There are countless reasons why so many people consider baseball to be the greatest game. At least a thousand newspaper columns have been written before, expressing love for this child’s game that anyone, young and old, rich or poor can play.

Baseball is great because no matter what happens in the outside world, the game never changes. When a four-year-old steps onto the field for his first tee-ball game, he knows the object of the game is to score more runs than the other team. He knows that the only way to score runs is to get on base.

Some teams play for home runs, while others play “small ball,” trying to string together walks, bunts and singles to move runners around the bases. But no matter what kind of game they play, they won’t win without guys getting on base.

The best pitchers can’t win games without run support. One of the major league’s best examples of this is Chicago Cubs hurler Ryan Dempster.

Dempster is 3-3 for the Cubs in 12 starts this season. He started the season with an 0-3 record through his first nine starts, and it wasn’t because he wasn’t pitching well. In nine games to open the season, Dempster gave up just 19 earned runs, or around two runs per start. During that same time he struck out 54 hitters and gave up an average of about three hits per start.

The problem wasn’t Dempster.

The Cubs managed just 22 runs in those nine games for an average of 2.4 runs per game. That’s not going to cut it. The Cubs just weren’t getting on base. And when they did get on base, they couldn’t get enough people on to push runs across the plate.

Dempster’s last three starts have told a different story. He’s been the same reliable hurler on the mound that he was before. But the Cubs finally started to get guys on base and score some runs. Dempster is 3-0 with zero earned runs in his last three starts and his team has outscored their opponents 21-2 in those three starts.

So it goes to show that no matter how great your pitcher is, the game is about getting on base. Young or old, good pitching or bad, you still win by getting on base.

The fundamentals of the greatest game on Earth never change.