Since today is officially opening day for the vast majority of Major League teams, I figure now would be a good a time as any to describe why I like baseball so much as I often find myself having to defend the sport from people declaring it as “boring”.

1) I feel that there is perhaps no other game that is just so unique. I’m sure most folks out there will immediately argue that the NFL has surpassed baseball as being the national obsession and point to the fact that league that has become nation’s most popular professional sports league. While yes, this may certainly be true, I argue that football, like 99% of all team sports across the world, are all based around the same concept of taking a ball or puck and taking it across a field or court or rink into an opponent’s goal, end zone, or basket all within a defined period of time. Baseball however is completely different. There is no clock, there are no goals, and it’s one of only two team sports I can think of in which the defense holds the ball.

2) One might immediately argue that these first characteristics could also easily be applied to cricket, a game which predates baseball by hundreds of years. However here’s where I draw the distinction and come up with my second reason for loving the sport: Baseball has no defined field size. Sure the infield and foul line dimensions are the same everywhere you go, but otherwise the field can be designed however one wants. Outfield walls can be as far, close, near, or tall as one wants, and every major league park has a different variation with its own nuances. It’s the only team sport I can think of that literally has no defined “out of bounds” on a whole side of the field of play.

3) It’s probably one of the more laid back major sports out there in the world. The game has an infinite number of timeouts and no clock. While some may argue that this is a negative, the game can be as long or as short as needed.

4) This brings me to my fourth reason for loving the sport: It’s not only laid back, it also features the same high intensity atmosphere that every other major sport does. To me, the intensity of a tight playoff game is one of the most gripping times in the entirety of sports. The game has a relaxed atmosphere without sacrificing intensity.

5) Stats Stats and More Stats. It’s these little nuances that make the game so interesting to me. With even a rudimentary understanding of the stats and context of any situation, the game becomes even more interesting. While baseball certainly is the home of obscure, useless statistics like “Batting Average on a Tuesday in the Month of May in a Leap Year”, it also uses these same stats to create a deep and chronicled record of the sport that is hallowed in a way that is unmatched in any other sport. (Can you say Barry Bonds?)

With that, I’m off to watch the evening’s games.