(no subject)

Why do we put commas before quotations? I know it's the convention, but what's the reasoning behind it? That's always bothered me. The quotation essentially functions as an object of the verb, right? And we don't normally put commas between verbs and their objects, right? "He played, basketball." That just looks stupid. So why do we write, "Fred said, 'I played basketball.'"? It's goofy.

TELL ME WHY OMG