It is so long as ESPN leads sportscenter the morning after game 7 of the world series with Steph Curry's hand injury. That's the bottom line. ESPN is king. They are the world wide leader. They cover MLB and Hockey like they cover arena football. They are all about the NBA drama- not even the games- the soap opera, and the NFL. They have more people covering Monday night pre-game than their entire baseball staff. They cover Mississippi State football more than they cover UCF and Boise State combined. They cover vanderbilt football more than they cover Virginia Tech football. It's not honest coverage, and its not sports journalism. It's sad. Steph Curry leads their number 1 watched show the morning after game 7 of the world series.
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What in the name of 247 Sports is going on with this title?
It's all about the Benjamins mi amigo.
MLB popularity has been plummeting over the past 10 years. This World Series had the lowest ratings in a very long time, where I believe average viewers was less than your average NFL game.
Baseball is on the verge of, if not already become, a regional sport, and a distant 3rd among the big 4 sports, ahead of only the NHL, which truly is a regional sport.
Russo mentioned that the NBA does not restrict fans posting highlights etc on social media, so long as it's not vulgar, whereas MLB has very strict rules regarding that. The two sports are 180 degrees different in terms of social media, etc. That doesn't help.
Honest question: what do people mean when they call it a regional sport?
It's only popular in a particular region, i.e. baseball in the south or hockey in the northeast. While there are teams across the U.S., the sport as a whole doesn't have broad appeal outside its region.
Unless a team from a market like NYC or LA is in the World Series, viewership tends to dip severely.
Viewership does dip severely, but I feel like it is because of the lack of coverage it gets relative to NBA drama as opposed to the "regionality" of it. Some of the lack of coverage is self-inflicted, but everything is regional to an extent.
I would disagree with you that Hockey is a regional sport. Coast to Coast hockey is pretty well followed. I think the Florida Panthers And Phoenix Coyotes are are just in poor markets for hockey, just like the Atlanta Thrashers. Tampa has a pretty big following both regionally and country wide.
Which, out of the "Big 4", LigaMX is starting to draw higher ratings than the NHL ... the "Big 4" definition may be on its way out
I remember going online to check out the score of the game as I wasn't at a TV at the time. I had to scroll down to see anything about the WORLD F'ING SERIES to get past some basic football game. Seriously, their priorities are screwed up.
I talked to a producer for SVPs sportcenter show. He told me they purposely try to avoid telling you the score of the games. LOL. He says that's not important anymore since people "already know the scores" and it's old news. They go for the trick shot, trash talk, ignorant fan angle vs. the score of the actual game thing.
For me, it was during the game, so going to check for the scores would've been a timely event. I managed to watch at least most of, all of the games. That's what set me off. But your point is one of those things that seem painfully obvious yet still shocking to hear some form of confirmation. And this was when football games were being played as well, so they had the score of the football game on top of the baseball game. Pure poppycock
you're talking about visiting a website or app, dc is talking about programming on sportscenter
TKP'ing at work...it'll get after ya
Methinks you put way too much stock in the network. I haven't watched a Sportscenter in years that didn't involve SVP.
I can somewhat relate. The only Sportscenter I have watched in recent memory was the one where SVP went off on the NCAA on our behalf.
Right.
Unfortunately, it is dying - the ratings and the revenue all reflect that. Still lots of old brass that is holding baseball back in time as far as the game itself goes. FWIW, I thought Fox did a nice job covering the series. I thought the commentary was good, the shorts were well done, and the analysis was solid. Go NATS!
There's also a big problem with MLB right now that there are just too many people involved with the sport from the players to execs to media that are hell bent on playing the game "the right way" and strictly following all of the unwritten rules. During a time where the NFL and NBA are encouraging players to be themselves and express their individuality, baseball is still trying to get everyone to conform to the way things have always been.
That's driving a lot of the younger crowd away from the game. Heck, even hockey is dealing with this a bit right now when you look at the backlash against the celebrations that the Hurricanes were doing last year. But for the most part, the league itself is embracing it. The fact that MLB is still clinging to the tradition like they have been is killing the popularity of the league itself.
At least in my opinion.
i.e., All of the ridiculous drama that surrounded Bregman carrying his bat to first base. I can't stand that dude, but that was just sad. And he issues an apology!? Ya, it's still too much of a country club card room.
