“Baseball is weird”
“Baseball is weird” (or “baseball is a weird game”) is a common saying. Unlike sports such as football, basketball, hockey and soccer, there is no clock is baseball. There is no goal (or goal line) in baseball. There is no up-and-down play in baseball; when a team is at bat, only that team can score.
Former baseball catcher Joe Garagiola wrote Baseball Is a Funny Game in 1960. “Weird” was popularized soon after, in the 1960s and 1970s. “That baseball is a weird game was demonstrated again last night at Sam Lynn Park” was cited in a 1961 newspaper. “Baseball is a weird game” was cited in 1964. “Baseball is weird” was cited in 1972.
7 October 1922, Greensboro (NC) Daily News, “Watching the Sport Board In All Fields,” pg. 2, col. 3:
Baseball is a weird game and chancy, particularly with the autumn sun hanging low in the west and autumnal weariness chaining the limbs and benumbing the minds of professional athletes.
OCLC WorldCat record
Baseball is a funny game.
Author: Joe Garagiola
Publisher: New York, Bantam Books [©1960]
Edition/Format: Print book : English
2 May 1961, The Bakersfield Californian (Bakersfield, CA), “Bears Outhit Ports, 11 to 4, but Lose, 5-3” by Larry Press, pg. 27, col. 7:
That baseball is a weird game was demonstrated again last night at Sam Lynn Park.
9 October 1963, Boston (MA) Record American, “Out on New Limb: Cassius Over Sonny” by John Gillooly, pg. 47, col. 1:
Baseball is a weird business. Nothing which happens in sports should surprise you.
21 May 1964, Baytown (TX) Sun, “Law, Turk Square Off After Buccos Nip Colts 4-3” by Fred Hartman, pg. 20, col. 9:
Baseball is a weird game…
Google Books
July 1970 Boys’ Life, ‘The little man can win the big ones, too!” by Bud Harrelson, pg. 58, col. 4:
If the Mets as a whole can play the same way we did last year, and if some of us can do even a little more, I honestly feel we can win again. But you also have to remember that baseball is a weird game, and that 9,000 breaks play a big part.
18 April 1972, Omaha (NE) World-Herald, “Card Pitcher Breaks 2-Year Win Drought,” pg. 28, col. 1:
Philadelphia (AP)—“This is weird,” said Al Santorini after the relief pitcher had saved a 5-4 victory Monday night for St. Louis over Philadelphia.
(...)
What made Santorini say that baseball is weird was the fact that he pitched to only three batters and picked up a victory.
22 August 1973, The Daily Times (Salisbury, MD), “Baseball Is A Weird Game…” by Rick Cullen, pg. 12, col. 1:
Baseball is a weird game.
One day you’re on top, the next fighting to stay out of the cellar.
9 May 1979, Morning Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), “Lowly Mariners Find Big Bad N. Y. Yankees Are Easy Team to Beat,” pg. 1-C, col. 4:
NEW YORK (AP)—“Sometimes,” says New York Yankees outfielder Jay Johnstone, “baseball is a weird game.”
Dream Gool
November 10, 2007
10 Reasons Baseball Is a Weird Sport
1. If a batter fails two-thirds of the time, they’re still considered an excellent batter. It’s too bad this standard isn’t applied to everything else in life.
2. It is legal to “steal” in this game. This is, perhaps, a questionable example for children.
3. If you aren’t such a good hitter, you can have a pinch hitter bat for you. If you aren’t such a fast runner, you can have someone—a pinch runner—come in and run for you. At what point, you might wonder, is a team entirely comprised of “pinch” players?
Twitter
Kyle Sherwood
@BigWoodWSU
I feel like Mariner fans use the “baseball is weird” adage more than any other team.
Baseball is weird. But the team also sucks out loud.
10:36 PM - 1 Jun 2015
Martinsville (VA) BUlletin
Mustangs lose both ends of a doubleheader Monday
Posted: Monday, June 29, 2015 11:02 pm
BY CARA COOPER Bulletin Sports Writer
The old saying “baseball is weird” was never more true for the Martinsville Mustangs than Monday. A day that was supposed to just have one regular season game against the High Point-Thomasville HiToms turned into a doubleheader at Hooker Field, and two losses for the Mustangs, 8-6 and 5-1.