Sunday, July 11, 2004

I don't care if I never get back

Baseball. It is difficult to imagine a less entertaining diversion than watching America's pastime. Baseball is a nineteenth century sport, and it shows. Actual play represents only the slimmest fraction of the time necessary to participate as a spectator. And, even when something is happening, it is scarcely more interesting than a lecture on the finer points of Victorian waffle irons. The prospect of a rain cancellation, however slim, is all that makes attending a baseball game preferable to three sharp blows to the head.

In popular culture baseball occupies an inappropriately esteemed position, but this is largely due to the traditional support the sport enjoys. Also helpful, from a modern prospective, is the fact that baseball is free of the violence and, to a large extent, scandle that characterizes Football and Basketball. Nevertheless, even the magic of Hollywood is able to do only so much. Of all the movies made about Baseball, none save two are good, and only three are worth watching. Eight Men Out and The Natural are both respectable films, and Major League is entertaining. For those of you who would like to mention Field of Dreams, I think it's clear that it doesn't count. Field of Dreams is not a Baseball movie, but rather a story about one guy's issues with his jackass father. Now, nobody in their right mind would pay money to see such a film, so they threw in some mystical baseball crap to keep you in the seat, and, with James Earl Jones' help, it works. But still isn't a Baseball film.

Baseball will never go away, not completely, but I had my hopes that the sport would be dealt a fatal blow in the mid to late ninties. Attendence was down, as America came to terms with the fact that Baseball sucks. Then the stupid Home Run races started. If it weren't for Mark McGuiwre and Sammy Sosa, Baseball would be crawling by on its last legs, TV would be better, and we would all be happier. Thanks a lot guys.

2 comments:

Di Gallagher said...

Ooo, hey. I never thought to actually ask if I could link your blog on mine. Um, I hope it's ok. I like reading your blog. Not to weird for you?

Amanda Haynes said...

As I was watching the home run derby today, I thought upon some of the stuff you said. I found it amusing...