Reading Paul’s blog earlier this week made me think of why the best time of the year is playoff baseball. Growing up, I played both pick-up games, and organized baseball from the time I was 6 years old till after 26 years old. With that, here are my five reasons (not in any order) as to why I think baseball is the best sport … period.

1. 27 Outs:

To win a game you must get 27 outs. Which means the other team and your team have 27 chances to score runs. With those 27 at bats, you can score zero runs, one run, ten runs or 50 runs. No score is safe; I’ve watched games where the home team is losing and last at batter has two strikes and there are two outs and with that last pitch, hit a home run to win the game. The pitcher can’t hide the ball, or walk everyone, he has to get 27 outs, no less.   You can’t stall, or run the ball to take time off the clock, you have to get 27 outs!

1. Any player can be MVP (Most Valuable Player):

Any position player can be the most valuable player. So why is this so important? No team can’t hide a player, if he’s a great defensive player that doesn’t contribute offensively, then he’s not going to play very much. It also means you have to show up, at bat (offensively), and in the field (defensively). Every player has to contribute on both sides of the ball.

1. You have the ball when you’re playing defense.You don’t have the ball when you’re playing offense:

Every other sport works opposite of this: football, basketball, soccer and hockey you have the ball on offense, you don’t have the ball on defense. This is unique only to baseball. But, very often you have to think offensively while playing defense, and conversely, think defensively while playing offense. It sounds confusing but if you’ve played the game, or if you’re a fan of the game, you know what I’m talking about.

1. Size doesn’t matter:

Being a great player has nothing to do with how tall you are, how much you weigh or how long your arms are. For example, last year’s American League’s MVP was the Houston Astros’ 5-foot-6-inches and 165-pound Jose Altuve. Second place voting was the New York Yankees’ 6-foot-7-inches and 282-pound Aaron Judge. Each and every year there are standout players in baseball who have great years and they run in all sizes.

1. Baseball’s a thinking man’s sport:

If you’re playing defense and the ball is hit to you, how you complete the play can be very different depending on: if there are men on base, how many men are on base, what bases they’re on and/or how many outs there are. Then there’s the chess match going on between the batter and pitcher, where the pitcher is trying to make the batter swing at a bad pitch, and the batter is trying to make the pitcher “grove” one over the heart of the plate for him to hit. Additionally, when there are men on base, there’s another chess match going on between the pitcher and his catcher on one end, and on the other end, there’s the batter, base runner and third base coach, all trying to out think the other as to what’s the best next move to make.

I could go into more detail and five more reasons, but I’ll stop here. I’ve talked to a lot of people who tell me baseball’s boring to watch. My response is always, “let’s go to a baseball game and let’s talk about what’s going on and why what’s going to happen, happens.”

I will be glued to the TV watching every game until the world champions are wearing ski goggles and showering each other in champagne!