The season is so close I can feel it within my veins.  Only a great sport can do that too you.

For the past couple of days I've been doing some thinking about what I should write upon next.  Whether it's for here, or whether it'll just be for my own blog.  Blah, blah, blah right?  Mostly semantics but the bottom line of what I've been thinking about and where my thoughts lead too was always baseball.  First I'm a Tigers fan.  The Tigers play for the greatest fans while wearing the most awesome uniform ever created, not to mention the fact that many all time greats have tromped out onto the field wearing that Olde English D.  But there is something out there bigger than the Tigers.  Bigger than the uniform.  This enormity is the sport itself.  Baseball, a thing of beauty it is.  Without the sport the field is useless, the uniform has no meaning, the fans have nothing to cheer.  Without the sport, there are no Tigers.  My thoughts routinely than came to one question:  What makes baseball so great?

Well for me it is a simple answer.

I can pin point why I love baseball really easily.  That reason is science.  I love science.  It's always around us in the form of various chemicals, both organic and inorganic.  I think as a sport baseball readily displays my love of science.  Whether it's the kinetic chains in motion of a perfectly executed pitch or hit, or the Magnus Effect on a beautiful two-seamer, science is there.

Someone gets injured?  I got some anatomy I can study up on.

Pitcher suddenly gets better?  I can compare what he's doing now to what he was doing before.

Hitter suddenly gets better?  See above.

All the above questions can be flipped as well.  I can investigate why someone isn't getting hurt, or analyze why a particular player sucks.  The resources are all there and mostly set up for instant analysis thanks to sites like Fangraphs or Baseball Reference.

So things are scientific with this sport.  From physics, to anatomy, to biology, to chemistry...they are all there always seen and always utilized.  To me it's all a thing of beauty.  We can add Sabermetrics into this as well.  Baseball is essentially the first sport to have advanced statistical analysis added to it.  Surely it's a wonderful thing to behold for the number crunchers out there.  Heck, the numbers mostly confuse me but I love them because they give me a chance to learn.

Maybe that's what I love about baseball.  It's a chance to learn every time you watch and every time you decide to think about it as a sport.  My studies into the world of pitching mechanics have had very little to do with actual baseball.  I've spent most of my time reading physics papers and articles on anatomy.  The knowledge of baseball extends beyond the sport itself.

And all of this comes from a sport simple in concept.  Pure in play.

It's a game of mind games.  There are no big play books or boards to draw plays upon quickly.  How the runs are scored are purely up to the imagination.  Squeeze play?  Home run?  Umpire error?  Player error?  Will we see this game be remembered in glory or infamy?  Every moment of every game leaves your mind wondering, "what exactly will I see next?"  The answer is utter uncertainty and that right there is what makes baseball beautiful.  That knowledge of not knowing.  The suspense, the nail biting, the hair pulling.  The uncertainty is really the only true certainty about baseball.  And that certainty right there is probably the reason we will all be lifelong fans of this beautiful sport.