For the Love of the Game

Why do we love baseball?

It might be that baseball can be more of a social event, simply serving as an excuse to spend good times with friends and family. And really, I think this is the most likely reason why America loves baseball.

This is also why baseball is something of a dying sport here in the good ol' US of A. People crave the action and excitement of other sports like basketball, where scores reach triple digits, or football, where someone gets clobbered on nearly every play.

So what kind of people love baseball?

I think that analytical people like baseball. Thoughtful folks who can see that a simple change can result in a tremendous difference. Baseball is a game of what-ifs. That is what attracts me and so many others to this game. It's a constant battle between what you believe should happen and what actually happens. Part of this is an exercise in statistics, but sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. And really, there are few sports where that is more true than baseball. At some point, every pitcher is going to give up a hit. It's unavoidable. The trick is to have those hits come at times when they hurt you the least. So yeah, a good deal of luck there. The difference between a groundball single that scores a couple runs and a grounder that starts an inning-ending double play can be inches. And yet, players' salaries and front office careers are made or broken by these inches.

This is why I love baseball. I love having an idea of what could or should happen and then finding out if its right or wrong. I suppose that is why I'm a scientist. I want to find out if my theories are correct. Baseball just happens to be the perfect sport for that to happen. With a full day in between games for analysis and whole offseasons where lineups are analyzed and future statistics are estimated left and right. That's all part of the fun, but the real fun starts in four days. Nobody knows what's going to happen. We all just want to see if we were right or wrong.

So this begins my attempt at writing a post every day on the Royals. I think I would like to keep them short, maybe state the score and then say a key moment or something that I think that game showed me. Perhaps it will also chronicle part of my first year of medical school.

Well, I'll be back in four days. Let's play ball.