Baseball has its merits. It has the one-on-one pitcher vs. hitter dynamic. Plus, I think it is especially amenable to late-game comebacks since a lot can happen in an inning, since they can go for as long as the at-bat team can take them. Another good thing about baseball is its a game ripe for statistics... even if you never wanted to know so and so's batting average during home games on the 2nd saturday of the month under a blue moon.

 

Baseball is an acquired taste. I can enjoy the last inning of a close/crucial game, but even then it's 97% dead time/ball-scratching, and that drives me crazy. There's also the issue that most viewers naturally empathize with the batter, who fails on about 90% of pitches, and over 70% of at bats. To find a baseball game exciting you have to care about the teams or individuals involved, and if you don't, it's deadly dull. I enjoy the concept of baseball, and reading good analysis of it, far more than watching the sport itself.

I've given up ever watching any sports live, thanks to bad announcers, constant commercials, and dead time. Football on tape is perfect, since the 3+ hours turns into 30-40 minutes of fast-paced action. Basketball is okay on tape, since you can blow through the commercials and free throws and such, though there's still a lot of dead time with guys dribbling slowly up the court. Baseball is awful on FF though, since the interval between pitches varies constantly, and since most pitches result in nothing more than upping the ball or strike count, towards some ultimate fleeting second(s) of action.

Yet you have to watch all of that, or there's no drama or suspense; I've seen compiled highlights of baseball when they show every pitch edited a second each, or every hit right in a row, and it's boring and meaningless that way.

 

Baseball is pretty crappy on tv as the producers struggle to look for images of cute kids with face paint to show viewers while players are scratching their balls. It's much more exciting at the ballpark where you can gawk at the loud drunk obnoxious fans and harass players if you're close enough. It's also much more exciting on the radio if you have good announcers because they fill the time with much more interesting stuff.

i do agree that unlike basketball and football where you can basically say that this game is over by the third quarter due to a blow out of the score, there is the opportunity in baseball that can turn the game completely around with one pitch. Dennis Eckersley who was for the most part a machine when it came to saves can completely blow one.

Baseball is really an individual game in the sense that the drama is between individuals on the teams, the pitcher to the batter mostly. While basketball and baseball have its one on ones, it's not that dramatic if the ball doesn't get to them anyway.

I find hockey a fun game to watch live, but dull on tv, since they can't show you every body check there. Adding color to the movement of the puck was the dumbest thing they ever did for hockey on tv. I'd love to see a real soccer game live, but just can't get through one on tv, unless i'm in europe watching it at a pub, then all soccer games are exciting.

I think I've enjoyed watching curling, rugby and cricket on tv just from the shear enjoyment of seeing something different.

 

I'm from Colorado, so I was rooting for the Rockies just a tiny bit. I don't really care since baseball is really boring for reasons that have already been covered, but it's still pretty cool to have a team that actually wins something.

And well, they did get to the World Series, so that's something.