ANYTIME I have to listen to Joe Buck is a game that gets muted. The ONLY reason that he got his first job was because he was Jack Buck's son. His commentary is not good at all!
I personally like him, but I also like Chris Collinsworth and get chastised for that, so maybe it's me lol
I can't figure out why people don't like Joe Buck - and no one has ever given me a good answer.
He sounded sad last night during the immediate post game celebration. It was weird.
He tends to sound like that every year. He shuts up and lets the moment speak for itself without trying to talk over it. When the Phils won in 2008, there was probably 2 minutes of silence on his end after the final pitch where they just aired the team and crowd celebrating. I think the only 2 times where I remember him really showing emotion with the World Series final out was in 2004 with the Red Sox and 2016 with the Cubs.
I don't mind letting the moment speak for itself. There was nothing wrong with the words or amount of them he was using. It was just the tone of his voice. Like he was sad it was over, but not in a celebratory way. I guess I'm comparing him to Doc Emerick who genuinely sounds thrilled at the spectacle he just witnessed during moments like that. Not all crazy and excited but, satisfied and in awe.
I realize I'm picking nits here. His delivery just took me out of the moment a little bit.
He should have sounded sad, another DC sports team won a championship. A bad day for all of America outside of DC.
Edit: you're right, slightly dickish, tried to make it a little better.
dude, don't be a dick.Edit: I'm sure you what you said was in jest, but deriding a whole city that probably 50% of the readers of this site either are from or currently live in is well, kinda dickish. No worries. I probably shouldn't also be so defensive about it either.
To me when he is announcing games it is obvious that he has little knowledge of the teams that are competing. It only seems like he is giving what is put in front of him and lacks preparation. But that is just me.
Good on you, this is the first time anyone has ever given a reason why they didn't like him other than "he's annoying" or something bland like that.
I wonder how much of that has to do with going from football to baseball to football to baseball in-season. I feel like most of the top-tier announcers get to (for the most part) embrace a season and immerse themselves in the sport. The immediate exception that I can think of is Chris Fowler. He calls a football game, then flies to NY to call the US Open tennis, then go back to football, then tennis some more. IDK if Jim Nantz does that with golf or something.
He's really bad. Here is an example. when it's a pop up on the infield, this is how he announces it:
And.... 1 second pause ... that's ... 1 second pause ... the ... 1 second pause ... first ... 1 second pause or until catch happens ... out of the inning.
A good baseball announcer:
The pitch from Scherzer is a hard fastball. Altuve misses the barrel of the bat and pops this one up to the right side of second base. Cabrera gets underneath and makes the catch for the first out the inning.
Also... He doesn't know baseball. He doesn't know when it's a simple outfield pop fly and when its a deep home run. He doesn't what pitch was just thrown despite every other announcer knows the pitch based on speed of the pitch. And he recites so many non-sequitors it's so f'ing annoying. Joe Buck is terrible as announcer for baseball. I think he's fine for football, where he seems to have better knowledge and doesn't have to fill in the slow spaces that accompany a baseball game.
That's a radio announcer. He is TV. I can see its a pop up and who is catching it.
But, it's not. Every team has their TV announcer and he calls out the play as it is happening. Literally listen to any regular TV announcer or anyone of the greats, like Vin Scully or any of the Carays. Granted many do radio and TV, but when they do TV, they still call out the play as it happening to both prevent terrible silence and provide insight into the play. They know what is happening as the play is happening and can relay that. Even if it's on tv, as a viewer, you cannot determine the type of pitch immediately, and see where a pop up is going, so an announcer should relay that information. It is nice to know the player making the current play (as opposed to not even mentioning the player). Good announcers also provide interesting news and tidbits between pitches. Joe Buck provides none of this. It takes a lot of research and desire to be good baseball announcer. Joe Buck is not one of them.
Yea I agree with this, no one I have ever talked to actually has a good reason to dislike him. His voice is pretty silky smooth too. He's a good broadcaster IMO.
I like CC too. What's everyone else's problem?
Joe Buck is not good. But Fox is worth listen because Smoltz is so good. One of the best analysts of the game. He knows how each pitcher wants to work each hitter, and the particularities of every match up. He understands and relays the intricacies of pitch sequencing. And because of Smoltz, the Fox broadcast is good despite Joe Buck probably being the worst play-by-play announcer for baseball ever.
