Is Baseball (MLB) Really Doomed?

[jimmy40]

I miss the steroid era.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Baseball was my first love. I was born and raised in NY and grew up a Yankees fan. The biggest issues for me are:

1. A lack of parity

This coming from a diehard Yankees fan. The issue with MLB is if a team sucks, they suck for a very long time (162 games). That can be acceptable for a year or two, but when you have teams like the Royals that stink to high heaven for over 20 years in a row, it hurts the appeal of the game.

I don't apologize for the Yankees' success. Instead, I have a great disgust towards the other owners that are worth more than the Steinbrenners, but would rather leech off the league and make their huge sums of money each year.


2. Slow pace of the games

The games take much much longer than they did when I grew up watching them. And now they strikeout more often, so the games should take less longer than they do. Watch old replays of games on MLB Network or on ESPN Classic and you see a major difference. These days the pitcher throws a pitch and after the pitch the hitter steps out of the box, re-adjusts both gloves, looks at the 3rd base coach, then gets into his stance and then the next pitch is thrown. Very time consuming.

Back in the day there was virtually none of that. I remember watching one at-bat with Ron Cey where he fouled off 8 pitches in a row...not once did he step out of the batter's box. He stayed in the box and the pitcher threw the ball.

'While we're young!' - Al Czervik


The other issue is that the ballparks are becoming so overly corporate and if you look at the grand scale of ticket prices, MLB is an expensive ticket. So that draws in more corporate crowds as well as 'families' and that makes for people in the stands that really don't care about the game and it creates a dead atmosphere.






YR

 

[WPBCowboysFan]

I was a big fan in the 80's 90's growing up. Huge Orioles fan. Between Peter Angelos , The Steroid Era, and the Strike lost year....
I lost interest. Watch a few LCS, and Series games, but don't keep up with it anymore.

Dan & Buck have made it fun and worth watching the Birds again.

 

[Future]

Only if you dont understand the game. There is a reason its called the thinking mans game.

Think about how boring it is and what else you'd rather be watching maybe

Baseball games are fun to go to, but the reality is that other growing sports are simply more exciting (soccer, lacrosse). Baseball is always going to have a place at the top, especially if ESPN keeps carrying games, but its place as the American pastime is fading.

 

[Future]

A lot has changed since then. I think that Baseball is suffering because of all of the three major sports, it's most unusual to see a group of kids get out in the neighborhood and get together to play baseball. Do people even buy gloves for kids if they are not playing little league anymore? When I was a kid, regardless of if you played on a team, you had a glove. I don't think that's the case any longer.

Kids are still playing sports outside, but they just aren't playing baseball I think. I'm a bit biased b/c of where I'm from, but I just think other sports - notably lacrosse - are replacing baseball. In the Northeast and certain other places like Denver and Oregon, kids are picking up sticks, rather than gloves. Baseball used to have a monopoly on spring sports...it doesn't anymore.

 

[BigDGarciaFan]

i like it, but its just another sport these days. games are long, theres no ties(there must be a winner in each game). its should be a regional TV only sport just like college baseball. only the all star game, playoffs and world series should air on national TV. people these days only care for summer movies, too many reality shows to worry about, arrival of football season, pro wrestling. i bet the World Cup games had higher TV ratings than baseball. hopefully the summer games in 2016 will get higher TV ratings than baseball. its a regional TV sport. Fox, ESPN, and TBS should just stop airing national televised regular season games for a long while. dont you agree?