WATCH: Bill Simmons Tells Stephen Colbert Why Baseball Is For People Over 50

Bill Simmons was on The Colbert Report last night talking about his new book, The Book of Basketball. He talked to Stephen about why he thinks Wilt Chamberlain was gay, why Kobe Bryant is like Teen Wolf, and why baseball is only for people over 50.






WATCH:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bill Simmons
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

Comments

[Khirad]

The new golf. I'll remember that. Honestly, why do people say soccer is boring and confess to loving these two sports? Basketball, football, but if I want to watch a slow game played with a ball and a stick, I'd rather watch cricket. At least its World Cup actually includes the, oh, I dunno... world?! Who came up with that ridiculous title? PT Barnum?! That being said, I don't mind minor league. I think the problem with professional baseball is that they've gotten too good. Even college football is more fun for that reason, IMHO. But hey, what do I know, I'm under 50. I sympathize with the nostalgia factor and know there are those into stats, but it just never spoke to me. One of my earliest memories is of Randy Johnson on the Seattle mound, I think I blurted out -- "just throw it already!!!" Yeah, so, never really appealed to me. Plus the whole arbitrary rules get to me as well. Designated hitters, wall heights, etc. On one level it's charming, on another, eyerolling inducing.

[bayman]

Simmons, aka The Sports Guy, is fabulous. If you're into pop culture at all, and have a sense of humor, you'll enjoy his columns, even if you know next to nothing about sports.

[radiclib]

.
.
I disagree. He came across as a smug, smart-alek with simplistic wisecracks. Colbert punked him by pretending to agree that Lou Gehrig was all about marketing and the only real values are market values. This columnist didn't even know he was getting skewered.
.
.

[jjj1951]

Baseball at the professional level is dull because it has become so formulaic and statistics driven. But go to a Little League or high school game and you will see the true game of baseball where players are not worried about their slugging percentages or whether sacrificing will hurt their batting statistics.

[Calinative]

Personally, I judge a sport based on how much I enjoy playing it, not how much I enjoy watching it or buying merchandise. Bill is like an armchair stat nerd with 20 different fantasy teams, writing a sports column for other armchair stat nerds. Watching sports is not a sport.

[davidly]

Valid perspective. But the whole gist here is from the spectator's perspective and as far as that goes, how much one enjoys watching a sport, or in the case of baseball, a game, is the only point. Have you ever heard of spectator sports? And speaking of stat nerds, try reading George Will's book on baseball.

All that said: Writing about watching sports is like reminiscing about dancing about architecture.

[lazercat2008]

While it is calculated that 38.3 minuets of a baseball game is spitting.

[lazercat2008]

I think it has been proven that only 1.5 minuets of a baseball game is action.

[davidly]

Yes, but the pirouettes...

[BoiseLib]

He says Wilt was gay because he liked cats and wasn't married.

I tried to post a sarcastic comment, but the censors apparently don't understand that high level comedy.

[radiclib]

.
.
Those ``Wilt'' remarks came off as frat-boy trashtalk.
Takes lots of nerve to smear a dead man.
.
.

[penitentiaryofdreams]

Yeah - he should got o a Phillies game or looks at all the kids celebrating in the streets - it's a party down there EVERY GAME - not just on dollar-dog night!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmoF-Rq-xqg

[postman66]

Guess I was an old kid.

[the deliman]

Bill Simmons is right on. As a 21 year who's parents are immigrants, basketball was the first sport that I could get into. Believe me when I tell you how hard I TRIED to like baseball. I'd sit there and it would just bore me. (So did football until I played Madden and started understanding the rules.)

I think the vast majority of fans of baseball are guys who remember watching and playing the sport with their dads and the sport has sentimental value to them.

For those that of you that say basketball popularity is in decline, you're wrong. The sport's popularity is rising across the world, in Asia and Europe especially. If you don't believe me look how good the foreign teams are in the Olympics. Meanwhile baseball was removed from the Olympics, while they have BMX, table tennis, and badminton.

[Khirad]

Excellent post. I concur 100%.

[blackjack19]

Simmons is funny and entertaining until you realize virtually every one of his columns sounds the same, and no matter what the topic of the column is, he'll throw some pointless reference to his beloved Boston teams.

[Gardawg]

baseball is only dull to those with dull minds

[bastonal]

But Wilt Chamberlain insisted he slept with over ten thousand women in his lifetime....Could he of been lying?

[IconoclasticYouth]

This guy is crazy. Pro basketball fell apart in the late nineties as the sport as derailed into big super stars with huge egos and NO TEAMS. I hate guys like Kobe, I hate teams like Cavaliers which depend on Lebrone and now Shaq, to do everything. I hate the three month playoff system, and the sport just doesn't appeal to someone like me. (A 23 year old Male, who grew up under repeat three peat. Whether you liked or hated Chicago, in the nineties everyone was into basketball, and now those same guys who lived and died with a basketball in their hands, hate the sport). Admittedly, I'm not a scientific study, and I don't live anywhere near a coast. Perhaps Bill SImmons knows something I don't, but basketball is not the king of sports anymore.

[stevenjaym]

As someone substantially over 50 years old, I agree with much of what Mr. Simmons believes. However , I do believe baseball has lost many of the people over fifty also! I loved baseball as a boy, and back then--no one cared about the other sports. Unfortunately, I now could care less about the sport. The only time I watch baseball now is when I want to take a nap! It's guaranteed to put me to sleep in 5 minutes! It just has not kept up with the changing times! Some call it the charm and strategy of the sport! I call it boring!