Joe Buck lied about a health condition(which caused him to step away from broadcasting, potentially for good) caused by his constant hair plug surgeries, due to his vanity. He lied to his employer and the public, even seeking sympathy. I don't understand why this is never brought up when discussing Buck.
Yes because they refuse to adapt to modern times, antiquated rules, the stupid unwritten rules, the no fun allowed, it drives away younger fans. This is coming from a guy whose dad used to take him to games and taught him how to keep box scores, it is sad to see but going away...
To be fair I havent watched sportcenter in like 6 years. When I did watch was usually to try to catch the 2 minutes after a big VT win. Up to about 10 years ago I would watch sportcenter multiple times per day.
Late 90's (when I was at Tech) was pretty much the prime years for Sportscenter. My freshman year in 95 you could walk down the hall in Pritchard and it was on every tv in every room.
Games are too long. Period.
So is the average televised college football game
I think both statements are true. The reason I can get over college football games being too long is because the majority are on Saturdays. I genuinely wanted to watch the world series this year, but I'm not staying up until midnight and then getting up at 5:00 for over a week. Just isn't going to happen, for me personally anyways.
This is the main reason I haven't watched the World Series in 20 years. The games are on late and I don't want to stay up unless I had a rooting interest. I did this year and it was well worth it, but if the Nats and/or O's aren't in it next year, I'm not going to watch
The median age of a baseball attendee keeps going up. Orioles are trying to combat that by allowing 2 free kids tickets for every adult ticket purchased. Unfortunately, that strategy only goes so far when you suck.
See loluva familypak..........
Counterpoint - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/22/sports/baseball/baseball-...
Minor (you read that right) league baseball ticket sales are twice that of the NBA. I think baseball will be fine.
Dying? No. In decline? Yes. I think the attendance decline will bottom out eventually, but who knows when. All of the newer parks are smaller. Sure the owners say it is to give the fans a better experience. The reality? Why build a huge stadium and run at 50% capacity?
Baseball is a victim of the cultural shift going on: "it is too slow" , and "people do not want to invest the amount of time it takes to go to a stadium watch the game and and come back", and "it is more of a marathon than a quick game". Given how busy people are, and the advent of xbox, we can see how this is happening. Casual observers who watch for entertainment no doubt find football and basketball more attractive due to the faster game speed.
I could be wrong, but I believe the main reason that ballparks are smaller now is that cities are no longer building boring, symmetrical, and canyonesque multi-sport venues designed to accommodate baseball, football, soccer, etc. Starting with Camden Yards (again, I believe this was the first in many years), cities started building smaller, fun ballparks specifically for baseball which brought fans closer to the field.
I coached youth baseball and served on the town's baseball Board for many years, and in a span of four years, our annual enrollment went from 800 to just over 500 boys and girls participating. Some of this was due to the town's population getting smaller, but it was also due to the increase in the popularity of lacrosse, which is a faster game, and parents too busy or lazy to get their kids to practice. And, you're definitely right, kids have shorter attention spans and want things NOW. Some of this can also be blamed on lazy coaching. Nowadays you just can't have one coach hitting buckets of balls to kids just standing around looking for four leaf clovers in the outfield. I always had at least 3 coaches working with me, and would rotate 3-4 kids through multiple hitting and fielding stations. I held relay races around bases, set up throwing & sliding competitions, etc. every practice. You have to keep kids (and parents) engaged, moving, laughing, cheering, etc. I always told my parents that their kids would come home from practice dirty, tired, and smiling.
It was great. I miss coaching, and still think baseball is the best sport ever.
I feel like the one sport that gets a pass from younger people in terms of game action is soccer. For me, soccer can be slow, prodding and uneventful. But it's still a fast-growing sport for millennials and Gen Z. That's not to say soccer is bad, it's just that you can still enjoy a 'slow sport' like, say, baseball or tennis, when you learn to appreciate its components. I'm not really sure why soccer gets a unique amount of love from the American youth despite being a bit dry.
