What was the highest level of baseball that you played?

[DrungoHazewood]

15 hours ago, atomic said:

Soccer is much more fun to play than baseball.

It is possible to play baseball/softball while actively consuming both a beer and a cigarette, as I've witnessed my friend JP do.  You probably don't want to do that with soccer.

[atomic]

6 hours ago, weams said:

Not only that, but he is wrong.

It's mostly about how long you can endure running around. Think marathoning. 

 

 

As opposed to 

I am right baseball is boring to play.  I enjoy playing basketball but don't enjoy watching basketball.  But just think if you are in the outfield you might not get a ball hit to you in several innings and you might not get at bat for 2 innings straight.  Bunch of standing and sitting around.   I can only imagine how boring being a DH would be.  Pitching and catching would be the exception though.  

[DrungoHazewood]

22 minutes ago, atomic said:

I am right baseball is boring to play.  I enjoy playing basketball but don't enjoy watching basketball.  But just think if you are in the outfield you might not get a ball hit to you in several innings and you might not get at bat for 2 innings straight.  Bunch of standing and sitting around.   I can only imagine how boring being a DH would be.  Pitching and catching would be the exception though.  

I think adults can handle standing around the outfield for innings at a time with nothing going on.  But kids... I've had threads here before recounting my experience with my children's Little League experiences.  There were kids at the 7-9 age level who were a little below average and their games consisted of standing around in RF the whole game, possibly fielding a grounder that went throught the second baseman's legs in the 4th inning, and striking out three times.  It's no wonder Fortnight and Minecraft win out.  Of course that's not everyone or all the time, but that happened frequently.

At least in soccer you get to sprint around the field for the better part of an hour, run into other players, kick the ball, and usually go home sweaty, tired and dirty.  You can legitimately say you played.

I don't think it's too communist to acknowledge that baseball has a challenge keeping a lot of players engaged and involved.

[Ohfan67]

Backyard baseball with a tennis ball was a lot more fun than organized little league when I was a kid. You got to bat 15+ times, hit ten or more home runs, and you could bean your buddies in the head while they were running the bases to get an out. I agree that little kid soccer is more fun than little league and especially younger baseball, but backyard ball was pretty great. 

[now]

8 hours ago, atomic said:

I am right baseball is boring to play.  I enjoy playing basketball but don't enjoy watching basketball.  But just think if you are in the outfield you might not get a ball hit to you in several innings and you might not get at bat for 2 innings straight.  Bunch of standing and sitting around.   I can only imagine how boring being a DH would be.  Pitching and catching would be the exception though.  

Not to hijack the thread to Manny, but didn't he comment once (at an All-Star game) that he found baseball boring to watch?

[atomic]

12 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

It is possible to play baseball/softball while actively consuming both a beer and a cigarette, as I've witnessed my friend JP do.  You probably don't want to do that with soccer.

That reminds me of my kickball days playing first base with a beer in my hand.  

[DrungoHazewood]

15 hours ago, Ohfan67 said:

Backyard baseball with a tennis ball was a lot more fun than organized little league when I was a kid. You got to bat 15+ times, hit ten or more home runs, and you could bean your buddies in the head while they were running the bases to get an out. I agree that little kid soccer is more fun than little league and especially younger baseball, but backyard ball was pretty great. 

I sometimes lament the fact that I barely played organized Little League, but I played hundreds, if not thousands, of games just like you describe.  I know there were summer days where I batted 40-50 times and scored 35 runs.  I for years I really did keep stats on graph paper that I posted on my parent's fridge.  I guarantee you I wouldn't have hit .951 with 120 homers in real Little League in 1982.  I probably would have been batting 7th and playing right field, praying the second baseman lets a ball go through his legs so I had something to do.  

[DrungoHazewood]

8 hours ago, now said:

Not to hijack the thread to Manny, but didn't he comment once (at an All-Star game) that he found baseball boring to watch?

Who among us regularly watches the O's without cell phones, computers, Orioles Hangout game threads, regular trips to the bathroom and the fridge, perhaps an adult beverage or three?

