Baseball Sucks-a case against america's past time

[jojo]

Did you know the MLB Playoffs started today? There's a good chance you didn't actually. In fact, in all likelihood you were talking about, thinking about, or watching a whole host of other things besides baseball, whether it was the missed called from Monday Night Football, Microsoft's latest gadgets, the latest lawsuit against Bill Cosby, or this bear that walks like a human. The point is that baseball quietly finished out its (overly long) season and began its playoffs without most people even noticing.

Read the rest here:

http://biggulps.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-case-against-americas-pastime-or.html

Discuss, argue, debate but don't call each other racists unless of course, the accused is a racist. Then call them a racist and kick them in the nuts too, metaphorically speaking of course.

[BuckeyeRed27]

I agree with most of that. Baseball has a problem. I'm not sure how to fix it. It seems like they should try to change something though. Shorten the season, do some realignment, only do interleague play every other year, add a couple teams. Just something new, I don't remember the last time there was something to talk about.

[marcshoe]

Read the rest here:

http://biggulps.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-case-against-americas-pastime-or.html

Discuss, argue, debate but don't call each other racists unless of course, the accused is a racist. Then call them a racist and kick them in the nuts too, metaphorically speaking of course.

Is the term "pinko commie" allowed?

[Chip R]

Baseball is dying. And yet total revenues continue to increase and local TV ratings are very high.

[WrongVerb]

Baseball is dying. And yet total revenues continue to increase and local TV ratings are very high.

Baseball's been dying for 70 years, and yet it's still here, kicking around, stronger than ever.

[Chip R]

I agree with most of that. Baseball has a problem. I'm not sure how to fix it. It seems like they should try to change something though. Shorten the season, do some realignment, only do interleague play every other year, add a couple teams. Just something new, I don't remember the last time there was something to talk about.

How would shortening the season help? You knock it down to 150 or 154 games that's basically a week or two of games. So instead of the regular season lasting six months it lasts five and a half months. That's really not a significant difference. They just did some realignment recently. Houston moved to the AL and Milwaukee moved to the NL. They went to 3 divisions in each league 20 years ago. As for interleague play, I don't think it's quite the draw that it was when it first started. There's some unfairness inherit in the format. I'm sure StL fans weren't happy playing the Royals while the Cubs played the White Sox. The argument for it always was "Fans can see the superstars of the other league during the regular season instead of just during the ASG and the World Series." TV has basically rendered that point moot. It's not difficult for me to see Mike Trout or Miguel Cabrera play. It's not in person but I can still see them play. We have a whole thread about expansion over on the ORG. You must not come over there too often since there's that thread and countless others where we have "something to talk about."

[BuckeyeRed27]

How would shortening the season help? You knock it down to 150 or 154 games that's basically a week or two of games. So instead of the regular season lasting six months it lasts five and a half months. That's really not a significant difference. They just did some realignment recently. Houston moved to the AL and Milwaukee moved to the NL. They went to 3 divisions in each league 20 years ago. As for interleague play, I don't think it's quite the draw that it was when it first started. There's some unfairness inherit in the format. I'm sure StL fans weren't happy playing the Royals while the Cubs played the White Sox. The argument for it always was "Fans can see the superstars of the other league during the regular season instead of just during the ASG and the World Series." TV has basically rendered that point moot. It's not difficult for me to see Mike Trout or Miguel Cabrera play. It's not in person but I can still see them play. We have a whole thread about expansion over on the ORG. You must not come over there too often since there's that thread and countless others where we have "something to talk about."

Ideally I think you drop it down to more like 120 or 130 or so games and be able to get the playoffs done by around this time. Less competition with football and less worry about playing baseball in 30 or 40 degree weather. It would also just add a little bit of a sense of urgency to the season.

I think you can do some type of realignment about every 20 years or so. I think you agree with my interleague play thing, it just needs to become more of a novelty. It feels like a distraction at this point.

I don't mean stuff that baseball fans will have to talk about. Of course if you like baseball and follow a team, you will always have something to talk about. I mean something that puts baseball more towards to top of sports fans minds.

[westofyou]

Yes, everything I think sucks sucks (NFL) and things that don't suck (NHL) only suck if I think they suck, because sucking is always a data point determined by what I think sucks, not what others think suck.

[bucksfan2]

I don't think revenue's have much to do about overall interest in the game growing or falling. I think they have to do with new technological methods that have created new revenue sources. I think baseball is a summer sport, a sport where it is the only thing on TV, a sport where families are not only welcome but suggested. It is a sport where the Reds could be 20 games out but I could still have a great time taking my daughters to a game. Baseball is sport that has its most interest Memorial Day though Labor Day. Once Labor Day, when baseball should be getting the most interest, the interest wanes. They go up against College and NFL football on four nights a week. When the playoffs start College and NFL football really get going and by the time the World Series happens most people are bundled up with their heat on not thinking about the summer sport.