Absolutely agree with this. I played baseball as a kid, but never really understood the game beyond "well you go up to bat and try to hit the ball, then you switch up and disappoint people with your fielding skills until you can go bat again" (mainly because I stopped playing before the age where you actually play the game, not just batting practice with fielders in a different uniform). As soon as I started learning how much goes into pitching/catching alone (pitch selection by batter, pitching to contact vs to strike people out, one catcher leading multiple pitchers to follow their game plan, and so much more) , as well as the offensive strategies that go beyond "hit the ball as hard as you can and if you get a home run people like you" and start to actually be true team plays, the game became SO much more interesting to me.
The same thing can really be said about any sport that I've grown to love - as soon as you actually start to learn the game, you can make sense of what you're watching and actually enjoy the game! Some sports will definitely appeal more to casual viewers (basketball is a big one imo, especially because in the NBA it seems like every possession change leads to some superstar play...which is why I much prefer college bball where team makeup, clever coaching, and game sense can often overcome incredible individual talent), but it's incredible how much more entertaining sports become when you start to learn a bit more about what you're seeing.
Baseball lost being America's sport when they had a blackout for the entire season with the players on strike. It has never regained the same level of popularity.
Now, I still love to go out and play baseball or softball. But to sit and watch it professionally, nah...
Still beats soccer.
At being almost twice as long and having about 20 more commercial breaks, yes.
But seriously though, it won't beat soccer in popularity for very long. 11% of Americans aged 18-34 say that soccer is their favorite sport to watch, compared to only 6% for baseball. (https://news.gallup.com/poll/224864/football-americans-favorite-sport-wa...)
The World Series is pretty comparable to the World Cup final in U.S. ratings, and of course the World Cup final wins by at least a billion viewers worldwide.
I actually had a blast watching a few matches of the World Cup this year with my wife, and neither of us are traditionally soccer fans. Conversely, I played baseball as a kid, and have enjoyed going to our nearby minor league team's games occasionally, but I can't stand watching MLB on tv.
Kids enjoy sports that they can play. Two kids can play a pick-up game of basketball at a rec center or in a driveway. You just need a ball and a hoop. You only need a few kids, a football, and an open area to play a pick-up game of football. How many kids does it realistically take to play a pick-up game of baseball? How many neighborhoods have usable baseball fields. Who wants to go stand in an out-field waiting for something to happen. You can play catch, but how fun is that after a few minutes. Even organized baseball has long periods of "not fun" for the kids playing it.
People also like fun. Baseball's unwritten rules and no fun attitude do not exactly bring the fans in droves. The way players, coaches, and pundits shit on anyone visibly trying to enjoy themselves is a huge deterrent. Compared to the flash and excitement of other sports it just pales in comparison as entertainment. You can appreciate the brilliance and strategies of two dudes playing chess, but who wants to invest their limited leisure time watching it.
ESPN knows all of this. They are using their money in ways to get the most eyeballs and clicks in order to generate revenue. They also focus more of their time and money on properties that they have the broadcast rights to. It is why they barely talk about hockey, but they now won't shut-up about MMA.
You can play backyard whiffleball in a small yard with about six kids realistically
Used to play it with three people and ghost runners. One batter one pitcher one fielder and rotate the three positions.
Or extreme wiffleball
It's been dying since the Steroid Era. So many people grew up cheering for those players to break records, and looked up to them as role models; then, you find out your favorite all-star wasn't eating wheaties, he was just juicing. It's an investment of time and energy that people don't want to give anymore, I beileve. That era ruined what you could believe in, and what was real and what wasn't. Hard to root for something when you're unsure if you should (ie because you're not sure if it's tainted or not). Also, it's slow and void of household names.
Well and then on top of all that, MLB juiced the balls this year to inflate home run rates, and just when all the teams were getting used to it, went back to the old ball during the playoffs to completely alter the game again.
Fans don't like it at all when the league manipulates things like that. They like consistency
its been 5 years since I last went to a Minor League Baseball game even though I'm only 15 minutes away from a minor League stadium and an Hour from Orioles and Nats park. Even longer than that since I've actually watched a game on tv. I didn't even watch an entire inning of Game 7
Not dying yet. But every time I visit him, he tells me stories from back in 19 Dickety Two. He had to say "dickety" because the Kaiser stole their word for "twenty". He chased that rascal to get it back, but gave up after dickety six miles.
