Some perspective.

[slippyslip]

The Major League Baseball season lastes roughly 180 days and during this time 2430 matches between 30 teams are played. Then you have the playoffs, with the world series being a best of SEVEN series. In the leadup to the world series there is a best of 5 playoff series between numerous teams and 1 or 2 more best of server series.

If Americans can tolerate Two Thousand four hundred and thirty games in 6 months whats so hard about 7 ODI's between England and Australia?

If you think 50 over is formulaic then you have never watched a baseball game.

So whats the conclusion? Is baseball a vastly more enjoyable and superior game to cricket? Cricket fans a bunch of whiny idiots?

I remember back in the 80's getting excited when a team score 250 in an 50 over match. Apparently now that is boring.

 

[Uppercut]

Americans play a lot of baseball matches.

Baseball is formulaic.

Are cricket fans a bunch of whiny idiots?

 

[Pratters]

Are you an American, you asshole?

(Copyrighted)

 

[Pratters]

Seriously though, the Americans have a highly structured sports base. They have franchises and each franchise has devoted fans who follow the game, support the team, buy the merchandise and watch the league. Just to give you an idea, most of the NBA basketball teams have their own channels on which their games are broadcast locally like MUTV for Manchester United.

A strong league system can mean a large number of matches with the interest intact if you have devoted fans for each franchise. This scenario is not comparable to the country support base except in an oddity like India in cricket. 7 ODIs for nothing is boring. 5 tests for the Ashes is mouth watering. 150 games for a league standing in tempting. Playoffs are played for the championship of the year. The American sports structure always has some thing at stake. The same can't be said of one day series like a 7 match ODI series, that too just after the Ashes.

 

[andyc]

Pretty excited for the 2430 game ODI series between Australia and England tbh, should be awesome.

 

[Jamee999]

Because baseball is more interesting than ODIs.

And it's impossible to actually watch all 2430 games, obviously.

 

[marc71178]

Pretty excited for the 2430 game ODI series between Australia and England tbh, should be awesome.

If the bookies are going to continue to massively over-rate England then so am I.

 

[slippyslip]

Because baseball is more interesting than ODIs.

And it's impossible to actually watch all 2430 games, obviously.

Of course. But you hear about the results in the media and games being broadcast. Baseball must be inescapable during the summer.

Even the NBA teams play something like 80 games a season.

I like baseball but I dont find it anymore interesting than any form of cricket.

 

[silentstriker]

Because each game means something in a season. It all leads to the playoffs and chance to win the world series. This seven game series will be forgotten as soon as it ends - probably before. It will mean nothing to anyone.

 

[GIMH]

Because each game means something in a season. It all leads to the playoffs and chance to win the world series. This seven game series will be forgotten as soon as it ends - probably before. It will mean nothing to anyone.

 

[Jamee999]

 

[GIMH]

Don't roll your eyes at me, young man

 

[Matt79]

Meh, I made my points the first time you made this inaccurate comparison. Be buggered if I'll do it again.

 

[slippyslip]

Seriously though, the Americans have a highly structured sports base. They have franchises and each franchise has devoted fans who follow the game, support the team, buy the merchandise and watch the league. Just to give you an idea, most of the NBA basketball teams have their own channels on which their games are broadcast locally like MUTV for Manchester United.

A strong league system can mean a large number of matches with the interest intact if you have devoted fans for each franchise. This scenario is not comparable to the country support base except in an oddity like India in cricket. 7 ODIs for nothing is boring. 5 tests for the Ashes is mouth watering. 150 games for a league standing in tempting. Playoffs are played for the championship of the year. The American sports structure always has some thing at stake. The same can't be said of one day series like a 7 match ODI series, that too just after the Ashes.

What does it say about the modern world that people are more passionate about following franchises, which are basically business selling a product, more than they do watching countries play.

You make some great points. I agree the current ODI series between Australia and England has no title or trophy to give it meaning.

Why the cricket officials dont turn these 7 game series into a best of 7 is beyond me. While playing 7 games makes in the short term creates more money it turns people off.

Thats why I used to love world series cricket during the Australian summer. At least the teams were playing for something with a final series involved.

 

[slippyslip]

Meh, I made my points the first time you made this inaccurate comparison. Be buggered if I'll do it again.

Except you talk out of your arse.

 

[slippyslip]

Because each game means something in a season. It all leads to the playoffs and chance to win the world series. This seven game series will be forgotten as soon as it ends - probably before. It will mean nothing to anyone.

