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"Baseball Is Different" ... Baseball is different from any other sport, very different. For instance, in most sports you score points or goals;
in baseball you score runs. In most sports the ball, or object, is put in play by the offensive team; in baseball the defensive
team puts the ball in play, and only the defense is allowed to touch the ball. In fact, in baseball if an offensive player
touches the ball intentionally, he's out; sometimes unintentionally, he's out.
Also: in football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, and all sports played with a ball, you score with the ball and
in baseball the ball prevents you from scoring.
In most sports
the team is run by a coach; in baseball the team is run by a manager. And only in baseball does the manager or coach wear
the same clothing the players do. If you'd ever seen John Madden in his Oakland Raiders uniform, you'd know the reason for
this custom.
Now, I've mentioned football. Baseball & football
are the two most popular spectator sports in this country. And as such, it seems they ought to be able to tell us something
about ourselves and our values. Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game. Football is a twentieth-century
technological struggle. Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park. The baseball park! Football is
played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium. Baseball begins in
the spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying. In football
you wear a helmet. In baseball you wear a cap. Football is concerned with downs - what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups - who's up? In football you receive a penalty. In baseball you
make an error. In football the specialist comes in to kick. In baseball the specialist comes in to
relieve somebody. Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary
roughness. Baseball has the sacrifice. Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet,
hail, fog... In baseball, if it rains, we don't go out to play. Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.
Football has the two minute warning. Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end - might
have extra innings. Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death.
In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's
not too much unpleasantness. In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven
times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.
And
finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different: In football the object is for the quarterback,
also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with
deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches
his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward
wall of the enemy's defensive line. In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!
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