Why MLB is dying- -

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Read the OP

Your point is?

 

[Mr. Friscus]

MLB's problem? It's boring! It's three minutes of action crammed into 3 hours!

I think you're onto something, which is the main point.

When you watch baseball.. the time you spend, the moment you're in.. means too little to care.

Think about it, and let's compare Baseball to Football. You're one fan. There are 162 games in a baseball season. Thus, every game means 0.6% of the season. Meanwhile, every Football game means 6.2% of the season.

If you have limited time to spend your evening to watch a sporting event throughout the week, which are you going to want to watch? The game that means more or the game that means less?

I know there are plenty of people with preferences, but for those of us who can appreciate all sports, Baseball games just don't mean enough to matter.

Once the post season comes around, baseball becomes more interesting. But as is, regular season baseball is just background noise. It's easily ignorable.

 

[pknopp]

LLWS is on. I love watching this.

 

[AMart]

There is no revenue sharing, no salary cap and teams manage tv rights as they see fit. This Greatly favors big market teams. The cubs should never have a rebuilding year but they do.

 

[donttread]

1. Though I prefer to write about inspirational topics, I feel after nearly a half century of watching one MLB team wallow in mediocrity, it’s time to speak up. MLB is slowly slipping into irreverence, due to many factors, the example below is the biggest one, and this applies to the majority of MLB teams:
   
   
   I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life, and love sports. I have learned however there is one constant in MLB that never changes, and it is this: The Seattle Mariners will purchase just enough talent to call themselves a major league team, knowing legions of devoted fans will unfailingly file into the ball park, sit on their large rumps, with their baseball caps on, talking about ERA’s and batting averages, only to watch the home team finish out of the playoff hunt year after year.
   
   
   Once a season is over Mariner ownership can be counted on to issue the same tired old talking points i.e. “they have some great young talent coming up” With the exception of a few teams in the 90’s that’s been the story of the 45+ year old Mariner franchise. Mention this fact to any baseball fan, and you’ll be saturated with one statistic after another on everything from slugging percentage to RBI's, this is because baseball fans can’t see past their stats, and realize corporate ownership of baseball teams is not about winning - it’s about money. Behind all those baseball stats. lurks an ugly truth: Mariner ownership (like most teams) doesn’t care if they win. For decades, Mariner ownership has kept their eye only on the bottom line of their financial spreadsheets. Like many, I stopped following MLB a few years ago, and have not missed it at all.
   
   
   This just in: Mariner owners are soon expected to issue a statement that “they have some great young talent coming up”….

Yup there are the few money teams like the Yanks, Dodgers and Bosox and most years the rest are also runs. Is it the Marlins that wins and thens sells off the players?
It's half assed really. A real salary cap might help. But lets face it the game is boring to begin with and the minute it gets interesting they kill the mood with one pitching change after another. Then you've got starting pictures pushing what a million dollars a start?
In fact I'm not sure where pro sports as a whole are going but over time I think it's down

 

[DGS49]

As a life-long Pittsburgh-er I have followed the Pirates through thick and thin, mostly thin. At the present time, the only reasons to go to a Pirate game are to see the other team, and enjoy the experience of a wonderful Major League ballpark. And to see the babes, of course. It's a good thing for the Pirates that all their "fans" are not as cheap as I am.

The Pirates are, in most ways, a "minor league" team. That is to say, we develop players until they are good enough to be major league starters, then lose them to free agency. One could staff a very competitive Major League team with the players that the Pirates have lost to free agency over the years. When I look at the box scores in the paper every day, I look to those players rather than the ever-dreadful Pirate results.

And given the economic realities, I can't blame the Pirates' management for not pursuing the big money free agents. Most of them prove to have been grossly over-valued by the marketplace, and the risk of spending a quarter of your entire player budget on a .255 hitter or a pitcher who goes 10-14 is very real.

Baseball NEEDS a salary cap and revenue sharing. The big market teams make more in RADIO revenue than the Pirates make overall. Aside from the occasional fluke year, the small market teams literally cannot compete. The other "solution" is to divide the Majors into two tiers, then, just for fun, have the champion of the Poverty Tier play a series against the champion of the Prosperous Tier, then call the winner the "World Champion." What could it hurt?

 

[Polishprince]

MLB's problem? It's boring! It's three minutes of action crammed into 3 hours!

I can basically agree with this. Baseball is a slow game to start with, but its been getting slower and slower over time. The "replay and review" bullshit just takes it to a new level in recent years.

A 1932 World Series game was over in 2 hours and 11 minutes, even with lots of hits and substitutions.

Nowadays it would take twice as long.

1932 World Series Game 3 Box Score

1932 World Series Game 3 box score between the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees.

www.baseball-almanac.com

 

[JohnReese]

1. Though I prefer to write about inspirational topics, I feel after nearly a half century of watching one MLB team wallow in mediocrity, it’s time to speak up. MLB is slowly slipping into irreverence, due to many factors, the example below is the biggest one, and this applies to the majority of MLB teams:
   
   
   I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life, and love sports. I have learned however there is one constant in MLB that never changes, and it is this: The Seattle Mariners will purchase just enough talent to call themselves a major league team, knowing legions of devoted fans will unfailingly file into the ball park, sit on their large rumps, with their baseball caps on, talking about ERA’s and batting averages, only to watch the home team finish out of the playoff hunt year after year.
   
