Bleacher Banter

With everyone weighing in on why they love baseball, I wanted to share my thoughts too. There are so many things to like about "America's Pastime." In fact, that phrase right there is a reason in and of itself. Baseball is our nation's game, more than any other. Want to argue that point? Find me another sport that is played on each of the three most American Holidays; the 4th of July, Memorial Day and Labor Day.

More than any other sport, baseball is a family game. Fathers and sons don't play catch with the pigskin, they play with a ball & glove. Enjoying a day at the ballpark is one of the few family activities that has passed down from one generation to the next. While your father or grandfather may have never played Wii Bowling or Paintball War, each of you has enjoyed baseball in the same way. Moms, dads, boys and girls, regardless of sex, age or socio-economic status, everyone can have a great day at the ballpark.

Baseball may the easiest, and yet the most difficult sport all at the same time. Anyone can watch a baseball game and know what's up. Even the greenest of green sports enthusiast could explain to you the meaning of a home run or a pop fly. The object is simple; hit the ball and advance to from base-to-base until you score a run by returning home. Little kids, old women, even my girlfriend knows when to cheer at a baseball game. Balls vs. strikes, safe vs. out, fair vs. foul are all so well understood in our culture that we often use them when we're not even discussing baseball at all. In the words of a famous car insurance advertisement, it's so easy a caveman could do it.

But, as elementary as the game's goals may be, there are many rules that escape even the most seasoned of fans. Have you ever tried to explain the Infield Fly Rule to a five-year-old? Go educate your mother on the difference between a Balk and a good pick-off move.?Not easy, is it?

While the rule book presents a few challenges of interpretation, the unwritten rules of baseball offer an even more extensive list of deeply complex scenarios. "Always take the next pitch when the count is 3-and-0." "Never get the first or third out at second or third." Those are just a couple of the diamond-isms that must always be in the mind of a baseball player. It really is a "Thinking Man's Game."

Before we depart the easy-yet-hard theme, we should mention one more thing. A general consensus among elite athletes illustrates another argument for the difficulty of baseball. Go take a poll of people who play sports at a high level, ask them what is the hardest thing to do in sports. Nearly all of them will answer, "Hit a 95 mph fast-ball." A 2003 study in USA Today reports that a baseball thrown at 95-100 mph reaches home plate in about 0.4 seconds. Yep, less than half-a-second. Consider now that it takes 0.15 seconds just to respond to visual stimulation. The fact that people can hit a fast-ball more than 400 feet virtually defies human physics.

There's so much more to love about baseball that we don't even have the space to list them all in this column. Okay, here are a few more: the individual battle between the pitcher and the batter, the hand signals, the sound of the ball hitting the mitt, the sound of the ball hitting the bat, the chatter (Hey batter, etc.), the seventh inning stretch, umpires with a penchant for the dramatic, and maybe best of all...

Eating handfuls of peanuts and just dropping your shells on the ground!