MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

The Yankees started building their farm system while George was “banned” because he wasn’t around to trade their top prospects for over the hill veterans.

As is, he had to be talked out of trading Mariano Rivera for Felix Fermin.

 

Trump always seemed like a light-weight George Steinbrenner. In NY that’s how he was treated.

 

That's how I saw him. A Steinbrenner without the pelts.
Trump is a Yankee fan but the team has long appeared to want nothing to do with him.

 

I was going to mention Trump re: George's ability to make people feel like he's one of them even as he has both his hands and feet in their wallets, but I try not to mention that guy. But yeah. that's spot-on. Except Steinbrenner a.) actually had money and b.) was smart enough to not endanger himself by doing something as stupid as running for president.

 

Truth, but funnily (or sadly) enough, they've still got displayed on the concourse along the 100s a picture of future seditionist Rudy G. holding the World Series trophy and being surrounded by Steinbrenner and Torre after one of the dynasty wins.

 

Yeah I made the mistake of editing out how his absence allowed Gene Michael to rebuild the farm that yielded the dynasty. Then Torre came along and shielded everyone from the worst of George.

 

I'm trying to identify the time that Yankee prospects became laughably overvalued. Bernie Williams and company is Point A and Joba is Point B.

 

Fermin hit four home runs in his career, and I am proud to say I was there at Municipal for one of them.

 

John-Ford Griffin and Eric Duncan are probably the sweet spot

 

Regardless of how people think about the state of gameplay, I suspect that as long as baseball gives people an opportunity to drink and socialize outdoors on a nice day that it will remain relatively popular. And as much as I believe in the American people's thirst for wanton violence, it's pretty hard to get a concussion playing baseball.

Attendance per game this year across all teams was 26,566. That's quite a bit off from the peak of 32,696 in 2007 and even from before the pandemic, which was in the 28's, but MLB's per game attendance was as low as 11,599 in the heart of the game's "golden age," 1953, a season in which six of 16 clubs failed to average 10,000 fans per game and several of them were under 5.

In 1953, 4 of 16 teams (the Tigers, A's, Browns and Pirates) finished with a winning percentage below .400 (which would be a 65-97 season over 162 games). This year, 4 of 30 teams finished with a winning percentage below .400 (the A's, Nats, Pirates and Reds). Tanking, or more specifically to baseball, the lengthy non-competitive rebuild, is a problem, but for a vast portion of baseball's history, teams were non-competitive because they were actually broke. Connie Mack stripped World Series winners for parts twice.

1953 happens to be the first season after the Braves moved to Milwaukee. The Browns left St. Louis the following year, with the A's out of Philly the year after that and the Dodgers and Giants (who won the NL pennant in 1953 and 1954, respectively) abandoning the largest city in the country.

Throw in the fact that via merchandise (not to mention just better general mobility), that clubs have a much closer connection to their fans' pocketbooks than ever before and I think the economic demise of baseball is also rather overrated.

It is a big problem that baseball does not televise well. It can be unpredictably long and tedious, requires a lot of filler and doesn't hold people's attention like it once did. But baseball makes its bones on volume over time. It's 162 opportunities to sell adds over 500 hours of television time in an eight month period. Due to weather, proximity and price point, it is still easier to go to a ballgame on a whim than an NFL, NHL or NBA game. It's expensive, but you don't have to be 6'6", 6'4-250 or have regular access to ice to become very good at it.

I mean, are there structural problems? You bet. But I think many of the people who tell you that baseball is dying are people who don't like the game for whatever reason and are trying to defend their own priors.

 

Fermin would’ve been part of trades for Omar Vizquel and Mariano Rivera if it had happened, which is insane given Fermin’s abilities.

With all due respect to that one miracle Boston season of Reggie Jefferson, who was also in that Vizquel trade.

 

Baseball mustn't worry about the people who think the game sucks. Put that out of mind, who cares what they think, let them watch whatever entertains them.
Because MLB is never going to get those folks, or at least not make them regular paying customers.
No other league is driven at people who are critical of the sport.