It's the thinking man's game because it;s boring. Baseball is unique in that play is limited to brief bursts of activity rarely lasting more than a few seconds. Then the actors return to fixed positions. During these extensive and predictable downtimes everyone has time to calculate and plan. It's like a group of bits all sitting at known energy states waiting for that one random bit to set everything in motion, that being the batter-pitcher outcome. In no other sport are so many of the players physically locked into place every few seconds. In no other sport can observers see and measure them all so regularly. It's the thinking mans game because there is so much downtime in which to ponder so many known values.
Give me the fluidity of soccer, hockey or basketball. That's a very different type of thinking. The great players in those sports are the ones able to keep track of all the motions without the downtime between plays.
> It's the thinking man's game because it;s boring
A very obviously subjective view. What you mean is, it's boring to you. Major League Baseball managed 74 million in total attendance in 2015. Given the 162 games, it manages a remarkable attendance figure per game average (30k).
I like NA Football way more than baseball. I go to dozens of baseball games a year and go to at most one NA football game every few years.
Why? Because baseball is inherently more boring. I can go, drink some beers, eat a hot dog, chat with my friends and have a good time. However I want to see all the activity in the NA football game, and I'll never do that from the 300 level of Gillette Stadium
Something can be boring and popular. In fact, I'd say that the regularity and slow pace of the game allows for a host of activities to occur around it. Chatting, eating, drinking can all be done without missing anything. And it is very suited to broadcast. In the days of radio the downtime allowed the commentator to keep everyone up to speed with everything on the field. Today, television broadcasts display all the stats and the role of color commentator fills the silence. But take all that away and the core game is very slow in comparison to other sports.
I agree - for me, baseball is great as background for other activities. For example, say that you're at a party with your friends. You have conversations that are happening, maybe some beer pong or cornhole or similar party games, and you have the Red Sox in the background. If you hit a lull where your conversation partner goes off to the bathroom or you just lost at beer pong, you can walk over to the TV and relax for a few minutes.
Similarly, bars often have baseball games on for the same purpose.
It's incredibly difficult for many players to sustain high levels of production over an entire season, to the point that there's even been talk reducing the number of games in the season to relieve the strain it puts on players.
It also frequently comes up as one of the main difficulties players have in adjusting to the major leagues. Additionally, it comes up a subject among managers, wiyh effective managers often being ones take care to rest their players during the season.
The length and strain of the long season are ubiquitous subjects that get talked about all the time, to the point that they are practically defining features of baseball.
I mean the individual game isn't that taxing. Compare to the length of any other team sport - only basketball comes vaguely close at 80ish games. Anything physical is taxing if you do it a ridiculous number of times.
American football is very similar in terms of locking people into set states regularly?
It is interesting in that it allows you to create many set plays, where is other football variants are too fluid and only occasionally allow for set plays.
American Football is certainly very similar, but plays involve a great many more people moving at once. I was at a friend's house recently when he suggested watching a game he had DVRed. I said we didn't have time. I was then witness to something I hadn't seen: an entire football game in a few minutes. A wizard with a DVR remote can speed through all the highlights, absorbing all the important parts of the game in perhaps 15 minutes. I don't think that is possible with soccer/hockey/basketball.
Give me the fluidity of soccer, hockey or basketball. That's a very different type of thinking. The great players in those sports are the ones able to keep track of all the motions without the downtime between plays.