In world of sports, a diamond is forever

T.O., tight ends, Allen Iverson, alley-oops - I'm tired of hearing about it.

I want basket catches and bases on balls, set-up men and seventh-inning stretches.

I want Major League Baseball because, with the possible exception of college basketball, it's the best sport in America - period.

And I'll tell you why.

Baseball is the only sport where the defense has the ball.

Baseball is the only sport where it's considered appropriate to play with a gargantuan wad of tobacco in one's mouth.

Baseball is the only sport where it's OK to be an inch from an umpire's face when arguing a call, and even to take a base after being ejected.

Baseball is the sport of summer and thus synonymous with all things good in life. The scene in "The Sandlot" where the boys watch Benny's home run silhouetted against Fourth of July fireworks while Ray Charles sings "America the Beautiful" in the background says it all.

What's more, baseball is the only sport in America that has a real history.

By the time James Naismith invented basketball in 1891, the National League had been in existence for 15 years, two other leagues had already come and gone and a fourth was in its ninth season.

Baseball was invented before the Civil War.

One thing people like to criticize baseball players for is a lack of athletic ability. Obviously, they've never heard how hitting a baseball is the single hardest thing to do in sports.

And "hardest" is putting it mildly. Hitting a spherical ball traveling 95 miles per hour with a cylindrical bat is almost a mathematical impossibility.

If you can do it just three out of every 10 times, you're called a great hitter - four out of 10 and you'd be the first person to do it in 64 years.

Even His Airness, perhaps the greatest athlete of all time, couldn't hack it. In one season with the Birmingham (Ala.) Barons he averaged a deplorable .202 at the plate - and that was against double-A pitching.

Another famous gripe about baseball is that it's too slow.

While I'm not sure that complaints about the game's length still are valid given that college football games now occasionally last more than four hours, I will say that baseball's speed, or lack thereof, is what gives it its grace.

Pitching and hitting are art forms, and those who have mastered them are beautiful to watch. From Dontrelle Willis' leg kick to Mickey Mantle's swing, the whole sight is more sophisticated than two bloated linemen crashing awkwardly into each other.

So please, I understand that the start of football is exciting and basketball will quickly follow, but for just another month or so - pipe down.

I'm trying to enjoy the pennant race.

 

Contact Al Killeffer at killeffa@email.unc.edu.