Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Boring times five

When you compare all-star games, it's clear that the MLS All-Star game is not one watched too closely by the mainstream sports media.

Nothing new, really. The next time the MLS All-Star game leads highlight shows will be the first time, probably. The mainstream media gives all kinds of coverage to other All-Star games, notably the Major League Baseball one which was played on Tuesday in New York.

The MLB one, of course, is laced with history and is part of the fabric of this country's sporting history; I get that. And I'm not suggesting that the MLS one should be on par with the MLB one.

But I will say this: ours won't last nearly five hours.


Funny how, as I'm typing this, I'm listening to The Raconteurs and the singer is wailing about how his "interest is starting to wane" and that he's "bored to tears." Yeah, I used to look forward to the MLB game but about a decade or so ago I started to lose interest as well.

It's always strikes me odd when soccer is slammed as boring but the same people will rave about a low-scoring baseball game. Tuesday's All-Star game was a 4-3 final won by the American League, who ended the snoozefest by winning it in the bottom of the 15th inning. From innings 9 through 14 there were exactly zero runs scored. I'm sure most of America was on the edge of their seats during that time.

I can't imagine the All-Star game was as dramatic as Chivas-Houston. I'm probably biased, okay, well I am, but still tell me how the drama in the All-Star game was higher than the SuperLiga game last night. Probably the only drama with the baseball game was whether it was going to reach five hours or not.

The official time for the match was 4:50. That's a lot of time to invest in something. What can you do in four hours and 50 minutes? Well...

> Watch both SuperLiga games tonight and have time to go to your local Panera Bread afterward. And don't forget to take your laptop and read Sideline Views.

> Watch one SuperLiga game and then go play soccer for several hours at your local park.

> Sin City roadie, anyone? (for those of us here in SoCal, anyway)

> Fly from LA to Chicago. With a layover in Salt Lake.

> How about running a marathon? Or for those of us who aren't quite up to running that much, how about a half-marathon? You could probably walk a good portion of a half-marathon in four hours and 50 minutes.

> Watch a replay of the Galaxy-Revs MLS Cup '05 final. Twice.

8 comments:

A.C. said...

You could probably also read the entire history of Sideline Views during that amount of time. No joke. The week I was sick and feeling miserable, I turned on the laptop and just started reading our blog from the very beginning, recalling all the different experiences.

Cormackphotos said...

I can drive from my apartment in Arkansas to Pizza Hut Park for a game in five hours.

Anonymous said...

In all honesty, during...I think it was the 12th or 13th inning last night...I heard myself say "I wish they could just go to PKs..."

Anonymous said...

Really? Last night's MLB All-Star game was awesome.
But then again, I'm also a baseball fan.
I can watch five hours of All-Star baseball any day.

Anonymous said...

there was a baseball game last night?

Anonymous said...

and that is all for the Jim Rome hour on Sideline Rants

Coup d'Taco said...

I'm not a baseball fan, but a friend of mine works in the industry and so I went to his place and watched the game. I have to say it was really, exciting. And this is coming from someone who loves soccer, watches Superliga despite the fact his team isn't in it, and watches about two baseball games a year.

Anonymous said...

I gotta say, when the AL had the bases loaded with no outs, and Cook somehow managed to pick Uggla up and get out of that jam...that had me going. Yeah, no runs were scored, but it's just like soccer. Maybe no runs were scored but there's so much going on. You just have to know how to watch the games.

When it comes to the flow of the game, soccer and baseball are very similar to me. It's no wonder they are my two favorite sports.