Dissecting Baseball's "Problem."
One time, baseball was the thing in this country. As a kid living the suburbs of Detroit, I remember baseball meant so much. Opening Day at Tiger Stadium was an event. Heck, the 12:00 news on WDIV was all about the Tigers home opener (which always seemed like it was against the Yankees). When the All-Star game arrived, you sensed it was a huge event. Did it mean anything? Did it "count" (like we keep hearing Joe Buck religiously say from 2003-2016)? No. But it was must-see TV. When you got to October, it was the best team in the AL East against the best in the AL West and the same went for the NL East against the NL West. And of course, nobody would screw around with the World Series in terms of putting anything new on TV. It was the two best teams baseball had and we all paid attention
Then something happened.
The luster of all of it...wasn't there. Or so we have been told. Okay, truth is, it isn't the same. That said, I still LOVE baseball. I love it so much we plan our vacations to hit new Major League parks I haven't been to while en route seeing Minor League parks. It is great. When the season begins, I get my baseball movie fix: Field of Dreams, Major League, The Rookie, Moneyball, the Sandlot, and Bad News Bears (the original, not the Billy Bob Thornton one). But the one I have to watch above all else, is Field of Dreams. Just for this scene:
The first time I ever heard it, it gave me chills. And I was 8. I am 36 now and I have seen it countless times, but it still gives me chills. Maybe it is James Earl Jones or maybe the speech itself is so powerful or you remember it was at the biggest part of the movie...I don't know, but it has stuck with me. But it was pretty much poetry.
Now, ratings are not as high. People are turned off. Our sports heroes are not baseball players. And football has taken over the scene.
What has gone on that made MLB no longer America's Pastime? Why is it boring? Well, the easiest thing to blame is time. The games are according to critics in the media, "dragging" and it is just boring and irritating to sit in a seat for 3 hours for little action. But I think it is more than just that. We can make the same argument for football actually in that case.
To me, baseball's issues have little to do with the time being expanded. And there are a lot of factors that make the baseball game "drag." And it has very little to do with the actual game itself. But there is two things on the field that has changed.
1. BASEBALL HAS GONE MORE STRATEGIC: The days of pitch, and catch while they try to hit them where they ain't are over. It is now of, well, this guy is a dead pull hitter so let's move our middle infielder on the same side as he pulls it. Fine, I get that. Add on lefty-lefty match-ups, situation relievers (which I somewhat DON'T agree with), and you extend the game a good bit. You can even make a case that the shifts also extend the game as it feels players are fouling off more pitches to avoid the shift. And with the no-pitch intentional walk (what is this, MLB the Show?) managers are starting to stockpile relievers as bench hitters are becoming a rarity, even in the National League. We're seeing 8 relievers while only 4 hitters, somewhat of a wide ratio.
2. REPLAY: I think replay is actually a good idea. That said, it takes forever for them to look at it. You could wait for way too long on a call that you can see in any MLB park scoreboard and go "yep, safe" or "yep, out."
3. NEW BALLPARKS: Save for Houston's and Miami's parks, the places I've been to that have been built post 1991 (I'm including Chicago's Comiskey Cellular Rate Field) I have loved going to. But there are so many things to do at the parks for people of all ages. Team shops, bars, kiddie spots, plazas, Ferris Wheels, etc. And now you are having a new wave of St. Louis and possibly Atlanta doing "ballpark villages" where fans will probably get "bored" of the game and just stroll like you're at Disney Springs in Orlando. I guess it is fine, but when you have so many things to do people start wandering of what they want to do and miss out on a part of games. They're focused on so many other things that the game is secondary, or lower than that.
4. TECHNOLOGY: It's easy to get up-to-date with what is going on in the world, let alone the baseball world. If you are a Tigers fan and you're watching the Braves against the Mets, in the past, you had to look at the out-of-town scoreboard to see what they are doing. You hadn't a clue what the situation was. With IPhones and such, you can get as up-to-date as possible. Or, if you're a casual fan, you want to do you r duck-face with your friends as you sip your beer and act like a clown in the stands and put on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. And then you are on there and see something your friends do. Another distraction. Then you become agitated with the game as it isn't going fast enough.
5. TV/RADIO PRESENTATION: I mentioned on how you can make the All-Star Game great again is that dump Fox Sports and Joe Buck. Anybody who knows me I'd rather give myself my own root canal before I willingly listen to Joe Buck call a baseball or a football game. The days of Harry Caray, Vin Scully, Ernie Harwell, Harry Kalas, Pete Van Wieren & Skip Caray, and others are long gone. I do enjoy listening to the likes of Jon Sciambi on ESPN, and I enjoyed listening to Jon Miller as well when he did Sunday Night Baseball, but you get these new announcers who think they are going to be God's greatest gift to baseball and but about as exciting as stale bread. Part of it is that the passion they have is NOTHING compared to the guys I named previously. Adding on, they go into these rants of things unrelated to the game, while shilling out for products (while I get that, it is a bit excessive now). Or my favorite in Atlanta right now, hearing the announcers talk about how SunTrust Park is now the ballpark every other ballpark wishes they could be.
