BASEBALL IS BORING AND HOW I LEARNED TO GET OVER THAT

The Mets begin a three game series on the road against the Giants starting tonight and I'll be watching. Hell, if I'm going to have a sports blog, I should probably, you know, watch sports regularly.

I've been watching baseball more now than I think I ever have. It wasn't always that way and I still have some gripes with the sport. I'll admit that of the four major sports in the U.S., baseball's probably my least favorite to watch (I generally get far more enjoyment out of reading about baseball than I do just eyeballing it). It's a very methodical game and when it's exciting, it's really exciting (Game Six of the 2011 World Series is the most recent game I can think of that blew me away). But when baseball's not exciting, I can't get over the fact that it mostly entails nine guys just standing around. Even its nickname just lies there. America's pastime is just a really nice synonym for background noise.

Another thing that's hampered my enjoyment of watching baseball regularly: I'm a Mets fan. And the Mets, for more of their history than not, have been really shitty. Now there's a really easy solution to this problem that I'm sure you're going to tell me: "Jon, if you don't want to watch a bad New York baseball team, why not watch the Yankees?" Let's briefly ignore the fact the as of this writing the Yankees are mediocre at best, here's why that's not an optimal solution: I hate the Yankees.

In fact, the Yankees are the one team that I outright hate. Other teams annoy me sure, but genuine dislike? No. Now if the Packers, Lakers, Celtics, Vikings, Lions, Braves and Phillies all came in the dead of night to my home and murdered my entire family, then I might have a problem with them. But yeah, screw the Yankees. Screw the smug self-satisfaction they seem to run on like fuel. Screw their elitist, sanctimonious press.

And don't get me started on their fans. If you happen to be a Yankees fan who isn't a douchebag, you don't exist, but if you did let me tell you that this rant isn't directed at you. Every fanbase has its share of assholes that poison the watering hole they all gather at. But Yankees fans are different. They've had enough practice to hone their craft of obnoxiousness. Yankees fans are Lakers fans times a thousand, because the Yankees had dynasties before the Lakers existed, and thus had a bunch of people revel in their glory because it made them seem closer to the sky. I feel bad for even having to explain that the Yankees are douches, because at this point, that word should be synonymous with anything associated with the Yankees.

Pictured: a douche.

Ahem. Sorry, I got carried away.

One last point. The baseball season is mindnumbingly long. Six months with baseball almost every single day can be tedious for me. I think that's one of the reasons I've gravitated more to football. Football teams play once a week, get one week out of the other seventeen off, and there's only a couple times a year when football is played on more than two days out of the other seven. Football leaves me wanting more, where baseball is like having Thanksgiving dinner every day for half a year. Now comparing football to baseball is like comparing apples to something else that isn't an apple. I'm just illustrating my preferences and why I think that way.

But recently I had an epiphany regarding baseball (and since I've spent over 500 words bashing it, I might as well throw the proverbial dog a metaphorical bone). I peruse Hardball Talk on the NBC Sports website, and HBT head honcho Craig Calcaterra has written more than one column explaining how baseball is still relevant in an NFL spoiled media landscape. Please follow the link above to read his thoughts on this (it's in the archives but I guarantee it's going to come up again at some point) because I'm going to butcher this argument. In the NFL, fewer games means that almost every game is going to be important in some way. Baseball, having a much longer season, doesn't really have "big games." Indeed one game in a four game series isn't important, because even if a team loses one game, there's still another three to go. Now if they lose the other three, that's no good, but there's still wiggle room to do better in the next series. That can be construed to mean that the games are meaningless, but I see it another way: you shouldn't take the baseball season in a "one game at a time" type of thing, but a big picture thing, a five out of seven type scenario and so on. And that's fascinating to me.

I think that mindset has really helped with my enjoyment of baseball. Honestly, I've had a much better time following this season than any other in my lifetime. So I'll watch tonight's Mets-Giants game with a more open mind to the big picture.

And if it doesn't go well for the Mets I just have to remind myself of this important fact: I'd rather watch the Mets lose, than watch the Yankees win. Right Yankees jerk from Cheers?

"That's right, loser!"