But do you need 162 games to get to the playoffs? The NFL season is 16 home and away games. Premier League is 38. NRL and AFL are 24 and 22 respectively.

You missed my point. I used baseball as the example because of its extreme schedule. You could include the Japanese baseball league . Notice I did use any other major competitions listed above since in most major franchise/league sports the teams only play 1 game a week.

I find it bizarre you're saying that a baseball season has to be 162 games in 6 months and that fans of teams can remember every single match. Go up to a fan of any team and ask them what happened in the 89 game of this season. Do you think they can remember?

MLB could halve the amount of matches to 80 over the same time frame and still have enough games to determine which teams deserve to make the playoffs.

And what about teams that are clearly not going to make the playoffs? Right now the Washington Nationals are 47 90 with a win % of .343. They're 31 games behind their division leaders with 25 games to play. What point do they have? Its impossible for them to make the playoffs. Should they stop playing for the season? Should their fans stop supporting them because they cant make the playoffs?

Explain to me what significance the remaining 25 games of the season have to the Washington Nationals and their fans?

Yet people in the USA can tolerate and accept their team playing 162 regular games a season.

 

[Hurricane]

With baseball there are 30 teams competing. And yes they are split in two conferences. But for the most part you are always playing a different team from week to week.

In the case of this 7 game series between Aus and Eng it is just two teams - the baseball teams never play each other for 7 games in a row during the regular season.
When the baseball teams do play each other in a 3 game regular season series the purists maintain their interest as there is a different starting pitcher in each game. In cricket it is pretty much the same bowlers every game.
Lastly baseball games are SHORTER than an ODI and you don't have to invest a whole day to watch one so it is easier for fans to maintain their interest.

Only related to this topic but not directly on it. The reason why they play 162 games and not 80 is that the players can recover quite easily from a game - except for the pitchers - so they are ready to play almost every day. I followed the Blue Jays for a couple of years and we followed their fortunes over the whole season. I didn't watch every game - I just watched when it was convenient.

The NHL has 82 games I think. I used to think that the season was too long and I would lose interest around game 60. But then one year they had a strike and the season got shortened to 60 games. I thought that I would be really into the whole season but I sort of lost interest around game 40 and then got back into it for the last ten games of the season. When your not that into it - you still watch the highlights - you just don't plan your day around watching it.
No doubt there are people like you describe who can tell you about game 89 out of a baseball season but a lot of fans were like me. Start off the year with a lot of interest lose interest after a while but still keep tabs on the team, and then pick up interest towards the end.
Playoffs are what the fans live for. It is where the real season begins.

Oh I lived in Canada for a while that is why I am posting this.

 

[Matt79]

Except you talk out of your arse.

Yeah, you're worth talking to. Post reported. Sadly will miss your next two threads on the same topic given you're going on the ignore list til you bring about your own banning.

 

[Jamee999]

But do you need 162 games to get to the playoffs? The NFL season is 16 home and away games. Premier League is 38. NRL and AFL are 24 and 22 respectively.

You missed my point. I used baseball as the example because of its extreme schedule. You could include the Japanese baseball league . Notice I did use any other major competitions listed above since in most major franchise/league sports the teams only play 1 game a week.

I find it bizarre you're saying that a baseball season has to be 162 games in 6 months and that fans of teams can remember every single match. Go up to a fan of any team and ask them what happened in the 89 game of this season. Do you think they can remember?

MLB could halve the amount of matches to 80 over the same time frame and still have enough games to determine which teams deserve to make the playoffs.

And what about teams that are clearly not going to make the playoffs? Right now the Washington Nationals are 47 90 with a win % of .343. They're 31 games behind their division leaders with 25 games to play. What point do they have? Its impossible for them to make the playoffs. Should they stop playing for the season? Should their fans stop supporting them because they cant make the playoffs?

Explain to me what significance the remaining 25 games of the season have to the Washington Nationals and their fans?

Yet people in the USA can tolerate and accept their team playing 162 regular games a season.

Baseball is much higher variance than any of the other sports you listed - 16 games is really nothing when it comes to baseball - teams can go on 16 game winning streaks - hell, the Nationals, who you maligned so much, won nine games in a row earlier this season.

And, yeah, maybe some of the Nats games won't be great, but come the final series of the season, there will be some games that dictate if a team is going to the playoffs or not.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Except you talk out of your arse.

Can we keep this sort of posting to a minimum, ie. nil, thanks.