Baseball Is Dying

[Snapolit1]

Baseball has been “dying” forever. With all respect to The NY Times, give me a break.

https://www.si.com/.amp/mlb/2019/08/...-dying-history

[Orioles1954]

The Baltimore Orioles still have thousands of tickets left for opening day. When a fan has to go into one of the most dangerous cities in the country with a franchise committed to losing over 100 games a year then why bother?

[JollyElm]

To me, baseball began dying the day umpires started systematically throwing each and every pitched ball out of play that had the frickin' audacity of touching the ground. Prima donna BS!!!!

[mightymickof56]

Sabermetrics probably hasn’t helped the game either. Seems like bunting is largely extinct and steals seem also to be in decline. Is modern baseball a two outcome sport? Either a homer or a strikeout. I don’t know where baseball ranks among modern sports but I prefer soccer and basketball to modern baseball and have swtiched from collecting modern baseball cards to dead ball era stuff. Prefer the history and allure of the old timers to any modern stars. Trout Shohei etc are all great but none hold a candle to babe ruth.

[Mike D.]

'BASEBALL IS DYING': A 100-YEAR HISTORY OF DOOMSDAY PROCLAMATIONS

[BobbyStrawberry]

Many great points made already....in my view MLB is killing itself through piss poor leadership. Manfred is a disgrace to the game in so many ways.

The axing of minor league teams to save a few bucks in the short term was an awful decision for the long term health of the game...minor league are where you see families and regular people, as opposed to many major league stadium where casual fans and families are increasingly priced out (I'm looking at you, Yankee Stadium!)

[Dead-Ball-Hitter]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

Many great points made already....in my view MLB is killing itself through piss poor leadership. Manfred is a disgrace to the game in so many ways.

The axing of minor league teams to save a few bucks in the short term was an awful decision for the long term health of the game...minor league are where you see families and regular people, as opposed to many major league stadium where casual fans and families are increasingly priced out (I'm looking at you, Yankee Stadium!)

Bobby you said it all brother...

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by Mike D.

'BASEBALL IS DYING': A 100-YEAR HISTORY OF DOOMSDAY PROCLAMATIONS

The undeniable fact is, baseball IS dying, 100 years of baseball dying history or otherwise. I truly believe the root cause is the money these days. A nine inning game on TV cannot be sped up because of money. But there is more. Interest level. With everything available to everyone, so many diverse interests today, it is unrealistic to expect baseball to be as popular as even 20 to 25 years ago.

[Orioles1954]

I must have missed the wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding the N.L. getting the DH full-time. Fans were either resigned to the fact or (more worryingly) have stopped caring.

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by jingram058

The undeniable fact is, baseball IS dying, 100 years of baseball dying history or otherwise. I truly believe the root cause is the money these days. A nine inning game on TV cannot be sped up because of money. But there is more. Interest level. With everything available to everyone, so many diverse interests today, it is unrealistic to expect baseball to be as popular as even 20 to 25 years ago.

“Baseball will go broke because it makes too much money”.

You are right that the entertainment world is more niches than ever. That’s the reality…baseball will never be what it was in the 1950’s from a “general popularity” perspective, but neither will anything else.

Baseball is less “generally popular” now than it away 25 years ago (well, maybe 24 years ago), but the game brings in more money now than it did then, even adjusting for inflation.

[Rich Klein]

The real issue is lack of accessibility to average people.

If you have cable (I know many people have switched to streaming but cable is still the major factor) and my situation is not unique

We are still on Frontier and frankly if a family friend of my wife's was not able to put us on top of any customer service needs. we'd be gone so fast it would like as Quick Draw McGraw was in slow motion.

1) Fox Sports Sold Fox Southwest to Sinclair who renamed it Bally's. Now when the network was Fox many carriers did not want to upset Fox in any way. Sinclair asked the carriers for a lot more money and Frontier said no way. This affects me from watching almost any local DFW sport

2) This one I get a bit more on a business level. on July 1, 2020 during the pandemic and before baseball announced they would have a truncated 2020 season the MLB Network was gone. Now this one I get on the business level since there was no guarantee baseball would even be played in 2020. It's not come back to Frontier since then

3) Not related to Frontier but one reason I was happy to have a Sirius/XM sub was the baseball package was part of what I paid. Last year if we wanted to have baseball on Sirius/XM there was an extra charge.

