Can football do this?

[Tx Oriole]

See, I just couldn't disagree more. When I was a kid I was almost as much a Redskins fan as a Orioles fan. But you know what happened when both teams got real bad for a real long time? I stopped watching the NFL, but my interest in baseball never really waned. It fell off a bit the last few years of the 14-year skid, but nothing like the NFL. The Redskins awfulness just highlighted the flaws in the NFL. The ridiculous, constant hyperhype machine. The exploding transformers on every cut to commercial. The Up With People Dancers and WWF/Monster Truck-levels of halftime absurdity. The willful ignorance of the announcers: a pretty complicated game is relentlessly marketed as a bunch of southern farm boys drawing plays in the dirt and gettin' 'er done. PED abuse on levels that would make Bonds blush (either that or a whole new branch of human evolution, since linemen have grown by about 30% over the past 20 years). Former players dying in their 40s and 50s of old-age diseases and nobody really cares.

I look at the NFL as a kind of bubblegum pop music, or high-budget Hollywood action film. Constant big-budget marketing of something hollow and fake.

And actually, I've long been a huge college football fan, but even that's fading away. Tech lost pretty badly today, as they did last week, and it didn't even phase me. It's gotten to the point where I can watch football, and enjoy it, but I don't think I really even like the idea of football. If that makes any sense.

I like baseball. I have watched the NFL some. To see a running back run three damn plays right into the middle of a pile of bodies and

not make a foot just seemed so stupid to me. Sorry, I don't want to insult folks that like football but I just can't grab a hold of that sport very much.

[El Gordo]

I see baseball as watching a favorite soap opera. It's every day and something happens good or bad to your favorite characters. It's a part of your daily routine and the players are like friends and neighbors. There is a thread of story that runs through the whole season, and if it's a successful one like last season, the last month or so becomes as exciting as a hot Min series Like Deadwood, West Wing, The Singing Detctive, or Twin Peaks,etc. Football is like to hot mini series, you can't wait for next week's episode. I've been watching the O's since 1955, so they are a part on my family. Iwatched the Colts untill they were stolen, so they are like a close friend who passed a way some years ago. Now I watch the Ravens like a great mini series that starts after the WS is over.

[Tony-OH]

I can never understand the mentality that you have to be a fan of one over the other. To me, I'm die hard Orioles AND die hard Ravens. I love them both and bleed when either goes down.

This weekend was just awesome. FanFest on Saturday and the Ravens head to the SuperBowl on Sunday. Its step one to the Ravens and Orioles both winning it all in 2013!

This is how I feel. I'm a baseball guy obviously. I've played it, coached it, scouted it, commentate about it, and write about it. I run a site dedicated to a professional team associated with the sport. I love just about everything that has to do about the game, the nuances, the strategy, the anticipation, the pressure packed one on one matchups and the fact that the single hardest thing to do in professional sports is to hit a baseball thrown from a professional pitcher.

Saying that, I love football and I love the Ravens. I love the buildup to the one game a week, I love the second guessing of calls, the mind-blowingly detailed analysis that can be done for just about every situation and the pure speed and violence of the game.

I guess at the end of the day, I'm just glad I don't have to pick because I couldn't imagine spring and summer without baseball like I couldn't imagine fall and winter without football.

[TonySoprano]

In America, football is king. And there seem to be more passionate Ravens fans around than there are passionate Orioles fans.

But I wonder, can football really do what baseball can do? There is something about playing almost every single day, the way that pennant races develop, and the way a game is never over until the last out is made, that to me does things for a fan base in a city that football simply can't do. It's partly just the rhythm of playing almost every day for six months as opposed to playing once a week for 17 weeks, with a week off thrown in for good measure. It's partly the fact that even good teams can go on losing streaks, and bad teams on winning streaks, that can last for quite a while. It's the fact that no baseball team, no matter how good, wins 75% of its games, and no bad team loses 75%. It's the streaky, fluky nature of the game.

I don't know if I am articulating this very well, but it seems to me that even though football is the more popular game, baseball has a capacity to capture a city's imagination at a deeper, more day to day level. Sure, you can talk at the water cooler on Monday about how Sunday's football game went, but by Tuesday there's nothing more to say. But in baseball, there's a whole new game to discuss. And, it's easier to discuss, because the strategies of the game are more apparent to the average fan and the individual performances are less interdependent. Football is way more complicated for an average fan to really analyze, even though we pretend otherwise.

The Orioles have captured nobody's imagination or attention for 14 years, but they certainly have now, and for me, it's just a different experience than what football provides, and it gets ingrained in you in a deeper way.

Am I off base here, Raven/Redskins fans?

Yeah, you're off base Obviously the target audience you're playing to here is baseball fans first, otherwise this would be Ravens Hangout.com. However, one loss during the football season looms much more larger than one loss or even one series loss in baseball. Sudden death is not a concept in baseball. The last three weeks have been win or go home for the Ravens. In the October series vs. the Yankees, we lost the opener, but we weren't done.

Honestly, I don't get the need to have this discussion. It's like asking which one of your kids you love more. Go Orioles! Go Ravens!

