It isn’t. Are you suggesting there is an argument to be made here?

Soccer is closer to hockey.

Forget Europe. American soccer is better than baseball. The majority of the participants don’t spend the majority of the event either standing around or sitting on a bench. There is no such thing as an overweight or out of shape soccer player.
The end.

What is meant by “better”? In what way? Athletes? Would go to soccer. Excitement? May, may go to baseball (but that is close call).

At least with soccer there is something to watch. With baseball you get to see about 10 minutes of action in a 3 hour time span.

of course soccer has more passionate fans (but that has not always been a healthy thing in Europe).

1. Jim Marks already made the case for the health benefits
2. No commercial breaks
3. There’s no designated hitter
4. Even the bottom teams in the bottom leagues have a diehard fan-base
5. There is no team called the Yankees
6. No Steroids
7. The champion of a European soccer league would never call themselves the World Champions. There is actually a tournament to determine that, and one for Just Europe.
8. Speaking of that, just check the world ratings for the UEFA Champions League championship game that is Wednesday between Manchester United and FC Barcelona. This should be an incredible game and the world will watch!
Scotty! Scotty!

Baseball and Soccer are both boring, thats like comparing whether watching paint dry or grass growing is more exciting. Despite Gary Bettman and the NHL, Hockey is the greatest sport ever!

What kind of question is that of course european soccer is better than baseball
1. There is nothing like standing at soccer stadium and singing together with 30.000 people for 90 that never happens on a baseball stadium
2. better moves… they actually look like athletes… too many ballplayers have eaten too many times on macdonalds
3. There is actually more than one nation loving this game
4. It is nervebreaking it gets your adrenaline going
5. better beers at the beverage stand…
Come and watch a live game with me and you will understand

Since you qualified the sports as ?European? and ?American,? I won?t compare the sports but the systems themselves. European soccer is not only better than American baseball; it?s more American than American baseball.
In Europe, the worst-performing teams are eliminated from the top league every year and demoted to a lower division. Meanwhile, ambitious, talented and successful teams are promoted. That is good old American capitalism. By contrast, American baseball teams are not punished for their failures. The market values of losing teams often (but not always) suffer in comparison to those of winning teams. But once a team is in the majors, the majors prop up the value. That is European socialism.

Lets stick with apples to apples, Scot. Remember, soccer is a sport.

I suppose I would determine which is “better” based on the level of fan devotion. I tell ya, Europeans love their soccer. I think more people have died from soccer related events than baseball. Nonetheless I am more of a baseball fan myself. And I prove my own rule because I am a marginal fan at best.

Scot,
I pray with all my heart and soul that no one is able to convince you of such heresy.
Baseball has everything in the world over European ‘football.’
We have ‘Field of Dreams.’ They have ‘Bend It Like Beckham.’
We have Robinson, Ruth, Young, Yaz, Aaron. They have…can you name a legendary European footballer?
We have Wrigley and Fenway. They have…can you name a European football stadium?
We have nachos, hot dogs, and cold beer. They have fish, chips, and warm beer.
We have Bill Murray singing ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ at Wrigley and ‘Sweet Caroline’ played every 8th inning at Fenway. They have inaudible chants.
We have hard slides into second base to break up doubles. They get a yellow card for pushing someone without the ball.
We have 100MPH fastballs thrown at the chin. They have 80MPH soccer balls kicked at a guy with padded gloves.
We have 162+ grueling games a season. They have maybe 60.
It’s not even a discussion. Baseball is the single greatest game in the history of the world.

In football (what you guys call soccer) World Cup actually means what it says, as opposed to the oxymoron of an American ‘World Series’
Must be some sort of mass cultural hallucination to make a game popular where for most of the time everyone watches one guy throw a ball at another guy who misses it …

@14 Patrick:
Interestingly enough, the reason it is called the “World Series” is because it was the championship series that was sponsored by the “New York World” newspaper. The newspaper eventually went defunct, but the moniker ‘World Series’ ended up sticking. So it has nothing to do with the entire world in the sense that any people think. Rather, it refers to a defunct newspaper that reported news from around the world.
And, actually, you bring up a very interesting point about baseball: a batter can fail 70% of the time and yet be viewed as a very good batter. Such statistics give me hope in my many failures in life!

