Baseball, America’s Pastime: Boring??

I was sitting in the back row of a company wide meeting the other day and the women giving the presentation said “Let’s not be boring, boring is baseball, baseball goes on and on and on and is just so boring, as a company, let’s not be baseball.”  Obviously, once I heard her mention baseball, my ears opened just a little more.  I began processing her words in my head and thinking why does baseball and the word boring seem to find each other in a sentence.

So I politely raised my hand to ask a simple question “why do you feel baseball is so boring?”

Sept. 19, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; A selection of major-league baseball gloves are seen in the dugout before a game between the Atlanta Braves and the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Without any hesitation, I interrupted her opening comments back to my question, “The stick, the ball, the field, the players are all just a small part of what baseball really is.  Baseball teaches life lessons you can’t learn elsewhere.  You gain leadership skills, team working ability, patience, adversity, respect, work ethic and so much more.”

I went on explaining my reasoning for my outburst “The sport is not boring, every pitch matters, and within every pitch, the difference between a homerun and a strikeout is an inch and a half, a play at first base or home plate can be inches away for the opposite call.  Need drama?  September and October baseball can be some of the most on the edge of your seat moments in all of sports.  Also, players are always talking back and forth to each other and don’t let an umpire make the wrong call.”

“Before the television, the Internet and video gaming; baseball was what kids played and what most would talk about.  Is the world becoming to technically advanced to understand a simple sport, a game, America’s pastime?”

I proclaimed, “Baseball is referred by many as a great teacher of life.  You see the curveball in life because of the lessons picked up while enjoying this great game.  The game of baseball can teach us so many important things about life – never give up, failure is part of life, soak in the moment that’s ahead of you, one step in front of the other, focus on only what you can control and to be yourself.”

Then, I sneezed and realized I wasn’t saying any of this aloud.  Everything I said was true but nothing was getting to our presenter.  Maybe I’ll send an email and enlighten her on my thoughts on why exactly baseball isn’t boring; she’s only the Vice President of our company.  Or maybe I should ask what that meeting was about….