![Hawkeyeop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-about-baseball-you-just-dont-understand/480969/82 "2009-01-14T21:46:08Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > By definition, a “true” baseball fan has never been in favor of either of those things. Is a “true” baseball fan against integration too? Night games? You can really like baseball without thinking every change is bad. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-about-baseball-you-just-dont-understand/480969/83 "2009-01-14T23:23:23Z")
> [@Hawkeyeop](#): > > Is a “true” baseball fan against integration too? Night games? You can really like baseball without thinking every change is bad. My comment was supposed to be light hearted and in any event I only mentioned three changes that I don’t like. I didn’t say that I didn’t like all of them. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-about-baseball-you-just-dont-understand/480969/84 "2009-01-14T23:56:01Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] Inter-league play draws a huge amount of fans to the ball park so it makes money for the owners. [/QUOTE] I don’t know about that. Generally Interleague play starts the first weekend in June, when attendance always started to increase anyway, the weather being nicer and the kids being out of school, etc. I’m going to have to see the increased attendance figures resulting from San Diego playing Cleveland in April or Milwaukee playing Anaheim, er, I mean Los Angeles Angels of Orange County CA, in September before I’m going to believe that. I still want to know how Tampa Bay came out of nowhere to win the AL Pennant last year. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-about-baseball-you-just-dont-understand/480969/85 "2009-01-15T03:23:07Z")
Makes sense to me. I know I always look for teams I’ve never seen play live before when I start looking at the Padres or Dodgers home schedules. If I have to watch the D-Backs play the Padres one more time… I’d much rather see them play the Mariners (where they have a chance at winning) or some other hapless AL team. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-about-baseball-you-just-dont-understand/480969/86 "2009-01-15T03:27:13Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > I still want to know how Tampa Bay came out of nowhere to win the AL Pennant last year. I wouldn’t say “nowhere”. They had definitely been stockpiling talent that most knew would be excellent ball players. I think what threw people off was that they just didn’t think they could do it all at the same time (and trading Delmon before the season certainly lowered expectations as well). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-about-baseball-you-just-dont-understand/480969.md?page=4)