Baseball gets called “boring” by people who expect it to behave like every other sport. The truth is, baseball is a unique sport. The season is long, and the games are long because it’s a game built to reward patience. If you think baseball is boring, chances are you’re just not watching it the right way.

We’ve trained ourselves to expect constant action. Football gives you roughness and strategy in short bursts. Basketball is a blur of motion, scoring, and noise. In recent years, social media has conditioned us to believe that if something doesn’t explode every ten seconds, it isn’t worth our time.

Baseball isn’t designed to spoon-feed you dopamine every second. It’s a game of tension, anticipation, and tiny decisions that contribute to a greater outcome. You can’t watch baseball with your eye only focused on the ball the whole time. You’re going to miss the point. The chess match between the batter and the pitcher only scratches the surface. There’s way more that goes into that than just a batter hitting a ball. There’s pitch selection, count leverage, defensive positioning, baserunner psychology, catcher framing behind the plate, and managerial gambles that may not pay off until a few innings later. Hitting a 95+ mph fastball is already considered one of the hardest skills in sports, as the hitter typically has less than 0.4 seconds to recognize the pitch, decide, and swing. In my opinion, that’s pretty extraordinary to watch. 

Baseball is Cumulative

Every pitch selection, every swing choice, every defensive alignment contributes to a larger narrative that develops over the course of a game. If you watch baseball only to see home runs, the game will indeed feel long.

The suspense and pressure accumulation is what makes the game so exciting for me. One small thing makes the next thing bigger. A run in the first inning can matter just as much as a run in the ninth. A “meaningless” game in April can actually mean a lot down the road in a pennant race. 

Baseball is cumulative in a way few sports are. Nothing disappears. The tension you feel in October is built from hundreds of tiny decisions made when no one thought they mattered. It’s not boring, it’s a kind of drama that rewards patience and attention.

The long season isn’t a drag

Some may think that 162 games is excessive, but it’s one of my favorite things about baseball. The reason why I love this so much is that there’s almost always going to be a game the next day. If your team loses one day, you don’t have to sit with that loss for too long. You have another game to look forward to tomorrow. 

Because the season is so long, teams have ups and downs, just like any sport. But with baseball, you get to ride with your team every day, whether they’re on top of the world or in a slump. Even if they’re going through those inevitable slumps, the principle of sticking with them and still tuning into every game is truly so rewarding. You will find true loyalty in that and feel like you were a part of their journey every step of the way once they get out of that slump.

The love of the game

My favorite thing about loving this sport is the memories that come with it. You might think, “You can make memories with any sport,” and of course, that may be true, but baseball is different. The magic of the game is something I haven’t seen in any other sport. The unpredictability of baseball, the possibility of a big inning happening no matter how steep the odds, and the suspense of a game that comes down to the last out all showcase just how special this game is. 

For this very reason, baseball gives me an overwhelming sense of joy that is hard to put into words. Beyond the homers, walk-offs, and perfect games that make baseball magical, the little things have always found a way to impress me as well. The memories you make at the stadium with family and friends are unforgettable.

This upcoming season, I hope that all “baseball is boring” believers can give the game another chance by watching it with a different set of eyes this time.