   
   Once a season is over Mariner ownership can be counted on to issue the same tired old talking points i.e. “they have some great young talent coming up” With the exception of a few teams in the 90’s that’s been the story of the 45+ year old Mariner franchise. Mention this fact to any baseball fan, and you’ll be saturated with one statistic after another on everything from slugging percentage to RBI's, this is because baseball fans can’t see past their stats, and realize corporate ownership of baseball teams is not about winning - it’s about money. Behind all those baseball stats. lurks an ugly truth: Mariner ownership (like most teams) doesn’t care if they win. For decades, Mariner ownership has kept their eye only on the bottom line of their financial spreadsheets. Like many, I stopped following MLB a few years ago, and have not missed it at all.
   
   
   This just in: Mariner owners are soon expected to issue a statement that “they have some great young talent coming up”….

My Phillies are in the same boat we are looking at, Ten years without contending, but our owner has tried!

 

[22lcidw]

My Phillies are in the same boat we are looking at, Ten years without contending, but our owner has tried!

The Phillies are rich. That is what makes it brutal.

 

[LA RAM FAN]

I sympathize with the Mariners fan

other teams in the league are just a pathetic and dedicated only to making money for the ownership

the Rangers, Marlins, Rockies and Diamondbacks to name a few

but its like the Cowboys in football

as long as the fanbase keeps making a profit for the owners nothing will change

so very true.its sad.

The Rays are incredible with their scouting and minor league set up. The stadium they play in is not that great at least to MLB Standards and they do not draw well. Frankly, the fans do not deserve them. Baseball fanatics living close to their ballpark most likely can find good deals and get away cheaper to enjoy a game.


WHY ANY OWNER WOULD BE DUMB ENOUGH TO BRING AN MLD BASEBALL TO FLORIDA IS BEYOND ME.

Greed is why all sports will die…

you nailed it jack.

 

[LA RAM FAN]

The last union strike negotiations created rich teams and poor teams.

Essentially, the players run the roost and can make as much as they want where they want. So now if you are good enough, you can be a Yankee who pays more for their bull pen than what the Devil Rays pay for their entire team.

This way everyone is happy. Players make as much as they are able and the media is happy because the only teams making it to the World Series are big media teams in large cities with unlimited amounts of money that give them good ratings.

The only ones left out in the cold are fans of small market teams. But who cares about them?

so very true. That totally destroyed the integrity of MLB baseball, sadly the ONLY thing thats worth anything about seeing a game is going to their stadiums and seeing the ballpark. Its only when a small market team like the Rays comes along and makes it to the world series that I ever watch it anymore.


you are so correct,the movie MONEYBALL is sadly the way baseball is these days and the way MLB operates has not changed sense then.,


these small market teams just draft players to develope them for the big market teams now.FUCK MLB baseball.

 

[JohnReese]

The Phillies are rich. That is what makes it brutal.

And we are wasting Bryce in his prime! Last year he sounded off on the 2020 season and said he regretted not going to the dodgers. I can't blame the guy. No one desires a championship ring more than him!

 

[lg325]

Tonights Yankees/Mets game was 3hrs 58 min. Yankees won 8-7 and it was one of the best games I have seen. Most people do not take the time to understand the game and that's why they find it boring. Some spectacular catches in this game.

 

[Quasar44]

JohnReese
I thought you guys just won the World Series only a decade ago ??

 

[JohnReese]

JohnReese
I thought you guys just won the World Series only a decade ago ??

We did, but Harper was not there for them.

 

[NoBueno]

so very true. That totally destroyed the integrity of MLB baseball, sadly the ONLY thing thats worth anything about seeing a game is going to their stadiums and seeing the ballpark. Its only when a small market team like the Rays comes along and makes it to the world series that I ever watch it anymore.


you are so correct,the movie MONEYBALL is sadly the way baseball is these days and the way MLB operates has not changed sense then.,


these small market teams just draft players to develope them for the big market teams now.FUCK MLB baseball.

This isn't new. The Indians and the KC A's were the Yankees "farm teams" in the 50s. The St. Louis Browns would often sell their better players for cash.
Go back the the very beginning of baseball, and clubs were complaining they didn't have enough money or enough pitching.
Same as it ever was.

 

[AzogtheDefiler]

The one year I believe they had over 110 wins, I believed that was going to be their championship season. There are a lot of suffering clubs. Sports needs to be blue collar again. And that means a major shakeup on how we all view it.

116 wins and then choked to the Yankees

 

[AzogtheDefiler]

Baseball is great live at Fenway

 

[DGS49]

As spectator sports go, there is something that could happen on every single pitch that could impact the outcome of the game. Football same thing.

in high level soccer, 98% of the time, the ball is so far from the goal that the only meaningful thing that could happen is an injury to a player. You could show the "highlights" of the entire quadrennial World Cup tournament in ten minutes. With time left over for a few commercials.

 

[22lcidw]

As spectator sports go, there is something that could happen on every single pitch that could impact the outcome of the game. Football same thing.

in high level soccer, 98% of the time, the ball is so far from the goal that the only meaningful thing that could happen is an injury to a player. You could show the "highlights" of the entire quadrennial World Cup tournament in ten minutes. With time left over for a few commercials.

Baseball is not a good sport to be over commercialized. Other have been infected with games seeming to be at least a half hour longer and more in Football then a few decades ago. The NFL though seems to have blurred extra time by making it a much more offensive scoring game.