MLB has officially jumped the shark

[conor912]

WTF is this BS? I couldn't even get through half of it and my eyes glazed over.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...edium=referral

[packs]

I can't think of a guy who hates baseball more than the commissioner of it! What is he thinking with this crap? If he wants to make the postseason more exciting and generate more revenue, why on earth would he not do the obvious: make the wild card series a best of 3 and make the division round a best of 7?

[jgannon]

This is one of the reasons why I collect baseball cards: to remember a time when baseball was played the way it was supposed to be. This is not to denigrate some of the great play you can still see in the game, like the amazing speed you see when infielders turn plays. But as to the rest of it...

[doug.goodman]

Might as well just put everybody in the playoffs, and cut the regular season down to a few weeks.

My favorite line in that story "The NFL has unquestionably eclipsed MLB as America's top sport." which links to a story containing a bar graph showing the 33% of people say football is their favorite sport, while 16% say it's baseball.

I would have liked to see a graph showing the 68,500,000 people who bought MLB tickets last year and the 17,000,000 who bought NFL tickets.

Face it, we "old" guys are not their market anymore, they are chasing the kidz, at least they think they are, unfortunately the post season games are all scheduled for us old guys to stay up all night to watch, while the kidz have to go to bed before some games are even starting.

Good thing for all of them that most of us old guys will still be watching baseball when all the kidz that they have alienated with their scheduling, or failed to entice with the "boring" game that we all love, have moved on to other "more exciting" sports.

At least impending NL DH will slow down the exodus of youth for a couple years, while pushing many of us away.

Doug

[buymycards]

Originally Posted by packs

I can't think of a guy who hates baseball more than the commissioner of it! What is he thinking with this crap? If he wants to make the postseason more exciting and generate more revenue, why on earth would he not do the obvious: make the wild card series a best of 3 and make the division round a best of 7?

I disagree. This would make a tedious playoff season even more tedious. 1 game for the wild card, 3 games for the division, 5 games for the World Series.

The NFL only plays one game in each round, why do we need to drag out the MLB play offs until Thanksgiving?

[packs]

I mean, you understand why the NFL only plays one game right? I don't really see any connection between the MLB and NFL structures. And if you don't like baseball, don't watch it. People who like baseball aren't going to complain they get to see more playoff games. Playing 162 games (that are ALL played as part of a series) only to then play a one game playoff to get into the postseason has always seemed pretty weird to me.

[buymycards]

Originally Posted by packs

I mean, you understand why the NFL only plays one game right? I don't really see any connection between the MLB and NFL structures. And if you don't like baseball, don't watch it. People who like baseball aren't going to complain they get to see more playoff games. Playing 162 games (that are ALL played as part of a series) only to then play a one game playoff to get into the postseason has always seemed pretty weird to me.

I do enjoy watching baseball, but the game seems to have slowed down and become more tedious.

I remember sitting in my back yard listening to the Milwaukee Braves on the radio, and I watch nearly every Milwaukee Brewers game, so it isn't that I don't like baseball. I just wish there would be some rule changes to move it along a little quicker. Watching a batter take 90 seconds in between pitches to tighten up his gloves, scratch his balls, spit on the bat, etc., doesn't contribute to the quality and enjoyment of the game.

[packs]

I agree that some things can be improved "in game" but this is the playoffs we're talking about. You play all season just to get there and I don't think it does anyone any favors to introduce gimmicks at that point in the season.

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by buymycards

I do enjoy watching baseball, but the game seems to have slowed down and become more tedious.

I remember sitting in my back yard listening to the Milwaukee Braves on the radio, and I watch nearly every Milwaukee Brewers game, so it isn't that I don't like baseball. I just wish there would be some rule changes to move it along a little quicker. Watching a batter take 90 seconds in between pitches to tighten up his gloves, scratch his balls, spit on the bat, etc., doesn't contribute to the quality and enjoyment of the game.

I think every player should be made to sit down and watch a couple of the old games they have on tape: like the 7th game of the 1960 World Series, or one of those old, rare 50's World Series game, to see how the game should be played!

The game was less neurotic then. All this delay now, stepping out of the batter's box, adjusting gloves, etc. But I can't stand the new rules from the pitcher having to face 3 batters, to batters just taking their base on an intentional base-on-balls. I don't think these rule changes are good for the game, and aren't the way to shorten it. I think the way to do that is to keep batters in the box, and probably shorten the number of commercials in between innings. Also very importantly, I think the strike zone should be enlarged, and pitchers should be allowed to brush back batters. Shorter at bats.

While baseball has definitely slowed down, I think another problem that feeds into the issue of trying to keep people engaged in the game is a faster paced and more impatient society, with instant information, cell phones, highlight reels, and the like. There isn't an epic moment every moment of the game. You also have so many distractions now at the ballpark from games and commercials on the scoreboard, instant replays, T-shirts being shot up into the stands, fireworks, and music for each batter as they come to the plate. It's like the ball clubs are afraid of any "dead" time so they fill it up with anything they can think of. This further weakens attention spans which then creates the dread that they better have more distractions. The game itself used to be enough.

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by packs

I mean, you understand why the NFL only plays one game right? I don't really see any connection between the MLB and NFL structures. And if you don't like baseball, don't watch it. People who like baseball aren't going to complain they get to see more playoff games. Playing 162 games (that are ALL played as part of a series) only to then play a one game playoff to get into the postseason has always seemed pretty weird to me.

I love baseball, and I don't want more playoff games.

[packs]

I'm sure you would have liked to see the Brewers play more than one game last year.