If this series was Yankees-Dodgers instead, ratings would have been through the roof. Most casual fans don't care about watching Nats-Astros.
Good for the Nats, and the Astros are still a great team. But the MLB needs more Red Sox, Yankees, Cubs and Dodgers plus a few others to be playing on the big stage for ratings and interest to stay afloat.
It stinks, because this series was nothing short of amazing.
Like lots of other outlets, ESPN used to cover sports news, now they try to create news
I don't know if I would say its dying, at least not yet, but MLB needs to do something in the next few years to start grabbing younger viewers again.
In Scottsdale, I live within walking distance to the Giants spring training facility, and within 10-15 minute drives to the Cubs, Diamondbacks, Rockies, and Angels. Spring training is nuts here, because the games are a bit more of an experience than your average mid season game during the regular season. I have more fun at ST games than any regular season game I can recall in recent memory.
Just the time involved to watch games and be a fan is incompatible with current American lifestyles.
Who has time to watch 150 games?
Kids today can't get through a 30 minute dinner without texting their friends.
I love the Braves, and I really enjoy following them throughout the season, I love going to games, etc. However, it is definitely the sport I care the least about after the Braves are out. Whether it's missing the playoffs or losing in the playoffs, once the Braves are out I care the least about the rest of the season.
In contrast, I am deeply invested in college football, the NFL, European Soccer, and the NBA as entities beyond just my team. I will watch playoff series/big games not involving my team and really enjoy it. I care about who wins, I hate teams and want them to lose, etc. Baseball I just don't really care. I watched a few of the WS games this year just because I was on a work trip and it was on at my hotel room late at night and didn't have anything else to do.
MLB viewership may be down, but youth baseball participation is growing faster than all of the other major US sports.
Gonna go out on a limb and say this is because of the awareness of CTE.
Could be that parents support it more because of that.
That's what I was getting at.
Yes - that is true. Most of the articles I have read talking about the increased participation rates include that as a reason.
if youth participation was any indication of how popular the sport would be at the professional level, soccer would be the dominant sport in the US
Some numbers...
2017 participation numbers
-Basketball 4,225,321
-Baseball 3,936,251
-Soccer 2,300,704
One major disadvantage about baseball is that it is that viewership is very home team driven. There's a game 6 out of 7 days a week and they're all played at the same time, so if you're a fan you really only watch your team. It's too difficult or too much of an investment to watch other games. Plus, unless you have the mlb app, you can't really watch any team outside the region with any regularity. And so when it comes to playoffs, most people that are home-team fans tune out because they don't even know the team or players playing.
It's still the top story over at MLB.com
Who?
Average age of fans in 2016 per Sports Business Journal:
NBA- 42
NHL- 49
NFL- 50
MLB- 59
So yes, it's dying because its fans are old and dying off.
I will chime in here - I will go ahead and declare my bias: 1) I am 33, played ball all my life, Baseball has always been and will always be my favorite sport. 2) I have a 7 year old who lives and breathes baseball for who knows what reason and of course I get to coach his teams. 3) I am an eternal optimist about pretty much anything, cup empty you say? I say be excited because refills are coming. 4) I am a Seattle Fan because I liked Griffey. I made a mistake and didn't give up on the team when he was traded - I was stubborn and thought it was cool. Now I wish I could root for an East coast team.
Overall, I think Baseball will do just fine. It will have its ups and downs depending on player personalities and when the more famous teams are doing well. While it may not be the favorite past time it was. It will always be a great sport if you are in it. I guarantee you that had the Yankees taken out Houston in the ALCS the World series viewership would have been a lot different. Similar to the Patriots, the Yankees are your team or you will root for anyone playing against them.
I do think that Baseball has some incredible young talent. Watching the whole playoffs there were a ton of players I would love for my son to root for. I grew up a die hard Griffey fan and watched everything I could that had him playing. My son, as sad as it is, loves himself some Mike Trout, was devastated that he got hurt and was even more disappointed once I told him the Angel's season ended long before the playoffs (again, 7 years old doesn't quite get the whole picture). I would love for my son to grow up loving watching Soto, Bregman, Altuve, Tommy Edmund (Cards Utility player), Acuna. I think as much as Baseball has some problems with pace of play with pitchers and a bit of an issue with the strike out to home run ratio, I think they are working on some ideas to make that better. My son was begging to stay up past the bed time to watch every game of the playoffs he could even though he didn't really know many of the players. The level of talent that was on display for the World Series was incredible. I know it had terrible ratings, but as someone who watches, it was one of my favorite world series since the late 90's when I was a kid.
