I have often wondered why statistics are so important in american sports.
This is especially true in baseball. When you watch the game for the first time you are bamboosled with ERAs, RBIs, and other TLAs.
It dawned on me that one of the reasons is probably the fact that there is so much time in a game where NOTHING is happening.
Compare this to football (soccer). A commentator has to spend most of his time talking about what is happening, since the action is almost continuous. There is minimal time for stats (although they are shared).
In baseball, there is time in between each at-bat. each pitch. each inning. while someone is singing. and forever after on ESPN :)