3 ms·
One batter vs a team. Every play is easily delineated into singular acts by individual players. There is no such thing as a “block” or “assist”. It’s easier to
by rembicilious 5y ago
One batter vs a team.
Every play is easily delineated into singular acts by individual players.
There is no such thing as a “block” or “assist”.
It’s easier to write about. It’s easier to allegorize.
Baseball depends on individual performance more than most team sports, especially for pitching and batting.
- hef19898 5y agoAnd most English speakers outside the US wouldn't have the slightest idea what any of that means... Or basically anyone outside the US.
- kqr 5y agoOne of the things I remember from being a complete baseball illiterate and reading Moneyball was trying to decode the rules and how the game is played based on the descriptions of statistics and surrounding context. I took it as a challenge to not look up a single term (these are obvious terms to someone who knows anything about baseball, mind you, like "get on base", "walk", and "strike out" – but completely foreign to me at the time). It went fairly well, but I probably still wouldn't be able to actively follow a real game. If I at some point re-read Moneyball, I would probably want to get a primer on how baseball is played first.
- AlbertCory 5y agoOddly enough, I led a Meetup group to see that movie. There were nine people, almost all non-Americans. Afterwards I asked for a show of hands: "How many liked it?" Everyone raised their hand. "How many are baseball fans?" Only one person.
- OldHand2018 5y agoIf you are an English speaker outside the US, you probably know about a game called cricket. Baseball was very obviously derived from cricket about 200 years ago and has evolved quite a bit since then. But if you know cricket, baseball is not confusing. Also, a baseball game takes a lot less time than a cricket match.