4) I just read some Sunday games are going tp be streamed and here is an article with more details

https://www.engadget.com/mlb-latest-...215545375.html

5) One key reason the NFL is even bigger than ever is they have not forsaken the free TV (available on Local stations) broadcasts. Being a baseball fan is getting to be well nigh impossible in today's world and you want to make it easier to see games, not harder.

Regards
Rich

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

5) One key reason the NFL is even bigger than ever is they have not forsaken the free TV (available on Local stations) broadcasts. Being a baseball fan is getting to be well nigh impossible in today's world and you want to make it easier to see games, not harder.

Regards
Rich

This.

Much as I hate the NFL, with its National Anthem snubs, penalty flags on almost every play, and non-flags when it's obvious there should've been a penalty called..... at least I am able to view games.

I generally have to wait until deep in the playoffs or World Series before I can watch a baseball game on TV.

[bmattioli]

Originally Posted by Mark17

This.

Much as I hate the NFL, with its National Anthem snubs, penalty flags on almost every play, and non-flags when it's obvious there should've been a penalty called..... at least I am able to view games.

I generally have to wait until deep in the playoffs or World Series before I can watch a baseball game on TV.

Dude.. You can stream any MLB game you want for FREE.. That's what I do every night when the Redsox don't play

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by bmattioli

Dude.. You can stream any MLB game you want for FREE.. That's what I do every night when the Redsox don't play

How?

This is what I am seeing:

[ClementeFanOh]

Lots of wise words in the comments. I’d just say that a lot of pro sports are “dying”. I wouldn’t watch an NFL game if it was held in my back yard (funny that people say baseball features too much standing around and takes too long. The NFL is even worse, WAY too much inaction and commercials). NBA is hopeless trash…I think some sports are enjoying a boost, but it’s not the “big 3”. Doesn’t mean they aren’t making money, it means it’s basically unwatchable. That’s why I focus on my cards- now THAT is fun Trent King

[Mike D.]

Sports Illustrated’s 99 Things to Look Forward to This MLB Season:

https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/04/07/ml...-day-99-things

[Rhotchkiss]

I stopped being a fan of baseball in the early 1990's. But I love old baseball cards!

My 13 year-old is into collecting. When we go to shows, he looks only at basketball and football. He has no interest in baseball, unless he thinks its something I would like.

[slidekellyslide]

MLB also has the stupid blackout rules which make it impossible for me to get any Kansas City Royals home games even though I paid $139.99 for the MLB package. Luckily I'm not much of a Royals fan, the Red Sox are my team so I get all their games, but to not be able to watch any home games of the team closest to me is insane. There are 81 home games for every team, only retired people who can afford to do so go to every game. It's absolute insanity to block fans from watching their favorite team.

[CurtisFlood]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

The real issue is lack of accessibility to average people.

If you have cable (I know many people have switched to streaming but cable is still the major factor) and my situation is not unique

We are still on Frontier and frankly if a family friend of my wife's was not able to put us on top of any customer service needs. we'd be gone so fast it would like as Quick Draw McGraw was in slow motion.

1) Fox Sports Sold Fox Southwest to Sinclair who renamed it Bally's. Now when the network was Fox many carriers did not want to upset Fox in any way. Sinclair asked the carriers for a lot more money and Frontier said no way. This affects me from watching almost any local DFW sport

2) This one I get a bit more on a business level. on July 1, 2020 during the pandemic and before baseball announced they would have a truncated 2020 season the MLB Network was gone. Now this one I get on the business level since there was no guarantee baseball would even be played in 2020. It's not come back to Frontier since then

3) Not related to Frontier but one reason I was happy to have a Sirius/XM sub was the baseball package was part of what I paid. Last year if we wanted to have baseball on Sirius/XM there was an extra charge.

4) I just read some Sunday games are going tp be streamed and here is an article with more details

https://www.engadget.com/mlb-latest-...215545375.html

5) One key reason the NFL is even bigger than ever is they have not forsaken the free TV (available on Local stations) broadcasts. Being a baseball fan is getting to be well nigh impossible in today's world and you want to make it easier to see games, not harder.

