The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

It doesn't have to be. And the NFL and NBA are in a different stratosphere than in the '50s and '60s, when baseball ruled all.

Trust me, baseball isn't on its death bed. We can have three major sports in this nation.

 

The all-timer:

 

Yeah, nobody ever watched these guys when they were terrible.

 

I will not sit here and suffer this David Hulse erasure.

 

And….

 

Farhan is not going anywhere. I'm sure you Giants fans are elated.

Giants To Sign Bob Melvin, Farhan Zaidi Through 2026 - MLB Trade Rumors

 

That's rich coming from the poster who is not weirdly obessessed with teachers raping their students.

 

"Feeling like I'm going to go lay in traffic."

Also, the response to the banana question:

 

Baseball attendance broke 70 million this year. Average per-game attendance was 29K.

Throw in the minors and the 30+ summer leagues across the country and attendance probably approaches 100 million. "Baseball is dying" is an urban legend.

2023 MLB attendance by total - Ballpark Digest

 

Oddly, that was the era in which the sport had two teams in St. Louis and zero teams west of St. Louis. And all the playoff games, of which there were no more than seven, were played in the daytime.

 

Not to mention until west coast expansion, half of the nation had black and white TVs with an eight-inch cathode ray tube that barely fit in a massive wood box because solid state hadn't been invented, and the other half didn't have the money to buy one or the reception required to pick up a signal.

Pete Rozelle was the right man at the right time, just as TV technology made massive gains by 1960 and color broadcasts became more prevalent. Plus, football is a perfect sport for television for a number of reasons, a large ball that's easy for the cameras to follow, and time between plays. Hockey and baseball are way better in person.

 

So far, 10 playoff series in 2023.
In one of them, the ALCS, the teams had the same regular-season record.
The team with the lesser regular-season record has won seven of the other nine.

Past three postseasons: Lesser regular-season team has won 18 series. Nominal favorite has won 10. Two have featured identical records.