Baseball Is Dying

[bmattioli]

It's Opening Day can't there be some positive vibes out there??

Come-On Man..

So happy today!!

[Jay Wolt]

Originally Posted by bmattioli

It's Opening Day can't there be some positive vibes out there??

Come-On Man..

So happy today!!

+1
Though disappointed that the Yanks / BoSox game was cancelled today
Will have to wait till tomorrow afternoon

[joshleon]

The little league thing is a big deal. What you are starting to see with youth (I have 8 and 10yos) is the "specialization of youth athletics". Baseball is a great example. The kids who play baseball well, end up playing for club and/or travel teams, and the causal players from the town don't make enough of a critical mass to get the little league going. The gung ho parents who coach, coach the travel, not the rec. etc..

These factors end up causing local little leagues to die out. Many towns in the NE where I live don't have LLs anymore. The casual players don't have an option to play, then they lose interest, and the MLB has lost another future fan.

We make our boys play both rec and travel for this very reason. We cut out travel practice in the spring so they can play rec with their friends. That may sound like i'm bragging but I am also cognizant that I am part of the problem in that I have them do travel/club in the first place.

All of the points in this thread are good ones.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by joshleon

The little league thing is a big deal. What you are starting to see with youth (I have 8 and 10yos) is the "specialization of youth athletics". Baseball is a great example. The kids who play baseball well, end up playing for club and/or travel teams, and the causal players from the town don't make enough of a critical mass to get the little league going. The gung ho parents who coach, coach the travel, not the rec. etc..

These factors end up causing local little leagues to die out. Many towns in the NE where I live don't have LLs anymore. The casual players don't have an option to play, then they lose interest, and the MLB has lost another future fan.

We make our boys play both rec and travel for this very reason. We cut out travel practice in the spring so they can play rec with their friends. That may sound like i'm bragging but I am also cognizant that I am part of the problem in that I have them do travel/club in the first place.

All of the points in this thread are good ones.

Forget the organized leagues, when I was young, I remember kids from the neighborhoods just going to the local fields and playing pickup games. When was the last time you drove past a baseball field and just saw kids playing? And that's assuming you still have some ballfields in your neighborhood anymore. They're like bowling alleys it seems. They get removed and torn down, but never replaced or have new ones put up. The 1993 movie "The Sandlot" was set in 1962 and epitomizes exactly what I'm talking about. Those days are long gone. (Great movie by the way, with a Babe Ruth autographed baseball as the focal point, and James Earl Jones playing a former Negro League star player who sounds like he may have been based on Josh Gibson.)

[Touch'EmAll]

All sing ! " Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie & Chevrolet. They go together in the good ol' USA "

And by the way, my Angels with Trout & Ohtani just might go all the way this year.

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by Touch'EmAll

All sing ! " Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie & Chevrolet. They go together in the good ol' USA "

And by the way, my Angels with Trout & Ohtani just might go all the way this year.

Every team is undefeated at the start of opening day! Hope springs eternal!

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by bmattioli

It's Opening Day can't there be some positive vibes out there??

Come-On Man..

So happy today!!

There is infinitely more baseball today than yesterday! That is a good thing!

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by bmattioli

It's Opening Day can't there be some positive vibes out there??

Come-On Man..

So happy today!!

Agreed and the Best part is my team is Un Defeated.

[toledo_mudhen]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

agreed and the best part is my team is un defeated.

cmon man!

[butchie_t]

Originally Posted by bmattioli

It's Opening Day can't there be some positive vibes out there??

Come-On Man..

So happy today!!

I'm positive baseball is dying.


;-)

Butch

[BCauley]

I’d be curious to see stats on when baseball began “dying” by year. Are games too long? Me personally I don’t think so. I would just be curious to know the correlation between the “takes to long” and the “immediate gratification” society we are in today.

[Orioles1954]

Originally Posted by BCauley

I’d be curious to see stats on when baseball began “dying” by year. Are games too long? Me personally I don’t think so. I would just be curious to know the correlation between the “takes to long” and the “immediate gratification” society we are in today.

From what I understand the NFL first surpassed MLB in ratings and popularity in 1972.

[Hankphenom]

My 70+ year-old friends and I talk often about how happy we are to have lived when we did, for the many pleasures and experiences we took for granted for most of our lives that now seem to be on the verge of extinction, baseball as we knew it among them, but also great daily newspapers; wonderful music and movies; terrific neighborhood bars and mom-and-pop restaurants; affordable housing and cars; temperate climate, etc.. Of course I'd rather be young right now, but without sounding like a grumpy old man--which I don't feel like in the least--sometime in the next few years doesn't seem like a bad time to be taking leave of this place after a long and happy life. I hope the young folks are finding and creating as much fun and entertainment to fill up their days as we did. To bring it back to baseball, reading the list of changes mandated by the Poobahs in their negligible wisdom, it's amazing that virtually all of them strike me as actually detrimental to the game and the experience of it. I can't imagine what they are thinking in practically every one of these meddlesome and needless changes. For starters, all I want mandated is for the batters to stay in the box, the pitchers stay on the mound, and the runners stay on the bases, all of them ready for the next pitch. Having said all this, I am absolutely thrilled to have my Nationals to watch every day for the next six months or so. "Play Ball!", I am so happy to be able to say.

