The Real National Pastime — Baseball’s Time Has Passed

Grab a shovel.  Baseball is dead.  Time to bury it forever.

Consider if you will the dreadful television ratings of the current series between two of the game’s most storied franchises — St. Louis and Boston.  The most recent primetime game drew about 14 million viewers.  Keep in mind this is the championship extravaganza, baseball’s premier event.  Fourteen million viewers.  About what a CSI episode draws on a Tuesday night or the typical viewership for a lackluster mid-season NFL game between two mediocre teams.

Indeed, baseball faces some serious problems –worse now than ever.  If St. Louis and Boston — teams located in markets where baseball still remains wildly popular — can’t muster better numbers than this, then what hope does the game have for the future?  Answer — none, unless the mighty baseball lords make some significant changes.  And then, it still might be too late.

Anecdotal evidence is hardly a barometer, I’ll admit.  Still, I don’t know of a single person who cares about these games or who is watching the World Series of Baseball with any interest, and that includes the people gambling on it.  In Las Vegas, it’s pretty much like buying a stock.  Once you make your bet, then you go and do something else more interesting and come back later and check on your action.

I haven’t attended a baseball game in years.  The last one I went to was at Dodger Stadium.  Marieta and I attended the game with Rich Korbin.  We had the best seats in the house, located right behind home plate.  Dodger Stadium sure was nice.  It was a perfect 72-degree night.  But the game was a bore.  Every break was filled with commercial announcements blaring from the loudspeakers.  Every bit of real estate was plastered with some corporate logo.  It’s one thing to get bombarded with advertising when watching on television.  But I found the entire experience completely intolerable.  By the way, Rich and I bet the game to go under to the total.  Once the Dodgers took a 7-2 lead in the top of the third inning, we darted out of the stadium just as the Dodger “faithful” were still streaming through the turnstiles, our action now dead.

Baseball’s lack of appeal is hardly new.  The last two generations have basically tuned the game out completely.  Television ratings have been declining for years.  Not even the big market teams can save the sport anymore — in fact, they never were even capable of doing so.  One of the lowest-rated series of all time was the all-New York (Yankees-Mets) series back about ten years ago.  Last year’s World Series of Baseball drew the lowest numbers of all time.

There are many reasons for the continuing slide.  But I wonder — what if baseball had been like the NFL.  Might those policies have saved the sport?  Perhaps.

Here’s a shortlist of the things that I’d do immediately to make Major League Baseball more popular:

(1)  Institute Equal Revenue Sharing Among All Teams — Teams must have the opportunity to compete on a level playing field.  But baseball is heavily weighted towards the wealthy big-market teams.  So, some lesser teams simply can’t compete.  Occasionally, one of them goes on a roll and makes the playoffs.  But then the team loses star players to free agency, as the wealthy teams buy up all the talent the following season.  Then, the smaller market teams are left in yet another rebuilding phase.  By contrast, the genius of the NFL was the implementation of revenue sharing in the early 1960s, when teams like Green Bay could compete with New York and Chicago for talent.  Baseball hasn’t ever learned this obvious lesson — that a rising tide lifts all boats — and probably never will.

(2)  Highlight Smaller Market Teams — Most of the country is sick and tired of the sports networks always focusing on the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Dodgers.  It’s like the 26 other teams don’t exist.  Despite St. Louis essentially outperforming everyone else in baseball over the last decade, virtually none of the national media focuses much on the Cardinals, at least until they make the championship series, again and again.  When’s the last time ESPN’s SportsCenter led off with highlights from an Oakland A’s game?  This “All Yankees and Red Sox — All the Time” has poisoned America’s interest in watching the sport.  Instead, how about spreading out the wealth, as the NFL does?  This is why a sports fan in Atlanta or Cincinnati will watch the San Francisco 49ers and can even name some of the players, but no one would tune in to watch the San Francisco Giants.  Fans have no sense of familiarity with most (other) baseball teams.

(3)  Restrict Player Free Agency — It’s hard to identify with players who are likely to play only a season or two for your favorite team, and then flee town to play for some rival the following year.  Yet, this happens all the time.  What’s worse, big market teams always buy up the best talent from the small market teams.  So, fans constantly fear having their rosters raided.  I’m all for players getting as much as they can in compensation.  But lack of cohesion with players and teams increases apathy among fans.

(4)  Expand into Latin America — It’s time to relocate a baseball franchise to Mexico City or some other market where games would draw huge crowds and enthusiasm would be rekindled for the game.  Since such a large percentage of baseball players are Latino, it’s an insult not to seriously consider moving teams or expanding to one of the large cities in a Spanish-speaking country.  If I could own a baseball team somehow, the first thing I would do would be to move it to Mexico’s capital — with 20 million people.  I’d also have no problem whatsoever getting many of the game’s best players to stay and play there.  It would be a gold mine and a huge boost to the game.

(5)  Clean Up the Druggies — At least baseball is doing something right.  It’s finally going after the drug users and handing down stiff penalties.  Trouble is, baseball waited far too long and continued to lose the public’s respect, due mostly to a players union hopelessly out of touch with widespread anger about this issue.  Now, many of the most coveted baseball records carry asterisks.  The entire baseball record book is blemished, now polluted beyond credibility.  It’s like none of the records matter anymore since most of the record-breakers were cheaters.

Critics insist that baseball on television isn’t exciting.  It’s just not a game made for the home screen.  It’s an experience to be enjoyed in person.  Perhaps so.  But many of the most exciting moments that I’ve experienced in sports were while watching baseball games.  A 2-1 pitcher’s duel can be just as interesting as anything else in sports.

Others may claim that televised sports are in a gradual downward spiral, particularly with competition increasing from other forms of media.  However, the NFL seems to be doing quite well and has no problem drawing viewers.  Television ratings are up this season, so far.

CLICK HERE

Golf does well.  So does NASCAR.  The NBA gets decent ratings.  Event poker telecasts have a steady following.

Meanwhile, baseball goes on and acts like nothing is wrong when the sad fact is — it hasn’t been the national pastime for 50 years.  Indeed, baseball’s time passed long ago.