Regards
Rich

You are right Rich. They made it tough to figure out where the playoff games were being shown years ago, and change it around from one cable channel to another. I dislike football and basketball with a purple passion and won't waste any of my time watching those sports no matter how easy they are to find.

[SteveWhite]

Just watched my Reds win against the Cubs. Can't believe the season only has one game to go. The Reds have to win, or they lose 100 games. Go Reds!

[Touch'EmAll]

"... What is to be done." Yes, Little League Baseball is hurt'in. Somehow we need to get kids involved in Little League - that's a good starting point.

Kids today have much more at their disposal than when we were kids - primarily Video games. We didn't have video games to the extent we do now back in the 70's & 80's.

My son is a Freshman in high school. He has a friend who has scholastic talent, but got C's and D's in school this past semester ... because he overloaded on video games. Sad, very sad. Now this kids college future is in jeopardy already. Is it worth it, is it worth all the time playing video games?

Just look around the neighborhoods - how many kids are out riding their bikes, playing Hide 'n Seek, Playing touch football, playing whiffle ball in the street ? Not many.

[brianp-beme]

At least a couple of the new Covid inspired rules thankfully are no longer with us...the seven-inning doubleheaders, and that ghastly softball-ish rule where the offense was gifted a ghost runner on second base in extra innings.

Brian

[Rich Klein]

Sorry but we'll have the ghost runner in 2022

https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2022...s-ghost-runner

Rich

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Sorry but we'll have the ghost runner in 2022

https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2022...s-ghost-runner

Rich

I stand, unfortunately, corrected...boo!

Brian

[BobC]

Video games, computers, cell phones, lack of kids being involved in sports, banks accepting wages from both spouses for mortgages, the cost of packs of baseball cards (if kids can even find packs for sale), the cost of a ticket to see a ball game, and on and on, have all contributed to the drop in the popularity of baseball among the younger generations. The defining term today is "soccer moms" not "baseball moms". The baby boomer generation marked the end of an era and way of life and thinking in this country. Baseball popularity is just one of the victims. It will never completely die, just as things like bowling, softball, and pool halls will never completely die, and still exist today, just not even close to the levels of popularity they once had.

MLB is too big a business, with currently too much money behind it, to just go away overnight. But in the coming decades they may be forced to make more and more cutbacks and changes to stem the drops in interest and popularity that are appearing on the horizon. Baseball popularity and support seems to be stronger than ever in the Latin and Caribbean countries/islands though. For example, I'll bet you can name a lot more Dominican players in MLB than you can in either the NFL or NBA.

Baseball is good for now. The owners and players have to stop being so greedy and become ambassadors of the game to the youth of America again. Babe Ruth was known for his interacting with fans and signing autographs for free whenever asked, especially for kids. Today's players seem to be worried a lot more about how much they're getting paid for the next singing they'll attend.

Heck, even the Black Sox scandal is relevant. The MLB owners realized that the public seeing the ugly side of baseball, and the means to which ballplayers and/or others might go to make money, revealed to many fans that baseball was really just a business and a way to make money off of them. But fans themselves don't look at their favorite teams and sports as businesses. They often view them through rose colored glasses and have a love and loyalty for the game itself, not the often unfeeling and disloyal business behind it all. People aren't entirely stupid (at least not all of them) and do understand there are for profit businesses behind all professional sports. But the fans still like to believe in the facade of baseball being s true sport played solely for the love of the game and support and loyalty of the fans more than anything else. As professional sports become more and more about the money and the business, the facade is slowly chipped away and fans become more disillusioned and lose interest. How many times have I heard our own fearless leader Leon (Hi Leon!) say how he quit watching baseball after the MLB strike in 1994. That strike represents how the greed and business side of baseball overshadowed the game itself, and exemplifies how a one-time fan can be exposed to too much of that, foreving changing the way they think and feel about the game they used to unconditionally love. Greed, power, fame, and control are powerful factors and forces that can corrupt even the strongest and most intelligent of minds. We'll see if the minds involved in MLB can effectively fight off those factors and forces, and not entirely succumb to them.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Baseball has been “dying” forever. With all respect to The NY Times, give me a break.

https://www.si.com/.amp/mlb/2019/08/...-dying-history

The writer's facts are unquestionable, given a break or otherwise. Yankees-Red Sox is not sold out, either. Baseball is in serious decline. You cannot deny it away.