I appreciate RJS’s contribution to this blog…but this blog would be better if she stopped perpetuating the myth that soccer is like hockey.
Soccer is awful, but hey, at least the fans are more sensible that baseball fans…er, uh, nevermind.

Fewer steroid scandals.
Other than that, take me out the ball game!

@myself #15
Scratch that “New York World” bit. I just found out that the information I was given was false.
I heard that information from Christopher Hitchens when I attended a debate between him and Doug Wilson. I’ll have to email Hitchens and let him know that he was wrong about that information….among other things!!

Apply the (largely American) democratic principle, and soccer wins hands-down.
American culture exportation is powerful in many different areas, yet baseball isn’t sweeping the world.

It’s OK to like both. And playing both helps appreciate both. Baseball is truly American. The patriot in me likes baseball. On July 4 with fireworks. With a hot dog or in my part of the US – nachos. On a summer night with a gentle breeze blowing.
Soccer is NOT European, though. It’s every tongue, tribe and nation. It’s eschatological if you will. Each of which has their own methods, and styles, but still the same game. It’s beauty is it’s simplicity – all that’s needed is one ball so it offers a level playing field. In soccer there is no more Jew or Gentile. No servant or free. No woman nor man. It can be the World Cup or an over-40 league, and while that be can drastically different, it is still somehow the same.

because the cubs don’t play soccer…

Ben-
Actually there is a team called the Yankees in soccer.
They just spell it c-h-e-l-s-e-a.

I’d rather watch Pee-wee soccer than Major League Baseball.
Baseball is fine for people who can’t take all the wild excitement of cricket or bowling.

it’s not. Detroit doesn’t have an MLS team and Detroit is the best sports town (in terms of fans) in the world. Conversation over.
But I do apologize, Scot, (not really) if my argument gets your ‘goat’

Oh my word art, how sheltered you are. Perhaps you’ve never left your State but there is a world beyond it, in fact, I know this is hard for you to swallow but there is a world beyong the USA – shock horror!! And that world tunes in to the world sport that is football (or soccer to the less informed – by the way why is ‘American football’ called ‘football’ given that the ball is in the hands most of the time? But of course we’re not talking about that sport but baseball which can you really call a sport? Isn’t it simply overweight guys – not athletes – standing around waiting to for their turn at swinging a bat at a ball?) Anyway to respond to your comments:
1) OK I’ll give you the field of dreams one but only just, I mean we are talking Kevin Costner here…
2) Can you name a legendary European footballer!!! Are you serious?! Try Van Basten, Cantona, Klinsmann, Rooney, Beckham, Guillet, Cristiano Ronaldo, Platini…..I really could go on and on. Ask anyone outside of North America (and indeed many inside N America) and they will know these guys. Few would know your list….seriously, I know one of them.
3) Can’t say I’ve ever heard of either stadium…yet millions know Old Trafford, Anfield, the San Siro, the Nou Camp and indeed make pilgimages to them every year…
4) Warm beer? Perhaps a few old timers in country pubs, the rest of the Continent drinks cold beer that, let’s be honest, makes budweiser et al look like gnats pee….
5) Inaudible chants? Perhaps to you. But in reality people write extremely clever chants and put them up on websites. They are ever changing and ever relevant. There are also many classics that have been sung for decades…
6) Hard slides? Let’s remember that baseball players don’t don shorts and T-shirts by long pants. Kind of like American football where they wear shoulder pads versus real men – rugby players – that again wear shorts and t-shirts. I guess Joan Collins would have made a good A. Football player with the shoulder pads and all
7) 162+ grueling games? Like I said, the majority of the time they’re standing around…doesn’t sound too grueling to me! Footy players are shockingly in-shape athletes.
And well, to end with, the World Cup Final attracts about one-third of this planets population!! REALLY can’t say the same for the baseball er..final? What do you call it again?
Sorry if this sounds a bit harsh but I simply MUST respond to laughable opinions:)
I’m sure Jesus would have been a footy fan!!!!