MLB's Instagram was awesome during the playoffs as well. They fully supported all the bat flips, emotion and intensity of the games, even while its past hero's (here's looking at you Ryan Sandburg) hate on the younger guys. I think MLB is coming around to embracing the flair, whether it is the crazy dugout celebrations or the bat flips - I love it all.
In regards to the above comment about baseball growing in popularity, I live in Wilmington, NC and the Little League Baseball here is intense. Probably a bit over the top even with some of the travel ball, etc. However, these kids who are 8 and 9, etc are doing the same thing we did - they know all the famous player's swings, their home run trots, their flair of how they field ground balls. I think we don't give enough credit that there is still a ton of interest and love for the game out there. I know my son and a few of his friends on the team will play a game and then watch the older kids after him play. It is like pulling teeth pulling them away from the fields. In general, the league we play in and the one on the other side of town have seen pretty steady increases in the younger age group signups.
I think it is also incorrect to say you can't just pick up and play a game. With football you need 4 guys to play a "game". While not a Baseball game. Give me one other guy and a bat and a wall, and we would entertain ourselves for days between wall ball, the one hop game, etc. I through the baseball back and forth just like I throw the football back and forth. The only difference is I need to keep a glove in the trunk right next to the football, frisbee and the other baseball.
Lastly, I think Baseball will never have the same popularity it had - but I also think that Football is starting to peak and NBA is on the way up. Just like Soccer is on the way up. But you can be on the rise forever. Eventually something will happen with each of those sports that will take it down a few pegs. I think Baseball needs to find another way to get people to watch on the screens. We don't have cable, but with all the different packages, we can always find a way to watch VT, but it isn't as easy to find a way to watch your team unless you live next door.
Man I must be bored at work, because this post is entirely too long for a random baseball feed.
Fellow baseball fan. Ratings, relative rankings, fan age, news coverage, styles of play, season length, salaries, game length, strikes...doesn't impact my love of the game of baseball. I'm sure plenty of fans of other sports in general would say the same thing.
I love playing it, coaching it, and watching it being played. I used to play Catcher and love trying to figure out the game within the game between pitchers and batters at the highest level. This year's World Series was thrilling to watch even though my favorite team didn't make the playoffs.
Been thinking about a subscription to MLB.tv next year. I think it's around $120/season or they have a free game you can watch each day. Although no one forces you to watch every day or even a full game if you have other things to do.
I love the MLB.tv app. I use it on my phone and computer to watch almost all the Nationals' games. It's worth the price for me. I should mention you only get out-of-market games and some nationally televised games, so if you want to watch the home team of your market, you may be out of luck.
Looks like I know now what I'll be spending $120 on next year!
I thought FOX did a good job with the world series. It does need to start at 7 though. Also, baseball needs to fix the strike zone and invent batting gloves that dont have Velcro straps needing adjusting every swing. Pace is an issue.
I think pace will always be an issue. I think they fixed a lot of the minute long crotch adjusting/glove adjusting/spitting/kicking dirt around/stepping in and out of the box crap when they implemented the pitch clock but it's always gonna be slow, it's just the way it is I think.
I know we all like to bang on ESPN, but I think FS1 is even worse in terms of their lack of baseball coverage. Which is weird since the World Series was on the Fox family of Networks. I mean, if Karl Anthony Towns vs. Joel Embiid or Baker Mayfield's press conference spat gets them better ratings, more power to 'em. I just hate that baseball (that I'm not that big of) gets steamrolled on national shows by stupid sidenotes of football and basketball when we just had Game 7 of the World Series.
Maybe when the Umpire change takes effect, it'll pick up more:
https://babylonbee.com/news/mlb-to-make-games-more-exciting-with-bear-um...
I think ESPN covers the entities that they've invested in.
ABC/ESPN/TNT signed a massive contract 9 year $2.7B contract with the NBA.
They also signed a 15 year deal with the SEC for $2B.