If it were up to me I would find a way to shorten the season and make sure the World Series didn't drag on into November.

[Assembly Hall]

Why hasn't this thread been moved to the ORG?

[Chip R]

I don't think revenue's have much to do about overall interest in the game growing or falling. I think they have to do with new technological methods that have created new revenue sources. I think baseball is a summer sport, a sport where it is the only thing on TV, a sport where families are not only welcome but suggested. It is a sport where the Reds could be 20 games out but I could still have a great time taking my daughters to a game. Baseball is sport that has its most interest Memorial Day though Labor Day. Once Labor Day, when baseball should be getting the most interest, the interest wanes. They go up against College and NFL football on four nights a week. When the playoffs start College and NFL football really get going and by the time the World Series happens most people are bundled up with their heat on not thinking about the summer sport.

If it were up to me I would find a way to shorten the season and make sure the World Series didn't drag on into November.

I don't think the Super Bowl should drag into February or the NBA Finals to June but no one thinks that's a problem with either organization.

You want baseball to be exciting? Here's how you do it: One game a week for 4 months then one game, winner take all playoffs and World Series.

No matter how you trick it up, baseball is a slow game. Most of it consists of a pitcher throwing to a batter with nothing happening. Shorten the season, realign the teams, what have you; it's still going to be a slow game and that's what turns people off. If that happens, fine. There are still enough baseball fans out there that a major network will preempt their regular prime time programming for playoff, All Star and World Series games and pay through the nose to do it. It's still popular enough that regional sports networks are paying major league teams billions of dollars for the right to televise their games.

One other thing: The author of the article is a Cubs fan and he also said he'd take back everything if the Cubs won it all. So not only is he an idiot but he's willing to go back on what he said if they win it all.

[BuckeyeRed27]

I don't think the Super Bowl should drag into February or the NBA Finals to June but no one thinks that's a problem with either organization.

You want baseball to be exciting? Here's how you do it: One game a week for 4 months then one game, winner take all playoffs and World Series.

No matter how you trick it up, baseball is a slow game. Most of it consists of a pitcher throwing to a batter with nothing happening. Shorten the season, realign the teams, what have you; it's still going to be a slow game and that's what turns people off. If that happens, fine. There are still enough baseball fans out there that a major network will preempt their regular prime time programming for playoff, All Star and World Series games and pay through the nose to do it. It's still popular enough that regional sports networks are paying major league teams billions of dollars for the right to televise their games.

One other thing: The author of the article is a Cubs fan and he also said he'd take back everything if the Cubs won it all. So not only is he an idiot but he's willing to go back on what he said if they win it all.

The impact of shortening the season is to create a sense of urgency for each game. Baseball has tried to create that by adding more wild card teams, and that does work to a point, but if you had 30 or 40 fewer games you don't have time to go on a losing streak or lose a key player. I don't think the actual game play of baseball hurts it as much as the low impact of any given game. It probably isn't feasible due to loss of revenue, but it would have other benefits to player safety and scheduling.

To your first point, I also think the NBA season should be shorter. The playoffs take like 3 months, it's crazy.

[Tom Servo]

To your first point, I also think the NBA season should be shorter. The playoffs take like 3 months, it's crazy.
I totally agree with this. I like basketball and the NBA, but the 82 game season just feels arbitrarily long. Baseball is a sport you can go out and play everyday, you need some real rest after a basketball game. I feel like 62 games would be enough in the NBA.

That said, I don't think that the baseball season is too long, but it may just be a personal bias. I wouldn't hate it if they did something like 154 games and maybe start the season in March.

[RiverRat13]

Fans can watch almost all 162 games of their favorite team thanks to their local cable outlet. And many do, as local ratings can attest. I think the biggest reason for baseball's lack of national rating is that most fans spend their baseball viewing time on their home squad, therefore there isn't much familiarity with those other teams that make the postseason. I certainly fall into this category. 20 years ago I might have watched the same amount of baseball, but more of that time was watching national broadcasts because I couldn't watch every Reds game. I then watched more playoff baseball because I was more familiar with the premier teams. Compare that to now where watching the Reds more than gives me my baseball fix, so I'm not really invested in any other team and I'll probably only watch a few innings of each World Series game. Shortening the season would not remedy that problem. In fact, it would probably lead to less revenue as I would be watching that many fewer Reds games.

[Redsfaithful]

Baseball is great, of course, but my personal hobby horse is the unbalanced schedule. It drives me crazy.

The Brennamans are really doing a nice job of killing my enthusiasm for the Reds also, as if 98 losses wasn't enough.