Time and Baseball

As is often the case, I take my blogspiration from James at Independent Country who posts about baseball and why there is a seven game series instead of a one game playoff.

I am reminded of former Jamaican Prime Minister Manley’s observation about the length of cricket matches versus baseball games. To those who marvel at the five day duration of Test matches in cricket, Manley countered that baseball can be thought of as a marathon game as well. Even though there are discrete games of about three hours, baseball is often thought of and talked about, at least by aficionados, in terms of series. When the Red Sox come to the Bronx, fans and commentators think and talk in terms of the 2-5 games that these teams will play. We also think and talk in terms of “road trips” and “home stands” as well as “season series” with particular opponents. Ultimately, baseball can be thought about and talked about in terms of entire 162 game regular seasons. In a real sense, baseball takes 162 days to play!

The individual game may or may not be the appropriate unit of thought or discussion any more than an individual inning, at bat, or pitch. Baseball is all about the long haul, and blind chance and luck tend to even out in the game. To the initiated, any particular at bat must be seen in the context of all the previous encounters between the pitcher and the batsman as well as the current situation. This is why baseball fans are seemingly obsessed with “statistics”. The stats are proxy for the history embedded in the moment. And this history may well extend beyond the present season. The entire spans of history between teams, even where all the personnel are completely changed, can also matter. The storied history of the Red Sox and Yankees matters and is reflected in recruiting and team building as well as its impact on the players. Baseball can be about generations as well as seasons.