GIFs of the Week - Week 2

We're starting a new weekly post to fit in with the rest of the internet's fascination with that short little, repeating clip - the GIF. Below are four GIFs that appropriately capture the idiocy that is April baseball and two that buck the trend.


What this season is going to feel like for all Cubs fans expecting 80+ wins:

 

Things That Suck About the Greatest Game in the World

This article ran over at our brother blog, Six Points Down, a Chicago sports and pop culture blog, on Monday, March 25. Since this article is about baseball and we here at GhostRide seem to like baseball, here's the article for your reading pleasure:

Baseball starts in 5 days. I repeat; baseball starts in 5 days. I played baseball for 15 years, and have been a White Sox fan for my whole life. No, seriously, my dad agreed to raise me and my sisters Catholic as long as we were raised White Sox fans. So, clearly, baseball holds a really special place in my heart. But while I’m always excited for baseball season, there seems to be an excessive amount of negativity baseball in general this year. As the season sets to start Sunday night with a wonderful opening night match up of the Texas Rangers, who are good, against the newly American League Houston Astros, who are horrendous, I thought long and hard about some things that the MLB could do to truly revive this game we love as the American Pastime.

Issue #1: The Pace of a Baseball Game

We get it, baseball can be boring sometimes.

Most people who don’t like baseball complain right off the bat- it’s boring! And to be completely fair and honest, while I disagree completely, I can understand the argument. Even during my playing days, I loved playing catcher because you were involved in every single pitch, as opposed to left field, where you could go a whole game with only 2 plays coming your way. For the casual fan who doesn’t understand pitch selections, hit and runs, and other baseball strategy, spending 3 plus hours watching a baseball game may seem like a waste of time. With the rise in popularity of hockey and its lightning fast pace, hitting, and goal celebrations, fans find themselves less and less interested in the deliberate pace of a baseball game.

The thing is, casual fans are never going to understand pitch selections, or advanced metrics, or the pros and cons of trying to steal second base. But what the MLB can do is institute some measures to make the game more enjoyable, and move at a better pace for the casual fan. Then hopefully we can stop Red Sox-Yankees games from lasting almost 4 hours.