Baseball - It's Unique Tribute to the World of Sports

Baseball and Its Uniqueness
1. "The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and what could be again." – Terrence Mann

2. Baseball is the only sport where coaches support the team enough to wear the uniform as well.

3. In baseball, if you miss a game, you only have to wait one day to watch the next one.

4. Other sporting arenas are identical. But all baseball parks are unique.

5. In baseball, the visitor bats first (courtesy), while the host bats last (for drama).

6. Baseball statistics open a whole new world to us.

7. Baseball has no penalties at all.

8. “Of all major team sports, baseball alone acknowledges perfect games in its record book.” – Good Reading magazine

9. Baseball is the only sport in which the defense controls the ball.

10. Baseball is the only sport capable of being played every single season. From Spring Training to the Regular Season, and from the Playoffs to Winter Ball Leagues.

11. Baseball is the only sport in which fans can catch a game-used ball and keep it as a souvenir.

12. “Baseball is the only endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.” – Ted Williams

13. Baseball is the only sport when “Let’s play two!” is heard.

14. Physics argues that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports.

15. “A baseball park is the one place where a man’s wife doesn’t mind his getting excited over somebody else’s curves.” – Brendan Francis

16. Baseball has the MLBPA, the Major League Baseball Players Association, a union that has represented its members better than any other sport.

17. There is only one sport that is referred to as the “National Pastime.”

18. “Baseball is the most intellectual game because most of the action goes on in your head.” – Henry Kissinger

19. Baseball demands perfection when played. The weather must be perfect – no rain.

20. Baseball is a gentleman’s sport. Name one other sport where players wear a belt, modest pants, AND tuck their shirt in.

21. Baseball is the only sport in which Instant Replays are kept to the absolute minimum.

22. “You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all.” - Earl Weaver

23. Baseball is the first sport to have integrated races to play on the same team – Jackie Robinson.

24. Baseball is the only sport to make use of a farm system, thanks to Branch Rickey.

25. How many TV timeouts do you see in Baseball?

26. Baseball honors its Hall of Famers during their Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony like no other sport.

27. Baseball has the best fans in the world. What other sports have fans who have cheered for their team who has not won a Championship in over 100 years?

28. Baseball relies on consistency. One bad game can easily be made up the very next day.

29. “It is impossible to isolate and objectively assess the contribution each [football] team member makes to the outcome of the play. [E]very basketball player is interacting with all of his teammates all the time. In baseball, by contrast, every player is more or less on his own. Baseball is therefore a realm of complete transparency and total responsibility. A baseball player lives in a glass house, and in a stark moral universe.... Everything that every player does is accounted for and everything accounted for is either good or bad, right or wrong.” – Michael Mandelbaum