There is a reason I stopped watching SportsCenter once it became apparent that they needed to push lesser story lines to maximize their revenue.
If we're lucky it is.
Baseball is a great game, and the playoffs are great. Baseball is about the mystique, history, the stars of past and present. Personal records, the Yankees, Red Sox and a few others. When it is the Astros vs the Nats, nobody is going to be interested in that. I used to watch every baseball game on TV, but I couldn't name you more than a handful of players on these teams combined.
A few things I think made people lose interest is the Red Sox and Cubs breaking their curses. Once that happened, that was one less reason to watch. The Braves being taken off of TBS was a hit. Everybody I knew watched the Braves on TBS back in the day. For me, for whatever reason, the stars just don't appeal to me anymore. I don't really care to watch a baseball game. I wish I did, its a great game. Maybe I just have too much to do nowadays to keep up with a 162 game schedule. Who knows. Baseball was going well in the 90's and early 00's. But I do think Maris' record, Aaron's record, and the curses being broken hurt the sport. Those alone were reason enough to get excited about baseball every season.
Regional sport. If it isn't Yankees/Dodgers/Cardinals/Cubs/Red Sox then the rest of the country won't care. Once any two of those are in the world series the ratings will be off the charts again.
This is so true. I grew up going to countless Texas Rangers games as a kid in Dallas and now I could give a F*ck about baseball. Baseball will NEVER turn it around due to the amount of meaningless games. They will never update/or drop the number of games because of old stats from prior baseball seasons and they want everyone to have same amount of games so records don't get messed up. GET THIS....I went to game 4 of the world series in DC and they didn't show ANY replays for people in the stadium.
1. Get rid of Umpires.
2. Get rid of a bunch of games...way to many meaningless games
3. Stop telling a bunch of kids/young men how to behave and act...its a game, have fun
4. If a pitcher beams another player with a ball on purpose, he should be suspended and fined. someone is gonna get killed one of these days.
The only point of the 4 that I agree with is number 2. Yes there are way too many games. For the other points, 1. how do you get rid of umpires? Yes the strike zone is a contentious subject but so is holding in football, charge/block in basketball and so forth. Without umpires would you suggest that all other sports get rid of officials that make errors in judgement?
3. EVERY sport tells players how to act it is more prevalent in baseball but it is changing. Other sports have penalties that are available when players act against the rules for taunting an opponent but what penalty can you give in baseball? There is none other than ejection. Being excited and being an ass is a fine line in every sport.
There is no hero. There is no villain. Baseball is dead. There is no one to root for. No Lebron James or Tom Brady to love and hate. No Mark McGuire or Sosa blasting moonshots every other night. There is no excitement and no story in baseball anymore.
Wow, That's a great point.
Appreciate it!
People still watch Sportscenter lol? Hell, ESPN for that matter? That network is garbage.
I'd rather watch NBA offseason coverage than baseball. I don't think baseball will ever 'die' but you have to admit, there's not much action in a game.
To really enjoy baseball, you have to appreciate a lot of the small things; the mental battle between the pitcher and the hitter, how the pitcher moves the ball around, the decisions the hitter makes, etc. I don't know how you can enjoy this if you've never played or you're not a baseball nerd.
Compare that to football, where you can see an amazing leap on any play. Or basketball where you can see an insanely athletic dunk at any point. Or any of the amazing TV shows on right now.
I also think looks less impressive to people who have never played baseball. Spare me the hitting a ball argument, heard it and understand it. In Baseball, players use simple tools with bats and gloves. I think people will always gravitate towards sports where it's just a ball and your own body like Basketball, Football and soccer.
I disagree, I think it's more about how simple the sport is. World wide, tennis and cricket are two of the four most popular sports - I know this isn't a super scientific study, but I think that sports that are easiest to understand are the ones that take off world wide. Baseball has a ton of counts going on, has rules like the in-field-fly rule, etc, that are simpler than most (american) football rules, but don't quite compare to the simplicity of soccer or tennis.
And i would rather watch the two last place baseball teams play over the NBA. I will never watch the NBA, hate it. Everyone has different tastes.
Baseball is dying in America just like there's a shortage of pilots for the airlines. Both are straight up false and the headlines are merely click-bait.
