I think Baseball is the stupidest mainstream sport. If Earth was threatened by aliens and we presented baseball as a large part of our culture, I think they would kill us all of right then. The general premise could be created by a caveman: use a stick to hit a ball, however, the millions of rules and game design oddity make it very confusing.
I can’t say I am an avid fan of baseball myself, though I do respect its ability to create odd situations and statistical hilarity/insanity. I mean in what other sport can someone achieve an elite single game accomplishment (no hitter) while under the effects of LSD. Only baseball. What other sport can you be considered an “athlete” and look like Bartolo Colon? Probably only baseball and bowling. I am not the type of person to root for a baseball team or watch a full game and even most of the highlights are just okay, yet the accomplishments that have come out of baseball are fascinating. Barry Bonds home run record is an amazing athletic achievement and Bob Gibson’s 1968 ERA is unbelievable – Baseball is like one huge social experiment.
When you make a game as simple as baseball there is generally little room to innovate, although, this limited mobility is where I feel creativity is the most encouraged. Its the little weird things that have changed that are so interesting to me: the bunt, the intentional walk and pitching over the years. Unlike other sports a lot of baseball records are kind of set in stone due to many of these small changes. It seems like every decade before the 2000s there was always some guy who came in and did things differently than every player before him and then when he was out of the league, nobody could replicate his specific niche talents. There was a time period when Rickey Henderson was getting more steals than entire teams, in one hundred years of the sport nobody has ever even been close to him. Guys used steroids to blast 55+ home runs a year and all of their records are still standing as an unachievable relic. You used to be able to spit on the baseball and rub it in mud before you pitched it and literally nobody ever scored I don’t know why this sport was so in demand for so many years.
The history of the sport is ugly and weird and full of so many entertaining stories. I don’t think its a product I will ever consume on a regular basis but something I will continue to enjoy the ongoing history of. It was really cool to fake being a Cubs fan when they broke their title drought a few years back. Hopefully this opportunities continue to arise.