Posted on 10/23/2014 5:58:56 AM PDT by C19fan
The biggest problem with baseball is that today the average person could not name who the best players are, many are Latin players who have no appeal for marketers.
Yup...better that he had become a Giants and Yankees fan.Or even Eagles and Phillies.
Yankees Fault!
Not only that, but they also run ads for Viagra during the games. I don't want to watch a game with my kid knowing those ads are coming.
Inter-League play doesn’t help. Part of the intrigue of the World Series was that it was the only time that teams from the different Leagues met each other.
Baseball severely lacks Star Power.
When I attended the series in 92 and 93 the cheap seats were $30. Expensive compared to regular season but affordable. Enjoyed the games and went home happy for the most part. Current prices should the series ever return I would prevent me from attending. I attended one regular seaon game this year and left early. The home team was showing no effort and the whole thing depressed me. I was not happy. I don’t blame MLB completely for this. All spectator sports are problematic these days. I stopped caring about them as much as I did when I was younger.
Kansas City Royals fans saddened but hope still alive for second game on Wednesday night (note: KC shuts down Giants 7-2 last night to 41K cheering fans in Kauffman Stadium - again, no riots, no looting, no stabbings or shootings in KC to "celebrate team win.")
Yes, KC is small TV viewing area, though Fox network works everywhere in US. No need for cable or satellite to view World Series (also, notably absent from Fox were the ads featuring alluring woman inspiring male viewers to grab their Viagra and follow her every 10 minutes as in TBS playoffs, terribly embarrassing to parents and mixed crowd attempting to watch as KC shut out Boston!)
For purists, you are right. I’m right there with you. But to the lowest common denominator scoring = entertainment. Can you imagine what would happen if they actually called the strike zone like it is in the book combined with today’s dominant hitting philosophy and excellent relief pitching? Everyone thinks offense is down now, 0-0 extra inning games would probably become the norm.
Freegards
There are too many mouthbreathers who won’t watch if it does not involve the Yankees or Red Sox.
...including most of the marxist jock-sniffers at ESPN.
Baseball should stop before Hockey begins.
Hockey should stop before Memorial Day.
Football should stop before Groundhog Day
And NBA should just stop.
It’s too late in the year for baseball. They keep extending the playoff schedule. You can run into bad baseball weather this time of year in most of the country.
Next year, the baseball schedule is going to be extended another week, so the World Series will end in early November next year. November baseball again. Even strong fans just get to a point of not caring when the season stretches out so long.
Get rid of inter-league games and trim back to 154 games.
Love that idea. But instead of a "booth", put them in a sky suite with a big screen TV, a stocked fridge and a large sofa and just set a microphone on the coffee table. :-)
Seriously, I do appreciate the vets as color commentators, for both their experienced insight into the game and strategies as well as the old tales from the locker rooms of days gone by. Growing up in coastal NC, I was an Oriole fan and a Redskin fan. Still am though I don't put as much energy into sports as I used to. And I always enjoyed listening to announcer Chuck Thompson back in the day for the Orioles and the Colts. "Go to war, Miss Agnes!" (Haha! That was always my dad's reaction to some remarkable happening as well...) As far as color commentators, I really enjoyed listening to Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Mike Flanagan, Rick Dempsey, John Lowenstein, etc... Even the too few times later on when a retired Earl Weaver would happen by the booth. Some great stories. And I know every major league city has their own favorites and that's what's great about "homers".
On the football side, however, I do have to say in all honesty, nobody had it as good as Redskins fans when it came to "homers". Turn down the sound on the ol' TV and turn up Sonny and Sam on the radio as the Redskins line up to kick off left to right across your radio dial... Sonny Jurgenson and Sam Huff (with their straight man, Frank Herzog) were the hands-down best. Sonny with truly brilliant insight into football and Sam was, well, as you would imagine yourself in the booth, yelling and screaming at the refs. Fun memories.
But the NFL is seriously lacking in good color commentators. Gruden is great, he knows football but more importantly, he is likeable and has personality. Former stars are great but guys like Troy Aikman are boring. Give me a John Madden or a Tony Siragusa any day, I freakin' LOVED Art Donovan! Arty was great TV. But who do we get now? Simms, Buerlein, Gannon... and Steve Tasker? PUHHHLeeeeZZZZzzzzzzz.....
I could not agree more! Inter-League play is sacrilege. It ranks right up there with another aberration, taken from a quote in Bull Durham:
"I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter."
Good point.
If it were up to me, I would do the following:
1. cut back to 154 games.
2. play more doubleheaders.
3. End the regular season by mid-September.
4. Get rid of wild card teams, so only division winners make the playoffs.
5. get rid of interleague play.
6. do the playoff schedule so the World Series ends by Oct. 10th or so. So they avoid bad baseball weather.
7. enforce rules on the books to speed up the game. nothing drags more than a 4 hour plus nine inning game.
As good a story as they are, the Kansas City Royals interest very few people beyond their immediate area.
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