Week 2: The Game of Baseball; or How is Baseball Almost 300 But Still Incomplete?

John Newberry, the "Father of Children's Literature", featured one of the first written mentions of baseball in his 1744 book A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly with Two Letters from Jack the Giant Killer. Despite that making baseball be at least two hundred, seventy-five years old, there are still flaws in the game that receieve heavy debate in the fanbase today.

Adam Sobsey's 2015 article "Play Baseball! And Do It Faster!" gets right to the point in addressing one of the biggest issues in baseball today: There is a huge debate on whether or not the length of time it takes to play a modern game of baseball is a problem. Sobsey presents one of the best takes on the matter due to his approach on the subject. Instead of taking a stance on the issue, Sobsey presents multiple perspectives on the matter through an informative approach:

• He takes interviews from pitchers with opposite views on a pitching clock (the Buffalo Bisons' Rob Rasmussen and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders' Cole Figueroa);
• He utilizes combating views from the MLB’s senior vice-president of league economics and strategy Chris Marinak;
• He uses examples of others instances where time has already been a part of the game;
• etc.

Through using these primary resources regarding the matter, Sobsey gives the reader the best insight possible on the subject matter. All day, baseball fans can argue among themselves what they think is best, but when the people who actually play for and work in the league have something to say, that is what truly shapes the conversation.

Due to our knowing the game is incomplete, many misconceptions about the baseball game can surface. Some of these are addressed in Allen Barra's 2014 article "The 4 Biggest Myths About Baseball." The four specifically at hand are...

• Baseball isn't as competitive as football;
• Baseball games are too long;
• Baseball’s talent pool has been diluted by expansion and competition from other sports; and
• Baseball is declining in popularity.

It is through the presentation of these points that Barra really excels. By laying out what point he will argue against and then doing so, one can take the article step-by-step in what it does; at the least, this is something I appreciate for how it makes digesting the article easier. Equally important, though, are the intriguing and quality facts that Barra uses, despite their being seemingly small; for a few examples...

• Being told that the average baseball game has roughly ten more minutes of a ball in play than an average football game feels small, but at the same time, to me, it does prove that, despite the games roughly taking the same time in whole, there is more going on in a game of baseball; and
• The rhetorical point that Barra makes regarding how baseball does not have large, national TV contracts, which makes it appear as though they have lower viewership certainly struck a chord with me too.