[Dipper9]

I like baseball. I have watched the NFL some. To see a running back run three damn plays right into the middle of a pile of bodies and

not make a foot just seemed so stupid to me. Sorry, I don't want to insult folks that like football but I just can't grab a hold of that sport very much.

Is it any more insulting than a batter swinging at three balls outside in the dirt and missing all three, then going back into the dugout to chew some bubble gum?

[Dipper9]

Yeah, you're off base Obviously the target audience you're playing to here is baseball fans first, otherwise this would be Ravens Hangout.com. However, one loss during the football season looms much more larger than one loss or even one series loss in baseball. Sudden death is not a concept in baseball. The last three weeks have been win or go home for the Ravens. In the October series vs. the Yankees, we lost the opener, but we weren't done.

Honestly, I don't get the need to have this discussion. It's like asking which one of your kids you love more. Go Orioles! Go Ravens!

Gotta spread it around yadda yadda yadda.

[luismatos4prez]

I like baseball. I have watched the NFL some. To see a running back run three damn plays right into the middle of a pile of bodies and

not make a foot just seemed so stupid to me. Sorry, I don't want to insult folks that like football but I just can't grab a hold of that sport very much.

I know. I wish they would let teams use a forward pass or something.

[WEAVERMAN]

In America, football is king. And there seem to be more passionate Ravens fans around than there are passionate Orioles fans.

But I wonder, can football really do what baseball can do? There is something about playing almost every single day, the way that pennant races develop, and the way a game is never over until the last out is made, that to me does things for a fan base in a city that football simply can't do. It's partly just the rhythm of playing almost every day for six months as opposed to playing once a week for 17 weeks, with a week off thrown in for good measure. It's partly the fact that even good teams can go on losing streaks, and bad teams on winning streaks, that can last for quite a while. It's the fact that no baseball team, no matter how good, wins 75% of its games, and no bad team loses 75%. It's the streaky, fluky nature of the game.

I don't know if I am articulating this very well, but it seems to me that even though football is the more popular game, baseball has a capacity to capture a city's imagination at a deeper, more day to day level. Sure, you can talk at the water cooler on Monday about how Sunday's football game went, but by Tuesday there's nothing more to say. But in baseball, there's a whole new game to discuss. And, it's easier to discuss, because the strategies of the game are more apparent to the average fan and the individual performances are less interdependent. Football is way more complicated for an average fan to really analyze, even though we pretend otherwise.

The Orioles have captured nobody's imagination or attention for 14 years, but they certainly have now, and for me, it's just a different experience than what football provides, and it gets ingrained in you in a deeper way.

Am I off base here, Raven/Redskins fans?

Agreed, football is more popular for a few reasons, two of which are gambling and the fact it's played only once a week, requiring much less of your time than baseball. But to your point, baseball's a unique, irreplaceable game.

[atomic]

People are stupid. If you ask people, the majority will say they like Leno over Letterman. They'd rather watch Big Bang Theory over Community. American Idol was one of the most popular shows.

People are stupid because they don't like the same thing as you?

[atomic]

I love going to baseball games but the last two ravens games were pretty exciting. Why does everything have to be compared as to what is better? I enjoy football, baseball and hockey.

[Scrat1]

The Ravens' playoff run has been amazing, and I'm really enjoying it, but the Orioles playoff run was on a totally different level. Part of this may be that I prefer baseball, but the bigger reason I'm sure is that the Ravens were expected to be good while obviously the Orioles were not.

[El Gordo]

Agreed, football is more popular for a few reasons, two of which are gambling and the fact it's played only once a week, requiring much less of your time than baseball. But to your point, baseball's a unique, irreplaceable game.

Gambling yes, but also football was developed and popularized by TV. Baseball was the National pastime before TV or radio, and it resists both mediums somewhat to this day. I like that.

[Tx Oriole]

Is it any more insulting than a batter swinging at three balls outside in the dirt and missing all three, then going back into the dugout to chew some bubble gum?

I think you misunderstood me. I just don't care for football that much. The times i have tried to watch I would see that play not work. I would get bored. I was just trying to apologize to folks that like football more. I did not want what I said to be harsh or insulting to

those that like football.

[jamalshw]

Since we're on the topic, I wonder if I'm alone in my thoughts on football. I am a fantasy football fan, not an 'actual' football fan. I actually have not watched a game since week 16 (my fantasy Super Bowl in all my leagues). Now, I have seen highlights and know what's going on, but that's about it. Are there any others out there like that?

I love baseball and can/will watch regardless of who is playing. Nothing is better to me than sitting in the stands watching a game with peanuts, a dog, a beer and my scorecard.

[Guest rochester]

I am still confused. Have always been a huge O's fan... and always liked the Colts until the midnight run (although Indy is ok). But I have never warmed to the Ravens and, strange enough, I think it was because of Brian Billick, which, if it wasn't me, would be one of the more ignorant reasons I have heard. IDK, there was something just over the top arrogant that bothered me, and saw it in the team. Strange enough, I am starting to like them again with Harbaugh...