[Snapolit1]

Everyone wants baseball to stay exactly like it was when they were 12 year sold. Unfortunately the world doesn't stay that way.

You know what the most popular commodity in football is? The red zone tv channel. My kids love football. They consume it entirely differently than I did. The idea of watching complete games befuddles them. They watch 10 games at the same time. And are on the internet at the same time texting about the games. Never in a million years sit at a bar and watch a game.

Movie theatres? Dying. People under the age of 40 consume movies differently.

Bowling alleys? Forget about it.

Academy awards? Grammys. Please. No one cares. Send me a 3 minute you tube clip of the highlights.

College football? Many schools can't fill their stadiums anymore. I will follow it on my phone from a bar or my dorm room.

The world changes. It's not really about baseball.

Over 40 million Americans went to a major league baseball game last year. And then there is minor leagues. And college games. Tell me what's even close to that.

[SyrNy1960]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Everyone wants baseball to stay exactly like it was when they were 12 year sold. Unfortunately the world doesn't stay that way.

You know what the most popular commodity in football is? The red zone tv channel. My kids love football. They consume it entirely differently than I did. The idea of watching complete games befuddles them. They watch 10 games at the same time. And are on the internet at the same time texting about the games. Never in a million years sit at a bar and watch a game.

Movie theatres? Dying. People under the age of 40 consume movies differently.

Bowling alleys? Forget about it.

Academy awards? Grammys. Please. No one cares. Send me a 3 minute you tube clip of the highlights.

College football? Many schools can't fill their stadiums anymore. I will follow it on my phone from a bar or my dorm room.

The world changes. It's not really about baseball.

Over 40 million Americans went to a major league baseball game last year. And then there is minor leagues. And college games. Tell me what's even close to that.

+1

[cubman1941]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Everyone wants baseball to stay exactly like it was when they were 12 year sold. Unfortunately the world doesn't stay that way.

You know what the most popular commodity in football is? The red zone tv channel. My kids love football. They consume it entirely differently than I did. The idea of watching complete games befuddles them. They watch 10 games at the same time. And are on the internet at the same time texting about the games. Never in a million years sit at a bar and watch a game.

Movie theatres? Dying. People under the age of 40 consume movies differently.

Bowling alleys? Forget about it.

Academy awards? Grammys. Please. No one cares. Send me a 3 minute you tube clip of the highlights.

College football? Many schools can't fill their stadiums anymore. I will follow it on my phone from a bar or my dorm room.

The world changes. It's not really about baseball.

Over 40 million Americans went to a major league baseball game last year. And then there is minor leagues. And college games. Tell me what's even close to that.

Great points! I do not watch baseball on tv as it moves to slow, however, I love to go to games. The game doesn't move any faster but it is so much fun to watch the people having fun enjoying themselves. Of course I am not able to go to Major League games and we lost our Minor Team two years ago but I go watch the wooden bat college league. I have fun speculating on who might make it. Oh, BTW, my Cubs are undefeated so far this year!!

[HistoricNewspapers]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Everyone wants baseball to stay exactly like it was when they were 12 year sold. Unfortunately the world doesn't stay that way.

You know what the most popular commodity in football is? The red zone tv channel. My kids love football. They consume it entirely differently than I did. The idea of watching complete games befuddles them. They watch 10 games at the same time. And are on the internet at the same time texting about the games. Never in a million years sit at a bar and watch a game.

Movie theatres? Dying. People under the age of 40 consume movies differently.

Bowling alleys? Forget about it.

Academy awards? Grammys. Please. No one cares. Send me a 3 minute you tube clip of the highlights.

College football? Many schools can't fill their stadiums anymore. I will follow it on my phone from a bar or my dorm room.

The world changes. It's not really about baseball.

Over 40 million Americans went to a major league baseball game last year. And then there is minor leagues. And college games. Tell me what's even close to that.

Exactamundo....and if the Fonz were on network TV today, hardly anyone would watch until it came to Netflix or somewhere else where it could be binge watched(and without commercials). They still might not watch unless there were nude scenes added with some of Fonzie's hook ups(which I would be perfectly fine with).

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by bmattioli

It's Opening Day can't there be some positive vibes out there??

Come-On Man..

So happy today!!

I'd feel much more positive if Manfred would resign. That would be a boost of adrenaline for MLB.

As a Reds fan, there's really not much to get excited about... maybe an epic impending battle with Pittsburgh for last place?