Things I Can't Stand About Baseball: Bullshït Statistics

[kelticwizard]

The major reason I don't watch baseball anymore is the length of the game.  When I first started watching games went 2 hours, maybe 15 minutes more.  Now they're over three hours with numerous pitching changes.

 

Perhaps as a result of this, TV announcers try to fill the endless ennui with statistics.  With what's happening on the field proceeding at a glacial pace, things have to be built up in importance.

 

Watching the last game, they started building up the fact that the last time Boston had won a World Series at home was 95 years ago.  Considering the number of teams, on average a fan will see his team win the World Series two or three times in his lifetime, if he starts watching young.  Many teams do not win even that often.  It should be unsurprising that Boston had not won the Series at home in nearly a century.

 

Yet when the the last pitch was thrown,  off go the announcers into high hyperbole about the first time winning at home., as if that was somehow more important than winning at all.

 

The next phony statistic was one where a Red Sox player was about to end his streak of 20 consecutive postseason games with a base hit.  Well, so what?   It's just another statistical anomaly.  Yet they play it up, as if we're supposed to be on the edge of our seat to see if the streak stays alive.

 

I guess when you have all these long periods of inactivity on the screen, the announcers have to pretend something important is underway.

[Maxman]

You should have started that post with SPOILER ALERT.  I guess I can free up some space on my DVR now.

[Bugg]

Agree about game length. Baseball games as recently as the 1980s were typically less that 2 and half hours. All the stepping out, the staring at the catcher, the pointless delays, really all the crap does nothing for the game.If you go to a minor league game it still only takes under 3 hours and they have as long breaks between innings for contests and promotions. Yet MLB does nothing to address this. Seems like really bad business when really there is not much action in a baseball game to begin with.If MLN decreed there will be nos tepping out nor tiem granted unless there's an injury and told pitchers to throw it, it would end tomorrow. But they don't. One more reason Bud Selig is an a-hole.

[PFSIKH]

The major reason I don't watch baseball anymore is the length of the game.  When I first started watching games went 2 hours, maybe 15 minutes more.  Now they're over three hours with numerous pitching changes.

 

Perhaps as a result of this, TV announcers try to fill the endless ennui with statistics.  With what's happening on the field proceeding at a glacial pace, things have to be built up in importance.

 

Watching the last game, they started building up the fact that the last time Boston had won a World Series at home was 95 years ago.  Considering the number of teams, on average a fan will see his team win the World Series two or three times in his lifetime, if he starts watching young.  Many teams do not win even that often.  It should be unsurprising that Boston had not won the Series at home in nearly a century.

 

Yet when the the last pitch was thrown,  off go the announcers into high hyperbole about the first time winning at home., as if that was somehow more important than winning at all.

 

The next phony statistic was one where a Red Sox player was about to end his streak of 20 consecutive postseason games with a base hit.  Well, so what?   It's just another statistical anomaly.  Yet they play it up, as if we're supposed to be on the edge of our seat to see if the streak stays alive.

 

I guess when you have all these long periods of inactivity on the screen, the announcers have to pretend something important is underway.

 

I literally wanted to reach through the screen and beat Joe Buck to death every time he said this.  The curse was worth mentioning every inning (not really) in 2004.  This had absolutely no relevance to any storyline.

[kelticwizard]

You should have started that post with SPOILER ALERT.  I guess I can free up some space on my DVR now.

 

Sorry Max.  I knew you had recorded the game but I thought 24 hours would give you enough time to watch it.

 

How did plan to ignore the headlines in the newspapers and all the references on TV?

[kelticwizard]

...The curse was worth mentioning every inning (not really) in 2004.  This had absolutely no relevance to any storyline.

 

That's true-the curse had become American folklore for as long as I can remember.  Older Red Sox fans back then were saying they wanted to see their team win a World Series before they died.  It was big news when they finally did it.

 

But now that they finally did it, winning at home years later is just nothing to get excited about.

[kelticwizard]

Agree about game length. Baseball games as recently as the 1980s were typically less that 2 and half hours. All the stepping out, the staring at the catcher, the pointless delays,

 

So true.  When I chance upon a replay of "Classic games" the pace of the game is so much crisper-it's fun to watch.

 

One thing that gets me is that a football player is expected to smash into somebody or get smashed into by somebody on one play, then immediately pick themselves up and go into the huddle and do it again a few seconds later.  When a baseball player swings and misses, it apparently is such an enormous strain that he has to walk several yards away from the batter's box, adjust his belt, re-prepare his bat, swing his bat several times, (presumably to make sure he hasn't damaged any body parts with the miss), and finally go back to face the pitcher a full minute or more later.

 

If a single missed swing throws them off that much, they should consider another line of work.

[PFSIKH]

That's true-the curse had become American folklore for as long as I can remember.  Older Red Sox fans back then were saying they wanted to see their team win a World Series before they died.  It was big news when they finally did it.

 

But now that they finally did it, winning at home years later is just nothing to get excited about.

 

Exactly. The curse meany something 9 years ago.  Now, Cubs fans are going f you.

[Bob]

I literally wanted to reach through the screen and beat Joe Buck to death every time he said this.

 

I kinda want to do that whenever he broadcasts a game.