MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

Baseball’s problem is it’sa regional sport. Very few people care to follow teams that aren’t in their area. Stars aren’t hyped like in basketball. Accessibility in viewing isn’t like football. It costs a ton to see mediocre games.
Basketball and football have embraced analytics but they know how to have fun. Baseball doesn’t have fun programmed into the numbers so it isn’t important. Strikeouts are high so people actually doing something is low.
We don’t need to go back in time; we need to embrace the fun. Market personalities. Make it easy to watch. The DH, as much as I wish it didn’t exist, means more action and offense. If people actually hit the ball and didn’t swing for the fences. Put in a salary floor so teams have to spend. Market your players and let them be seen.

The youth are what’s going to save baseball. You can’t hang your hat on a dwindling population to do it. Going back to the 50s ain’t gonna do it.

 

HDTV killed baseball. The NFL in hi def makes baseball look like a still life.

 

It sounds good ... if baseball was dead. A lot of people have been far too quick to write that obituary. It isn't going to happen until we're all long gone.

 

It'll never be No. 1 again is what I meant.

 

As long as it stays ahead of hockey, I'm OK with that.

 

You love to romanticize the old days.

 

Baseball is doing fine. Go out and try to buy a franchise if you don't believe it. IMO its primary problem is that it suffers from terminal NFL envy. Accept that a sport which spends half of its season when it's unpleasant to go outdoors in much of the country is gonna get bigger ratings on national TV. You're the summer game. Make that your selling point, not an expanded "postseason."

 

You think those old rules were why it was the national pastime?

 

I don't.

Baseball's playoff structure completely undermines the need for a 162-game season.

 

Agree on seasonality, but revenues might be a less reliable metric for popularity in these existential discussions about the health of MLB.

I think those WS numbers are telling.

 

Some of them, sure.

ie, I think the current playoff architecture is a real problem, and completely subverts the need for a 162-game season.

 

But HDTV better captures the lushness of the infield and outfield grass and accentuates the geometric patterns left by mowing on the diagonal!