Baseball VS. Football Debate (coach, manager, strategy, professional)

[millenniumman35]

My boss and I got into a deep discussion and argued about which sport has more strategy. (At the professional level), my boss believes that there is more strategy in baseball then there is football. We both played both sports in high school, and I believe he fell off his wagon. Without going into what we discussed, I wanted other opinions on the subject. I know there is strategy in baseball, but I think football is way more complex.

Thanks!

[Steve-o]

Definitely football.

[truckingbronco]

Football for sure

[exhdo1]

What you should have been discussing with your boss is "did he ever watch a football game" (I'm being sarcastic)? There is no comparison between the two. In football the coaching staff may have to juggle 30-35 players in and out of a lineup in the course of a game. There are so many different situations to react to. There is strategy in baseball as well. One of the toughest decisions for a baseball manager to make is to take a player out of a game because obviously you can't renter or left hander vs right hander etc. I would say it's not even close. Football!

[jak88]

I think a better debate is whether or not baseball is a sport or a game. I mean I love baseball as a game, but half of the players are almost 300 pounds for crying out loud. I don't consider it a 'sport' in the sense I would consider other sports to be sports.

[DOUBLE H]

Football by a mile. The way the west coast offense has evolved over the last twenty years I can't even imagine what that part takes up in the book!

[Splinter]

Baseball is WAAAAY more strategic. The manager controls everything. When the count is 2-0, there are a ton of different things you can do...are there men on base? how deep are the fielders? then the count is 2-1, presents another myriad of opportunities. the manager has to constantly tweak things depending on the situation at hand.

football, on the other hand, is strategic, but once the play is called, its up to the players to get it done. if something falls apart during the play, its up to them to improvise and make something happen. football isn't as scripted....so it doesn't require the in-game "management" that baseball requires.

[Splinter]

Originally Posted by jak88

I mean I love baseball as a game, but half of the players are almost 300 pounds for crying out loud.

Wow. Criticizing baseball for 1/2 the players being over 300 lbs? I'll bet you my house that more football players weight 300 lbs than baseball players.

Name me 10 players that weigh anywhere near that...

[tenken627]

Originally Posted by Splinter

Baseball is WAAAAY more strategic. The manager controls everything. When the count is 2-0, there are a ton of different things you can do...are there men on base? how deep are the fielders? then the count is 2-1, presents another myriad of opportunities. the manager has to constantly tweak things depending on the situation at hand.

football, on the other hand, is strategic, but once the play is called, its up to the players to get it done. if something falls apart during the play, its up to them to improvise and make something happen. football isn't as scripted....so it doesn't require the in-game "management" that baseball requires.

There are much much more strategic variables that happen in each football play than in a baseball at-bat.

Each 11 players on each side of football have an active role on each play, and thus, need different schemes and placements for each. That's 22 players on one single play.

Baseball players are on the field at the same time, but not all of them are active on any given at bat. Sure, you could tell the right fielder to play back or closer to the diamond, but the ball may never come out to right field.

There's a lot of strategy between the manager, pitcher, and catcher, but it comes nowhere to the sheer amount of variables that you can affect in football.

[jak88]

Originally Posted by Splinter

Wow. Criticizing baseball for 1/2 the players being over 300 lbs? I'll bet you my house that more football players weight 300 lbs than baseball players.

Name me 10 players that weigh anywhere near that...

Yeah, those 300 pound guys serve a real purpose, called defense.

300 is an overexageration but football players are in much greater shape than baseball players. And the entire sport is more of a game to me, not a sport.