As the Chicago Cubs make their way into the final four of the Major League Baseball(MLB) Postseason, I’ve realized a couple things, how much I dislike baseball, and how much I don’t understand the fan base, especially in Chicago.

I consider myself a bandwagon fan when it comes to baseball. I went to a few Chicago White Sox games this past summer, including the Paul Konerko number – retiring ceremony game and the Cinco de Mayo game – I only went because my friends are die-hard White Sox fans, and I enjoy their company. If I was offered to go to a Cubs game with some other friends, I would totally go.

Even though I would go to a baseball game, I would never watch a game on TV. Unless you’re at the game, baseball is the slowest and most boring sport to watch. Of course, this game is all about patience and timing, but I don’t have the time or the patience to sit on my La-Z-Boy and watch pitch after pitch to a guy who’s probably going to miss the ball more than half the time. There’s almost never edge-of-your-seat excitement, and the exciting parts of a game can be put into a 2 minutes-or-less game montage video.

Of course, that works for other sports as well, like hockey and soccer. There are many news sources, like ESPN and Bleacher Report, which do just that for each game of all the sports they cover. Then again, those games have a fixed time that would allow only a few great plays; while baseball has no time limit. This year, the average baseball game is 2 hours and 54 minutes. Although the MLB has made an attempt to make the game shorter to make it more appealing, the game is still practically three hours long and a waste of my time.

If I’m with my friends at the game, the game’s length is beneficial. It allows more time for us to have fun, and allows us to pay attention to major plays when everyone is cheering in real time. If I ever turn my TV on and there’s baseball, I will always switch to Netflix and watch something with more substance.

Even though I personally don’t like the sport, I find the fan base of it very intriguing. For example, my best friend is a huge fan of baseball, mostly of the White Sox, and he’s always passively aggressively telling me how I need to choose which Chicago team I will root for, almost as if I can’t root for both teams throughout the season.

As well, many of my friends, including him, have a huge hatred for the Cubs. I don’t understand why, but they root for their demise at all times. I totally understand the feeling when the Crosstown Classic comes around, but I don’t understand why they want the team to fail even now, when they’re facing the Mets in the National League Championship Series. Even I will root for the St. Louis Blues if they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, and I’m a diehard Blackhawks fan.

 
Even though I really don’t like the sport, and I don’t understand the fan base, I can respect it for being a sport and respect the players as athletes. The sport takes patience and needs legitimate skill to play the game. Pitchers have to be able to throw pitches that can go 0-60 mph faster than a corvette and be able to aim it precisely in a square box that changes size with every batter. Hitters have to have precise aim and control of where they want to hit the ball to get the results they want, whether it be a home run or deep hit to right field. Outfielders need speed, hops and exact timing to be able to catch the balls that are flying at them so fast. Although baseball is a classic American pastime that has a huge fan base, I’m just happy hockey season is here to quench my thirst for entertainment.