Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge Bulls fan, but the strangest thing happened on the way to the playoffs. I started to lose interest. Why? Because despite the Bulls having the best regular season record and beating the Heat 3 times, it almost seemed like a foregone conclusion that Miami would go to the finals and win it. This seems to happen in basketball all too often. When the Bulls had Jordan and Pippen, they could not lose. When Kobe and Shaq were teamed together, they were practically unbeatable, and when the Celtics introduced the 3 amigos to the league, it was pretty much a done deal that they were going to win the championship. It was no different this year. Miami was criticized for celebrating too early, but let's face it -- they were right. That's the NBA.
Here are a few reasons why baseball is simply the better game.
1. The NBA is a superstar league and anytime you can put 2 or 3 megastars together, it leaves other teams with very little chance. That isnt' true in any other sport -- especially baseball. For all the talk that it's always going to be the Yankees because they can buy whoever they want, the truth is they've only won 1 World Series in the last 10 years. A repeat by any team is unusual and a 3-peat is rare. In my lifetime only 2 teams have done it: the 1998-2000 Yankees and the 72-74 Oakland A's. It's only happened 4 times in the long history of baseball. Miami has a legitimate shot to be the 5th team to 3-peat since 1960. In the last 30 years, 20 different baseball teams have won the World Series. Only 8 have won the NBA title.
2. The officiating in the NBA too often directly influences scoring. No other sport routinely empowers the referees to actually put points on the board by calling fouls. They are routinely swayed by superstar players and coaches to call questionable calls. This obviously has a major impact in the game. It isn't unusual to see a team get 10-15 extra points on free throws alone -- more than enough to decide most games. Such power to influence the score can lead to corruption, as it did with Jack Donaghy. In baseball, only the homeplate umpire can influence the game from moment to moment -- and superstars have no leeway in getting special attention. Argue the call and you're out of the game. It's plain and simple. And if a homeplate umpire misses a call, it doesn't cost you points, you still have 2 more strikes or 3 more balls before it costs you -- and even then it's only a baserunner. An umpire can not create scoring with any individual call.
3. Supreme athletes rule in basketball. Derrick Rose and LeBron James are practically unstoppable because of their superior physical talent. Yes, they have skill but put those skills on a 6 foot, 175 lb player with a 30 inch vertical and you have a player who most likely doesn't even get drafted. Baseball is a skill sport. Athleticism helps, but you don't have to be bigger, stronger, and faster than your opponent to beat them. Few recent Cub players exemplify that more than Mark Grace and Greg Maddux. Sure, the NBA occasionally churns out a Steve Nash, but that is the exception. In baseball, it's commonplace to use superior skill and knowledge to outwit and overcome a physically superior player. If you like underdogs, then baseball is your game.
There are plenty of other reasons to like baseball. If you're a stat geek, no sport has better and more advanced statistical theory. If you are more in to the art of teaching, development, and evaluation then no game has a more sophisticated scouting and player development system. Baseball's farm systems are second to none when it comes to taking a player who initially lacks the skill to compete on the highest level and readily transforms them into everything from functional players to big-time superstars. Or...If you tend to wax nostalgic, no game is more storied than baseball.
The teams here in Chicago have a long way to go before they can create some history this season, but if there's any sport where a team can overcome the odds, it's baseball. And you won't want to miss it when it happens here -- especially on north side.
30 May, 2011
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Source: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/cubs-den/2011/05/no-bullbaseball-is-still-americas-greatest-game.html
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