What do Americans find so fascinating about baseball?
350673
baseball is the only sport where you can fail 3 out of 10 times and still be considered successful,  besides what is there not to like about baseball. Trying to hit a round ball with a round bat, an inch is the difference between a homerun and a pop up. A sport where strength has nothing to do with your success. Baseball is a real life chess game between teams. I guess if youre into football and all the hitting then youlle be dissapointed by attempting to watch 9 innings of baseball. But baseball is just one of the sports you cant pick up right away and just be good, even if you are a natural athlete, and a players strongest attribute is his head, the real game of numbers. A pitcher can throw a no hitter and still lose, i can just sit here all day and think about what really makes me love baseball. and the guys like pujols, smoltz, clemens is what really make people love the game.
380214
Baseball is being played and loved for years in the US. It certainly would be a extremely remote possibility if Cricket could ever come remotely close to Baseball in the US in terms of popularity.\n\nHowever, you would find cricket being played in most parts of the country with immigrants from England, West Indies, South Asisn region and others.\n\nWith shorter versions of cricket like the 20-20, it might certainly gain some visibility in the US very soon.
220403
I always use wikipedia as one of my first stops when researching a new topic.  Here is wikipedia's site on Baseball:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball\n\nThey have a few diagrams, but the exact date that baseball was invented will be hard to come by, here is wikipedia's description;\n\nAlthough the origins and evolution of the various bat-and-ball games are murky, baseball is primarily an American invention. However, many believe that it originated as an adaptation of the game of rounders, and was also influenced by the rules of cricket."\n\nAnother site you might find usefull is the 'about.com' site:\n\nhttp://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbaseball.htm\n\nIt seems to be the general consensus that Baseball was derived from the game 'rounders', and it's exact invention date is not known.  Abner Doubleday was mistakenly given credit for inventing the sport, but it is likely that he is not the true inventor.  This site has a pretty good description:\n\nhttp://www.historybuff.com/library/refearlybase.html\n\nThis is what this site says:\n\n"Tom Heitz of the National Baseball Library in Cooperstown, New York, said in a phone interview recently that the Hall of Fame recognizes September, 1845 as the time when the rules of the game we know as baseball were first set down. They were adopted by the New York Knickerbockers..."\n\nThese site may be a good starting point for getting the information you need.
306167
Look no further than the true american sport...\nFootball (both NFL, College, and High School)\nThousands of Americans pack into stadiums each weekend for the events.
850743
Here are two really good pages to explain it for an American. The second is good and uses baseball as a comparison, so you can compare it to something you know.\nhttp://www.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ABOUT_CRICKET/EXPLANATION/CRICKET_EXPLAINED_AMERICAN.html\n\nhttp://members.tripod.com/~sccwa/crick.html
1059579
Baseball.  It's more interesting to watch.  And baseball is pretty much worldwide too.
589536
No.\n\nAmericans have invented many sports but they are not always the best at them.\n\nLook at basketball.  Who won the last world basketball championship?  Wasn't it Argentina?  And the U.S. came in like 5th.  And the Olympics?\n\nLook at baseball.  The South Koreans won that recently.\n\nLook at volleyball.  No idea who won the last time they had a worldly competition but I'm sure it wasn't the U.S. in the mens' anyway.\n\nIt's true Americans have very good individual players but team and cohesiveness are more important sometimes.
467113
BASEBALL IS NOT ENTERTAINING.\nYOU HAVE TO WAIT ALL THE DAY TO WATCH A HOME RUN..\nTIRING BOWLING AND MISSING GAME..\nTHE GUYS PLAY AGAIN AND AGAIN TO DECIDE A WIN.\nBUT CRICKET HAS THE THRILL,SUSPENSE,UNPREDICTION.\nCRICKET IS CLEARLY ENTERTAINING.
637450
I LOVE baseball, we even go to our granddaughter's games sometimes.  I loved watching the old Wash. Senators play so many years ago.  We have minor league where I live now and am looking forward to seeing some games.\n\nBaseball is an American tradition and has always been known as American as "hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet".\n\nWhen you say the pitcher fails to hit the ball, he only hits the ball when he's at bat.  Obviously, you know less about baseball than I do of football.
342605
Baseball (or baseball players) is a very superstitious game. People do weird stuff in their believe that it will help their team win.
63433
If they had a new show on tv about amateur wrestling, maybe it would get some people interested. Americans are mostly interested in professional sports. The school football or basketball team is included because these guys can be recruited into the pros. Other than that, people aren't really interested in amateur sports.\n\nI've watched it sometimes, but I don't know all the rules and  so it gets confusing and then boring for me after a while. Maybe other folks feel the same way.
603046
I like baseball.  Its one of the only team sports where an individual is credited for winning or losing a game.  Its it suspenseful (most of the time).  You don't need to play close attention to the enitre game.  It fu8n to cheer for your team, and its the most fulfilling when your team wins the world series.  I'd rather my team win the world series then and other sport.
144032
In the mid 1800s when baseball became popular, it was something for people to pass what free time they had. The more industrial a society, the more free time the citizens have. Baseball's history is entwined with the proliferation of a working class who needed entertainment whether playing or cheering. They didn't have televisions or radios, and allowed different towns cities and communities to interact with one another in a social competitive environment.
528487
I love watching the Pro Bowl and the All Star Game for Baseball. I think it is such a great way to see the greatest people from each division go face to face, and see how they match up. It is also great to watch how the fans vote, and who has big fan bases. I don't really watch other events, but I do love watching those two. As for rotating, I like how it rotates in baseball, because of all the great parks, but as for football, it is kind of part of the fun that it is in Hawaii.
481302
baseball does not require anywhere near the degree of athletisim that sports like basketball, football and soccer do. What makes the game interesting is the matchups and strategy that you come to see only when you have a good grasp of the game. The most important of these is the pitching. How the pitcher mixes and chooses the placement of his pitches and the types of pitches he throws. I can understand how someone wouldn't like baseball its an aquired taste
370061
I believe that it is the nature of America.  We like movies with explosions and quick action.  We love sports that have a lot of scoring like basketball.  Soccer is boring to us, we don’t appreciate 0-0 ties.  Also, our athletes here tend to be better suited for stop and go sports.  Like sprinting rather than marathon running, football and baseball, where the action stops constantly and we can have commercials.  Having said that, I could see soccer becoming bigger, as young kids here are playing it more and more so we’ll see.  Plus the last world cup brought together a great deal of people in America b/c we actually won something for once.
1125685
because the united states has real sports