"If you don't invest in baseball, baseball is boring..."
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"If you just watch baseball as spectacle, you are going to watch a bunch of guys standing around 99% of the time. Because that is what baseball is, a lot of nothing. You have to bring something to the table to watch baseball. You have to anticipate. You have to think. You have to think along with the manager. You have to look at the count. You have to look at the situation.
"And sometimes you look up at the sunshine and think about your beer.
"But it is a game that involves... You know, the conversational part of it is part of that engagement with baseball. That you have to participate. You can watch a football game and just let it come at you. You can watch a hockey game and let it come at you. Especially hockey. The action just sweeps by you, right? It's almost overwhelming sometimes.
"But baseball, you have got to be there. You're sitting there next to somebody and say, 'Well, what do you think he's going to do? Do you Hit & Run here? He can't locate his fastball. If he can't locate his fastball, he's not going to get anybody out.' It's an endless conversation that has been going on since the 1860's. And that's part of what's great about it.
"You know, what I find now - and I'm going to sound like a geezer here - but one of the theories was that baseball was going to die because a younger audience would not do that. That the video game, pick & choose entertainment options, on your phone, looking at your computer...They are not...No one's going to sit still and watch a baseball game.
"But in fact, it's perfect. It's perfect for people - if that's the way your brain works - it's a great game and there is a really lively, smart baseball crowd out there that I think understands the game and is more into the game than people were twenty years ago. They are not casual fans. They very engaged fans. These are very smart fans. There is a kind of ongoing conversation. They are cynical. They are smart. They're funny. And they get it. In a world with all this other stimulation and all these other options, it still kind of works.
"Which is something for a 19th-century game."
- Stephen Brunt
(Prime Time Sports, May 22, 2014)
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