All 30 MLB teams are worth at least $1 billion dollars whereas 10 years ago only the Yankees and the Mets exceeded that number. The SF Giants' value has increased 5.4 times from 558mil to 3.0bil, probably due to their 3 World Series wins in the past 10 years. Since 2000 attendance has maintained an average of 73mil per year with a min/max of 67.6mil & 79.5mil (respectively) and an average game attendance of 30k. The last five years has yielded average attendance of 71.5mil with min/max of 68.5 & 73.7 (respectively).
Now it may seem that baseball is not as popular as football or basketball, but that would be a result of the networks trying to make a spectacle of those sports and focusing on happenings off the field vs. focusing on the games themselves. The numbers show that the sport maintains a healthy in-person viewership and monetary growth and shows no signs of a drop outside of standard ups and downs from year in to year out.
I linked your headline to the aviation "shortage" because said shortage doesn't exist. What does exist is airlines who are not willing to pay pilots enough money to attract them down that career path and crazy training costs that are driven due to high time requirements and high equipment costs due to manufacturer insurance going crazy in the 90s. That doesn't suit people writing articles though, so they go with a sensationalist bullshit headline to lure people in and then make no mention of the REAL reason a problem exists.
The way I interpret this is that die-hard baseball fans are equally if not more attracted to the sport than ever before, while the casual fan is less and less interested. I say this because team value and attendance are both influenced by diehard fans, where as viewership is a better measure of the casual fan.
FWIW, this is the trend across all forms of entertainment right now - as there are more and more options for news, opinions, TV, sports, etc, people are choosing to spend their time and money on things that are really enjoyable for them, rather than just what's on your local RSN at 8pm on a Tuesday night.
Agreed. You will always have the folks who buy season tickets and attend the majority of the games, same as you do in all sports. The media viewership numbers might go up or down, but they do in all major sports, even the NFL has had viewership issues over the last couple of years. You nailed it with your second paragraph. There are more and more entertainment options that are aimed at the same amount of money in someone's pocketbook. Each sport has a "package" you need to buy, each of the P5 college conferences now have a channel you need to subscribe to, not to mention Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Disney+, etc. etc.
Your pilot information is irrelevant. There being a real shortage or not for pilots has no impact on baseball popularity. The reasons for each perception are different as well. You can say "what about this" but it doesn't matter.
Though I think that in game attendance will be fine because it's still something for locals to go out and do. You would never see me turning on a baseball game to watch, but I'd go to one in a heartbeat because it's a fun thing to do. If you look at TV views, it tells a different story.
The pilot reference was a jab at the OP making a sensationalist proclamation based on appearances, not to mention a barely comprehensible post. It had nothing to actually do with the subject of baseball.
I don't disagree that TV viewership may be declining, but the title of the thread is utter nonsense.
You should have seen it before it was revised.....
I think TV is a better marker. Stadium tickets are capped. TV is where the sport expands.
Is there really no pilot shortage?
I'm just asking because I read this. (I've read it everywhere, but this is representative):
I'd be interested in additional sources.
I say start the playoff games earlier. I am barely functioning at work this week from lack of sleep hence lurking on TKP. Screw the west coast, don't care about them - ACC baby.
Just my two cents - I work at a high school in a rural part of Virginia and our football numbers are plummeting while baseball numbers are way, way up.
Baseball is a timeless game and it is a ton of fun to play, so kids will always be involved in the sport. The issue I see for fans is that we are a TV consumption culture, and frankly, baseball on TV is a completely different experience than being at the ballpark. I'll take a summer evening with my buddies, shooting the breeze and having a few beers, over a freezing cold December NFL game...but I'd be twice as likely to watch that NFL game on TV than the baseball game.
How do we remedy this as fans? Make the games more accessible. I took my wife to the Nats season finale and we dropped about $200 for two people - parking, decent (not amazing) seats, drinks and snacks. For a family of 4, that's just not realistic on a consistent basis. Lower the ticket prices, use the wallet-friendly concessions model that the Falcons use, and continue to build an active game-attending fanbase through outreach and engagement. Baseball freakin' rules, it's just a different animal than the NFL, NBA, etc., and it's best enjoyed in person. There's a reason it's "take me out to the ballgame" and not "fire up the big screen."