What Game Five Meant

Jeff Sullivan at FanGraphs on why the Dodgers-Nationals game five was a game for hardcore baseball fans:

Baseball can’t be what it cannot be. Baseball is a game that requires an investment, an investment of time and an investment of mental energy. That might, perhaps, cause it to become decreasingly popular over the years and decades to come. I can’t predict the population. What I’m sure of is that baseball still has its base. It has its core of loyal supporters, its followers who understand the demands of being a good and decent fan in the first place. Those four hours and 32 minutes were for us. The base will grant the game every second that it needs. That Game 5 needed every second in order to be what it was, and that was baseball magic.

Indeed. Most long games like that don’t keep me engaged. This one did.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2e2lvNG