One way the MLB beats the NFL & CFB – Shower Thought
By Andy Thompson, ESPN 977
How great was it watching 100,000 Tennessee fans spill onto the field at Neyland Stadium after beating Nick Saban for the first time since 2006?
Amazing game that came down to a couple of field goals. Alabama missed theirs. Tennessee made theirs. Fine, still an exciting game.
The NFL kicks 60 field goals a week, and the majority of close games seem to be decided by a field goal.
Tom Brady has won 7 super bowls, but how many times did he actually make the last shot? The buzzer beater was usually hit by Adam Vinatieri or somebody else.
NFL kickers have made 84% of kicks so far this year and 75% of kicks from 50 yards plus. They're too good. Kicking has become too important.
College basketball, Duke vs UNC in the Final Four last year. The most exciting matchup in years, Coach K's last game etc... It was a free throw fest. They shot 44 free throws. 10 free throws in the last 61 seconds. Can you think of a close college basketball game that didn't come down to a million free throws at the end?
World Cup soccer...PKs decide a lot of the most important matches: 2018 World Cup in Russia, four matches including Russia and Croatia quarterfinals went to PKs, 2014 four games including a semi final, World Cup and Premier League finals are consistently decided by PKs...the game itself stops, and the winner is determined by something else. In football it's field goals, basketball free throws, soccer and hockey, shootouts.
Major League baseball beats all of these sports in this one way: they play baseball the whole game! Pitcher, batter, fielders. That's the game. They don't march in somebody to kick the ball in the bottom of the ninth. They don't have a "bunt-off" if they can't get a winner in 120 minutes, they keep playing baseball. And for all the crap baseball gets about being boring or too long, at least they don't kick field goals.