6. PEOPLE HAVE CHANGED: I hinted on it with technology. People want things done and fast. 3 hours is too much for people to sit on their butts today. They can't just be entertained of what is on the field during that time. You're talking the Millennial Era where the attention spans have lowered. You want to see the results then and there and some cannot wait for hours to see what happens. And that's unfortunate. Add on we are a society of action. It is why football really has a total of maybe 15 minutes at the most of action swelled up into 3 hours and fans are fine with it because it is contact. To a baseball detractor is you pitch, throw, swing a bat, and watch people run around.
So, what to do with the "problems" baseball has, notably with "time?"
1. Let the baseball detractors walk. If they are a casual fan, fine. Come out, watch the game and enjoy yourself. But don't be griping on how boring or long the games are. There's football from August through early February. There's basketball from October through June. Soccer is a growing sport in the States. I get what Rob Manfred is doing, but it is the whole "If you give a mouse a cookie" mentality. If they bicker about time, they're going to bicker about something else. Then that gets addressed. And then they'll bicker on something else. How about let them whine? Baseball isn't perfect nor has it been, but speeding up the game like cutting 4 pitches for intentional walk doesn't solve much. You're going to get something else from players or managers to stall the game more. It is a similar thing to what we are seeing in college basketball where the NCAA and their rules, which is trying to have more offense has backfired. Just let them walk and keep the fans who actually care about the game happy?
2. "Cut" some of the amenities or put rules to them. New parks won't ever do this, and I personally have no problems with bars and club level eats, but do we really need to have massive playgrounds for the kids? I have two kids and don't get me wrong, we have utilized those at ballparks, BEFORE the game begins. Maybe we can pass down the love for baseball to a new generation for fans?
3. Improve TV/Radio presentations. One gripe about the announcers I didn't say was they are all the same. They all have the same monotone voice and there isn't personality. I know Ken Harrelson for the White Sox has been vilified over his time as an announcer, but you cannot deny he has a style that is unmatched. The others? You can put them in any other MLB franchise and nobody could tell the difference. And with social media the way as it is, we are seeing more gripes from announcers about what they see and hear, thus making them come off as a bit of a jerk that way. What I think was the thing of seeing great announcers back in the day was that they didn't take themselves too seriously, if at all. Call it like you love it. And honestly, I am reminded of Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day where he is trying to get that national promotion and doesn't give a poop about his current work. That's how I view some announcers today. A poor presentation makes the game feel actually longer than what it is.
4. End Interleague Play (not related to time, but still). Of course, that means you either have to add two more teams in baseball to get 16 in the AL and 16 in the NL or move one AL team (Houston) to the NL or one NL team (Milwaukee) to the AL. And I loved Interleague when it came out which meant I saw my Tigers play in Atlanta more than a few times. And I mentioned this in my improve the All-Star game bit, is I remembered Bob Costas used this argument of why the All-Star game lost its luster was because of Interleague. But think about it this way: with no Interleague, seeing Kershaw vs. Trout would be the All-Star Game must-see TV. Instead, we have seen Kershaw vs. Trout more than a few times. The same would go for World Series games. A Red Sox-Cubs World Series? Great! Just one problem: they played against each other in the regular season so it stings. I don't want to hear about the "well, the other major sports do it too" bit. That's entirely different.
5. Advertise the players. Many gripe the NBA and the NHL put out only a few players to be "the guy" in that sport. We know LeBron, Curry, and probably Westbrook now run the show in the NBA. We know the NHL is doing the same for Sidney Crosby and you are starting to see certain players such as Connor McDavid being that as well. The NFL honestly does a decent job of it. But for baseball? We have a gem in Anaheim in Trout that doesn't get anywhere near the attention because 1. He plays out west and 2. The Angels aren't winning. I know fans who are from New York or Boston keep hating the fact others scream "East Coast Bias" but I say, had Jeter played for San Diego, does he become a legend? Or if it was Trout in New York or Boston, he would be the face for baseball. A good, happy-go-lucky kid who can do it all. I am not sure if MLB is praying Harper can put up similar numbers when all is said and done, but right now people are not as inclined to jump on the Bryce Harper bandwagon for the fact he hasn't done it yet, and he isn't a happy-go-lucky guy and comes off as a jerk. There are others as well MLB can use like Machado, Lindor, half of the Cubs, etc. and for some reason baseball players do not come in the top 25 of most beloved athletes in the country. Problems. If you advertise it, they will come.
Those are some of the things I would do differently to get baseball back to snuff. Some of them, you just can't change. But trying to change it like we are seeing now with Manfred is not working and if anything will drive off more fans.
-Fan in the Obstructed Seat