It’s not.

Soccer is pure! On the other hand, baseball was invented by American’s who struggle with a short concentration span. From our perspective, that is the rest of the glob, American’s couldn’t or wouldn’t play cricket and so they came up with a hybrid, which the rest of the world struggles to comprehend.

PS: I would love to live and minister in the USA at some time, I love most things American. But alas, this sort of tongue in cheek comment may have me stopped at the border.

I’m a new reader of this blog, but I had to answer this. I’m an American who loves baseball. I really do love it. My dad played it. I played it. I’m also an American who loves soccer. Over the past few years, I’ve grown to care more about my English Premier League team than the Braves that I’ve followed since I was a little kid. They’re two totally different games so I would hate to have to ACTUALLY pick which is better, but to side with the minority:
-Soccer is constant action for 90 minutes. No timeouts.
-Soccer is free-flowing (except for set-pieces… er… sorry… corner kicks and free kicks). Teams are taught philosophies and styles, but then must execute those concepts fluidly.
-In Europe, the bottom teams are actually punished for being bad. They don’t get to make as much money. And it doesn’t matter how “big” they team is. If you’re bad, you’re gone. Newcastle is on the verge of getting relegated and they have one of the largest stadiums and fan bases out there.
-Draws, the against our American NEED for a winner and a loser, are actually incredibly exciting at times. Small clubs without a prayer snatching a 1-1 draw against Liverpool or (may they disappear) Manchester United is a BIG deal.
-Tradition: there’s way more of it with soccer. And that’s not even an argument.
-Individual creativity. Players can express themselves on the ball in far more diverse ways than with baseball.
-Speed. It’s incredible to watch a fast-paced game. I have an American friend that was watching a Real Madrid Barcelona game that he couldn’t believe was actually soccer. He thought it was a highlight show.
-Certainly more of a team sport than baseball.
-While I don’t think soccer has as little scoring as is perceived by American non-fans, it IS a bigger deal than scoring runs in baseball. If you’re following a team, identifying with them, and they pop up with a goal… it’s a rush.
Ok, that’s enough. There’s more. I love it. It’s a great game. Watch it with other fans, if you can. And, if possible, watch Arsenal. We may not have won anything for a few years, but we play the best football (sorry… soccer) on the planet barring maybe Barcelona. Up the Gunners!

I have 7 kids. The 3 girls like soccer players because they are “sexy.” The 4 boys play baseball.

Soccer (or football as it’s really called) is a much more global currency. Go to the backstreets of an Italian town, an African village or a South American favela and you will always find soccer taking place. Whilst baseball is a great game, I doubt you could say the same about it!

Something like the following can happen in a game of soccer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIep5g_GeSQ
My advice – watch Barcelona v Manchester United this Wednesday at 8:45 CET. If it’s as good as match as it promises to be then it should be the only convincing anyone needs.

Compare European soocer to American football! That’s a comparison I could get into. I grew up in Cincy with only baseball and am love it to this day. However, as a coach or parent I prefer soocer because of its aerobic requiremnts. Luckily, baseball is usually a spring sport and soccer a fall sport, so usually no school conflict. As a X-C, X-C ski, and track coach, I never had time to get involved coaching baseball, but would have loved that too.
Doug

I’ve never hit a fast traveling baseball nor have I watched it flying towards me behind the plate, I’ve never stolen a base nor stretched beyond the wall to catch that would be home run.
But I know the thrill of a 0-0 game explode in the last minute with a well deserved soccer goal. I know what’s happening for those 90 minutes when only a few goals are scored. I know how difficult it is to place that round ball on the top corner, the beautiful pass into an incoming forward, the beauty of the dribble, and much much more.
For those who can’t understand the thrill of a soccer game, you’ve been numbed down throughout your life. Baseball watching is like drinking a gas station morning coffee, soccer watching, especially european soccer watching, is like the soothing aroma and enjoyment of a best-quality brewed coffee.
10 years ago I wanted to name my website jesusandsoccer.com but didn’t want to be seen as disrespectful.
Finally Scot, baseball is like dispensational theology. Soccer is like the best type of preterism around.
On the edge but boy, it’s thrilling.
By the way, a soccer goal is the precise boiling point of simmering water … Happy goals.

