  Thursday sees the first day of the first test in England (so its guaranteed to rain). Thinking about this got me trying to understand the game in America.
Mashed about this makes baseball. I first got into baseball during the 2002 World Series. I think I couldn't sleep one night and just ended up watching it all. Trouble is, after two years you'd have thought I could start to understand what's going on, but I still don't get it. It's ok to have on in the background but I can't see anyone wanting to sit through three hours of it every day. And yet they do, so there must be something in it. It seems that all innings up to the ninth are just preparation for the final inning to kind of set the score.
You get one pitcher who lasts 8/9 of the game and then go through half a dozen in the dying moments. It just seems as though something is happening and I'm missing it. I've started to be able to work out which pitch is which once the ball has gone through to the catcher, and I guess that after years and years of watching, I'll start to be able to work out which pitch would come next. It just seems like a game of paper, scissors, stone with balls. The pitcher has a selection of pitches to throw and places to put it so he just picks one, the batter goes for it and if he's lucky he gets a hit. Where's the skill in that? The other thing I don't get is the pitcher's simple inability to do his job.
I've seen this quite a few times, normally in the eighth or ninth inning. If the bases are loaded, the last thing you want to do is walk the next batter because that'll give them a run for free, and yet what happens? Exactly. Especially since usually they've intentionally walked to load the bases. I don't think I'll ever understand but I'll keep watching anyway Jack 