Manny and a lot of others would be much more interested in the 2-hour baseball of 1920, full of contact and baserunning and triples and inside-the-park-homers, and a solid four strikeouts a game for both teams combined (four including the pitchers "hitting").  Baseball wasn't meant to be four hours of strikeouts and home run derby.

[PaulFolk]

On 12/31/2018 at 3:31 PM, vatech1994 said:

The best player I ever played against was Delino Deshields who I played quite a few times.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/deshide02.shtml

...

The best player I every played with was Tim Barker.  He was our SS at WiHi (Wicomico) and graduated my sophomore year.  He was amazing.  Outstanding hands, great arm, great eye, and damn could he hit.  Great guy too.  I was certain he was going to be a pro player.  He went to VCU out of high school, was drafted in the 6th round, and got all the way to AAA for six seasons but never got so much as a game in the majors despite pretty solid MiL statistics.  He had 3300 MiL AB.  I followed him religiously when he was playing and my heart broke for him when he didn’t make it.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?ID=71297

Funnily enough, two of the three players you mentioned were either traded away or acquired by Dan Duquette. He was the Expos' GM when they traded DeShields to the Dodgers for Pedro Martinez, and when they acquired Tim Barker from the Dodgers for Tim Wallach.

[VaBird1]

On 1/2/2019 at 11:13 PM, now said:

Not to hijack the thread to Manny, but didn't he comment once (at an All-Star game) that he found baseball boring to watch?

Bryce Harper did, not sure about Manny.

[VaBird1]

On 1/2/2019 at 2:55 PM, atomic said:

I am right baseball is boring to play.  I enjoy playing basketball but don't enjoy watching basketball.  But just think if you are in the outfield you might not get a ball hit to you in several innings and you might not get at bat for 2 innings straight.  Bunch of standing and sitting around.   I can only imagine how boring being a DH would be.  Pitching and catching would be the exception though.  

Tony Bautista, You shouldn’t be “standing around”.  Even in the outfield.

[now]

1 hour ago, VaBird1 said:

Bryce Harper did, not sure about Manny.

Pretty sure Manny did; didn't know that about Harper. Oh well, lucky for them they get to play and not just watch... until their DH days at the end of their megacontracts, that is...

[drdelaware]

II played organized rec ball until last year.  Finished up at age 50 playing in the Roy Hobbs annual tournament in Florida.  My arm just finally gave out.  

[Tony-OH]

If you find baseball boring to play or can play it either a beer and a cigarette in your hand, you either suck at the sport, don't understand the strategy of the sport, or are playing against such sub par talent that it is truly boring. 

Baseball is a game where you need to know the strengths and weaknesses of the players in order to truly understand the strategy behind the game. 

I was never bored during a game except in those rare times my pitcher couldn't throw a strike and it was a walk fest. But again, that came with playing with sub par talent. 

I can understand that baseball is not the constant action of basketball or the immediate action of football, but soccer? You mean watching guys run around for 90 minutes with the time going forward which may or may not be the actual time only to win 1-0 or perhaps tie us more fun to play? I played both growing up and there we never a time I said "Man, i wish soccer was all year around."

I've also never met a guy who was good at baseball but preferred to play soccer. Not staying they don't exist, but they are as rare as a Chris Davis good at bat.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

If you find baseball boring to play or can play it either a beer and a cigarette in your hand, you either suck at the sport, don't understand the strategy of the sport, or are playing against such sub par talent that it is truly boring. 

Baseball is a game where you need to know the strengths and weaknesses of the players in order to truly understand the strategy behind the game. 

I was never bored during a game except in those rare times my pitcher couldn't throw a strike and it was a walk fest. But again, that came with playing with sub par talent. 

I can understand that baseball is not the constant action of basketball or the immediate action of football, but soccer? You mean watching guys run around for 90 minutes with the time going forward which may or may not be the actual time only to win 1-0 or perhaps tie us more fun to play? I played both growing up and there we never a time I said "Man, i wish soccer was all year around."

I've also never met a guy who was good at baseball but preferred to play soccer. Not staying they don't exist, but they are as rare as a Chris Davis good at bat.

I’ll just say, it’s subjective.   Different strokes for different folks.    I far prefer baseball, whether watching or playing.   If someone else prefers soccer, c’est la vie.