Comparing soccer to baseball is like comparing Continental cuisine with barbeque. Both great food and both have their time and place.

At least soccer is decided on the field and not in a lab.

Went to a ball game when we lived in the States, never been so bored in my life, the music even made me cringe and to misquote Churchill “Never in the history of sporting endeavour has so little been done by so few for so long” Why on earth do you call them “players” when they spend most of the game sitting on their rear ends? Still it was better than cricket!
Not a big fan of football either (why do American’s call their game football? They don’t seem to kick it with their feet?) To me Rugby is the greatest team sport for pure intensity and physicality.

Went to a ball game when we lived in the States, never been so bored in my life, the music even made me cringe and to misquote Churchill “Never in the history of sporting endeavour has so little been done by so few for so long” Why on earth do you call them “players” when they spend most of the game sitting on their rear ends? Still it was better than cricket!
Not a big fan of football either (why do American’s call their game football? They don’t seem to kick it with their feet?) To me Rugby is the greatest team sport for pure intensity and physicality. Was at the Heiniken Cup Final this afternoon @ Murrayfield between Leinster and Leicester, what a game!

I’ve not been a baseball fan for very long but I am willing to argue for the ontological (or phenomenological) superiority of Baseball to soccer. See Stephen Webb’s thoughts on why soccer is ruining America.
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1329

As an Australian I have no strong alleigance to either game but I would without hesitation agree that football/soccer is far superior to baseball… and billions around the world would agree.
art (#13) exemplifies much of the worst of what the world sees as typical American ignorance/arrogance and is well answered by jamie (#25). I’ve met uneducated kids in Africa who can name dozens of “European” football stars and stadiums but most of these baseball people/plaves you name would be unheard of outside the USA and perhaps a couple of other countries.
But I agree also the comparison is perhaps not the best. Compare soccer with American football (or Australian football for that matter or rugby) and soccer would still win. Or compare baseball with cricket – a sport that, although not as universal as soccer, still has hundreds of millions more followers. But don’t start with Test cricket (an acquired taste I’ll admit) – compare baseball with a 20/20 cricket game and I think you’ll find the cricket has much more action and excitement.

Just to clarify on that last point, I’m comparing cricket with baseball, not cricket and soccer. Once again cricket and soccer is one of those apples and eggs type of questions.
In terms of American sports the only one I really enjoy is basketball… which interesting is possibly the one which has the widest penetration outside the USA.

