Baseball LCS ratings down! The world is coming to an end!

I'm sorry, but comparing the WNBA to major league baseball is ridiculous.

It would take time, but baseball could improve the level of interest in its smaller markets. The NFL did it. Win and people will pay attention. That is how a small market such as Pittsburgh has such a huge national following. Well, that and the fact that everybody keeps leaving Pittsburgh, spreading Steelers fandom to other locations. But you have to build the interest in the team in the first place.

 

In the short term, yes. In the long term, if you do it right, you can get the ratings no matter who is in the World Series. The NFL has proven that, with small markets such as Indianapolis and Pittsburgh gaining national followings.

 

I would also add that fantasy football plays a big role. It is by far the biggest fantasy sport and has allowed fans to connect to many players throughout the league besides just the ones on their local/favorite teams.

 

Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman, Chris Carpenter, Yadier Molina, ect.

HOW BORING!!!!

 

Boneless chicken breasts, yes.

Managed by a narcissist who still dyes his mullet jet black, in his late 60s.

 

I'm not comparing MLB and the WNBA as going business concerns. I'm pointing out the fallacy in presuming television and league executives can join forces to create popularity for teams with minimal national presence. To the best of my knowledge, this has never overtly been attempted (the closest you get is perhaps ESPN and its pimping of Boise State on off-night college football games, but even then, they're not passing on Alabama-Georgia or Michigan-Penn State for the sake of Boise State-UNLV). ESPN and the NBA *have* tried to artificially build interest in sports (Arena Football and the WNBA, respectively) and that's gone nowhere at all.

The NFL didn't do it by selling small markets harder. They did it by selling the league as a whole, figuring that a rising tide lifts all boats. The NFL has a caste system of popularity in the same vein as baseball, but there's a lot of fans committed to the ideal of pro football who will watch most anything because it's Sunday and there's an NFL shield on the field. You won't find that many people willing to consistently watch baseball for the sake of baseball.

 

How the hell is the playoff system "rigged against" the Yankees?

 

I'm a seasonal fan, and tend to watch the sport that's active. As long as I care enough about the teams and players involved. So from that perspective, it seems baseball is in some long-term trouble. I will watch every game of the NFL playoffs whichever teams are involved. Football sells its teams well enough that markets like New Orleans and Indianapolis can have teams that draw an immense nationwide following - and when Peyton Manning goes away, the following goes somewhere else. Maybe Buffalo is next. Who knows.

But in baseball, once the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs or Phillies are out, I lose interest. And I say that as someone who doesn't like the Yankees. And I'm starting to lose interest in the Red Sox. I follow the regular season for fantasy baseball, but I've only had a passing interest in the playoffs - even the Yankees and Phillies games, until they got to Game 5.

(I also follow the NFL to start out for fantasy football, but by the time my team is done or the fantasy season is over, the real NFL season has drawn me in and I'm always intrigued by the playoffs.)

Baseball has to do something about the casual fans, and figure out how to make its playoffs compelling again to the average person, no matter who's involved. The NBA is in kind of the same boat, when teams like the Lakers, Heat and Celtics are out. And golf is in trouble when Tiger Woods is officially off the radar screen.

It doesn't mean baseball, the NBA and golf can't survive and slink all the way down to the level of the NHL. But for the moment, the NFL, college football and perhaps even college basketball are in great shape - people rooting for laundry, to use the Jerry Seinfeld line - whereas the other sports are beholden to certain teams or players.

 

As numerous others have noted, I think a lot of it has to do with the NFL season and how there are only 16 games. No other pro sport has such an integral regular season schedule in which if you fall to 1-4 or 1-5, the season is just about lost. Baseball drags on for months and months, and look at teams like the Cardinals and Rays. They both were so far back when September started and still made the postseason, and one team the World Series. I think people love the NFL because there is a real sense of parity. The Lions and 49ers are on their way to winning seasons and making the playoffs, where as a team like the Royals or the Orioles or the Pirates don't have much of a realistic chance to get far every season.

 

Baseball is doing well financially. The predicted sharp drop in attendance due to the economy did not take place. There are weak sisters, but most are special cases, such as there shouldn't be baseball teams in Florida and the wreck of the Dodgers. Local and regional broadcasting revenue is strong. National TV ratings of the postseason are not a sufficient metric for the rating of either a sport's economic status or general popularity. I mean, if you're going to use ratings, regular season national TV ratings indicate college basketball has fewer fans than competitive needlepoint.

 

That last night of the MLB regular season was one of the best sports nights I can remember. I loved it... I have little to no interest in the playoffs..

I can't explain it, except for the fact that I just don't want to invest 4 hours a night, for possibly 7 nights, to get to the money shot.

 

I'm 40 (and not Mike Gundy). I used to love the Cleveland Indians when they were horrible. I grew up several states away but would listen to as many games as I could on what was then WWWE. I collected baseball cards. I played strat-o-matic. I LOVED baseball. I can still remember Bo Diaz, Ron Hassey, Andre Thornton, Rick Waits, Rick Wise, Mike Hargrove, Duane Kuiper, Jerry Dybzinski, Scott Fletcher, Miguel Dilone, Rick Manning, Len Barker, John Denny, Wayne Garland, Ross Grimsley, Sid Monge, Toby Harrah, and Joe Charboneau without looking at a roster.

I woke up this morning and couldn't remember who the Cardinals were playing in the World Series. I knew it wasn't the Yankees, or the Red Sox, or the Rays. I couldn't for the life of my remember that it was the Rangers and I spent a week in Dallas last month. I know Josh Hamilton plays for the Rangers and Ron Washington is the manager. I have heard of Michael Young. I just went through the 40-man roster and only recognized the names of Darren Oliver (only because he's older than me), Brandon Webb, Adrian Beltre, Ian Kinsler, and Nelson Cruz. I couldn't have told you who Nelson Cruz played for two weeks ago.

I don't have any sons so maybe I'd be into baseball more if I did but I'd be quicker to watch a women's college softball game on television (nope, not Peter King either) than a major league baseball game. I don't take any pride in it but it's just reality. In terms of my viewing it would be as follows: NFL, college football, NBA, college basketball, NASCAR, women's softball, college baseball, major league baseball.

I know I'm just one person but it saddens me how little I follow baseball anymore. I begin every spring saying that I am going to follow baseball more this season, only to have that resolution fade away very quickly.