Well, this is a ridiculous statement. Do you know how many people go to baseball games and watch signs being flashed for sacrifices, hit and runs, straight steals, and actually try to intrepret them?
For years, nearly everyone in the ballpark was keeping score - down to the very last detail. I'll bet you could take 20,000 scorecards out of a game at Ebbet's Field, and they'd all read the same at the end of the game.
Yeah, Americans don't get the "subtlety"....we've been watching "pivot plays", "double steals", "williams' shifts" forever. They are "subtle" to you maybe, but they are part of an EXCITING game to the rest of us.
I had the pleasure of going to two WS games last year. The one, where Alex Gonzalez won the game, was the most exciting sports moment I've ever witnessed.
And that includes countless PSU/Nebraska, PSU/Alabama, PSU/Pitt, PSU/ND football CLASSICS.
Baseball is our National Pastime because it's timeless. What gets overlooked is that when played right, in the right moment, it's the most exciting game ever created. Soccer on the other hand, is hopelessly boring, regardless of it's "subtlety." We can handle "subtlety", we just don't like "BORING."
Actually I do know, it's about 10% of the audience. Most of the baseball audience doesn't care about the signs, and you don't have to care about the signs to understand the game enough to enjoy it. Which is exactly what I'm talking about, the people watching signs are probably patient enough to enjoy soccer, and they're a small minority of the baseball fan community.
Maybe years ago most people kept their own stats, not anymore. When I was going to games a lot in the 80s my dad was the only person I could see (my line of sight covered about 2 total sections) that was keeping stats. And even then baseball fans were the most stats addicted of all the sports fans.
Again, I'm not saying they don't get the subtlety, I'm saying they aren't interested in the subtlety. I'm sure they could get it if they want, American football is one of the most complicated (though unsubtle) sports in the world, American fans can grock that fine, I'm sure they could grock soccer and hockey, but they don't want to.
Baseball, when played in a way that's exciting, works a lot like soccer. It's a tight defensive game that any at bat can win. Soccer, like all other sports, is only boring if you refuse to learn anything about the game. when you declare soccer boring you tell me a lot about yourself, and say absolutely nothing about the game itself.
Subtlety in baseball is Greg Maddux throwing a big fat slider to Barry Bonds in april when he has a 10-0 lead just to get Bonds looking for another big fat slider game 7 of the NLCS.