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Comment by rogerthis | Hacker News Reader

Didn't read it but, as a non-american, non-japanese nor venezuelan, i wonder what is the fun of playing baseball, as it is mostly a still sport, with some sporadic movement. I really enjoy watching it because I can easily read a book without paying much attention to the game, which I can't do by watching basketball. But I usually sleep over the book and when i wake up, the game hasn't finished yet.

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Agreed. I'm a foreigner living in the US. I attended a baseball game live by curiosity and found it incredibly boring. I mentioned it the next day to my co-workers and they told me that the only reason to go see a baseball game was to get drunk, shout a little and go home after an hour or so (that is 1/3 of the game).

Popularity of the sport may depend on the region though.

While I can enjoy hockey, basketball and even a little bit of football, baseball is just unwatchable. I guess you have to be born in it.

My beloved's grandpa Fred played on Iowa Sunday afternoons. A grown man with four kids, a wife, and full time work - first on the farm and later in the factory - standing around except for those moments when in a burst he beat the opponent or the opponent beat him was part of the appeal. Baseball is not called "The American sport." Baseball is the American pass time.

Baseball's appeal comes from the skill involved in a good pitch and a good swing, along with the mind games.

That having been said, it's hard to sit still for it.

Agreed, and it is quite fun to learn how to swing a bat to cut against the ball. Something very satisfying when everything is aligned relaxed and tight on hit.

> as a non-american, non-japanese nor venezuelan, i wonder what is the fun of playing baseball

You see other kids playing it, and that's where the fun is - with just about any game.

Growing up, we liked to play fast-paced games like soccer and tag, and games that emphasized skill like baseball, or even bocce.

I cannot remember a game that any of us thought was too boring to play.

I can do this while watching soccer, too. A lot of movement, nothing actually happening.

Me too, but playing soccer is a lot more fun, even for one of the worst player in the world (myself), who can run the entire field during the whole game without ever receiving the ball. At least, I do my physical exercises.

Fun is subjective.

Actually, it all comes down to whether you can see and appreciate the skills involved or not. I didn't realize that in the beginning, but now I do. You have to know that there's a lot of skill and practice involved in making the way the players pass the ball (in soccer/basketball/hockey), the decisions they make to distribute the ball (e.g., attack from the middle, from the side, one-two passes and sometimes, individual dribbling skills). These are all very difficult to do for any amateur (or even some professional) players, and it becomes to see it AND appreciate that only after you've played soccer (basketball, hockey, or any sports you name it) yourself. I could watch a soccer game without any goals being scored and yet still get enjoyment out of it.

Another somewhat related analogy would be that I was never trained in playing any musical instruments; I never am interested in learning how to play one myself. But when I see an orchestra playing a random classical music (i.e. the kind of music I personally find boring), I still appreciate that they are showing off skill that they practiced to acquire for many years.

Actually, you have no idea what my background in the sport is. I enjoyed playing it for years. I hate watching it because it's boring as hell. Baseball is boring too, but there's a hell of a lot more strategy going on in that sport.

I actually compare soccer and baseball a lot; it's useful for explaining the appeal of one sport to people who like the other. In both, it's not always clear what's going on unless you are familiar with the game. If you're familiar, though, and you understand the subtleties, there's truly a lot to do and to watch.

In both, scoring events are usually rare, which leads casual spectators to think that not much is happening most of the time. Because of the rarity of scoring events, though, it almost always feels like either team can still win. That's actually a huge appeal, and something often underestimated.

The similarities basically end there, but those two pieces are big parts of the appeal of each sport. It's not the case that someone who likes one will also like the other, but it helps people understand a little better.

It is an insanely boring sport. People should be abandoning it.

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