?Baseball is truly and American sport. Others have tried it and are trying it, as if to copy us (Japan), or as if to defeat us (by trying to be better at it – Cuba), but baseball is truly an American sport. It appeals to Americans because it appeals to our spiritual and political natures and that is what makes it American. Anybody ever notice American football has never been called the All-American sport?
Baseball is a team sport where in the players work together to execute a winning play like a double or a triple. Other sports do that too, but baseball is an American-team-sport in which one player sacrifices his own statistics or his own chances at looking good in order to put the team ahead, as in a pop-up out or a bunt to drive in the lead runner who then gets the credit. Not so in the NBA.
Concerning lack of play or lack of exciting moments . . . typically American. Everyone on the team lays back and pays close attention without intervention until something important happens or something necessary needs tending. Then the entire field goes into action, one backing or covering for another as the pitcher becomes the catcher and the shortstop becomes the second baseman. Together, all bases are always covered to the benefit of the team. These ?emergencies? are tended to without reservation. No one needs to form a committee and vote. The play just happens perfectly and the team comes together when it is needed . . . purely American.
Baseball is the only American sport wherein the defense controls the ball. Like our political nature, we do not offend. America is not an offensive, overpowering, conquering, nor occupying nation. It is a defensive and responsive nation. We are idealists not imperialists. Our nature is not to start a fight, but to finish it if it comes to us. Then, we help the opposition out by rebuilding what we destroyed and putting them back on their feet. Remember when “Made in Japan” was laughable? America helped to chang that after Japan?s defeat in WW2.
America is first in the world because of its political nature as a team player and because of its spiritual nature. We are always concerned for other people, countries, the underdog, etc. Our Christian heritage, the philosophy that formed and founded this nation has brought us the respect of other nations. Americans do unto others only those things we would want done unto ourselves. We esteem others as equal or more important than ourselves and turn the other cheek or give our coat too when it is needed by the less fortunate. These are the attributes of Americans and these attributes spill over into the game of baseball. It?s not just a game.
I am sure there is more that can be said if I were to think about it longer than a minute. Let soccer make its own case. Americans love baseball because it is purely All-American…………
Agape,
Michaelangelo

Actually Michaelangelo, I don’t hear people calling baseball the “all American sport”. I have heard them frequently call it “the American pass time”. But over the last decade people have actually argued that football (NFL) has replaced baseball in that regard. And to see evidence of that, all one has to do is compare where the popularity of the two sports (MLB and NFL) over the last ten years. I honestly think you’re remembering a bygone era. Times have changed. Embrace it!

@42- Ummm… I was going to quote things from the political paragraph in that post, but ended up highlighting the whole thing. As an American living overseas (in South Africa), I must say… that is NOT the general view of America from the international community. Americans as people are actually viewed fairly positively here (generous and polite to a fault)… but people view America the NATION as aggressive, arrogant, inconsiderate, and totally self-focused.
I’m not saying that something about baseball doesn’t connect with who we (theoretically) are as Americans, but just wanted to point out that just because we believe something about ourselves, we shouldn’t simply believe it in the face of millions and millions who STRONGLY disagree. I cannot capitalize “strongly” into a big enough font.
I still love baseball. And I still love soccer. Regardless of my passport.

Baseball is like jazz, baseball is like poetry, I love every twitch, every pause, every sprint. Soccer is like rock n roll–it proceeds at a fast pace–repeating the same moves over and over. there’s a place for rock n roll but I’m more satisfied with jazz.

You can’t compare two entirely different sports. Now a proper comparison would be baseball and cricket, and there is no contest, cricket! You can spend 5 days in the sun watching a cricket match, enjoy the company of friends, cold beer and an endless debate over statistics. If you have less time you can watch a 20/20 match in an evening. What more could you want? What other sport comes in 5 day, 4 day, 3 day, 3 day, 2 dat, 1 day, and 3 hour formats? A perfect summer sport!

I guess the slow pace of both serves well for someone who would like to read a book while watching. But soccer/”football” is perhaps more conducive that way. Though you don’t want to miss the big plays when they finally do come.

…of course I think here as one who grew up watching baseball, namely the Big Red Machine, and Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, etc. So I’m biased. I’m sure there’s much going on that escapes the untrained eye in the “dribbling”, etc., in “football.”

woops, that statement on the Big Red Machine did not come from “your name” but from me.

Football – there’s way more excitement in the game than in baseball. I think someone said earlier they can’t really be directly compared – football should be compared with basketball or something fast-moving and baseball with some slower paced, e.g. cricket or snooker.

You can only eat so many hot dogs. Food variety is far superior outside the U.S. Plus you can get far more bacterial strains than in Yankee Stadium. (This helps researchers once you get back home. Hello?)

I can but point to the comment of Thomas Willer “Come and watch a live game with me and you will understand”
Come watch Spurs v Arsenal at White Hart Lane or:
VfB Stuttgart v Karlsruhe at the Merceddes Stadium.
Then you’ll know why. Taste and see.