Baseball going to officially be declared dead as America's 'national pastime'?
 

seriously was that the biggest joke of a World Series ever? The world almost used to stop still during the World Series when I was a kid. I'm not even friggin American and when I was growing up we got to watch World Series games which were all played during the day in school. Nobody outside of New York and Boston cares about baseball. Kids barely play it.

Make football, UFC, or even web surfing for porn the new official 'national pastime'.

Baseball is so fucking boring my eyes bleed

Damn, I agree with you. NFL is the example Baseball should follow... but I had this discussion with some hardcore baseball fans and their arguments is we're wrong because the stadiums are packed! They forget to say that it's not packed everywhere and the viewers on TV is dropping ( then again, please correct me if I'm wrong on this one!).

Why would anyone care in Washington or smaller market when their team is out of the race early June? Why 160 games? Why no salary cap? Why games 'til November? Why Bud Selig? Why games finish at 2 AM if you call this a family pasttime?

I honestly can not think of anything that would bore me more than watching baseball.

Interest in baseball has definitely diminished over the past 15 years or so.

Men's freestyle swimming?

Sure baseball could use a few changes here and there but I still enjoy watching it. And I watch pretty much every Cubs game that is on tv. (More less all of them with Extra Innings on DirecTV)

The World Series everyone knew would be a rating disaster if the Rays made it. Nothing you can really do about that. They should have pushed back the start times on the games in my opinion especially as both teams were from the East coast.

The demographics for baseball TV viewership skews old - the only television that gets older viewers are WWII documentaries.

In 20 years baseball will be more of a niche sport than ice hockey in the US.

i forgot Chicago - baseball still matters there too. And St Louis.

that's why it's going to be like hockey in the US - a few regional areas who care and the rest of the country couldn't care less unless their home team wins the World Series.

What could possibly be boring about watching men stand around for 3 and a half hours?

I watch about 1/10th of the full twins games. When i'm outside doing yard work or bbq'ing in the summer they are on the radio just because I feel some sort of weird obligation to baseball.

Usually though I just tune into the last 3 innings of most games because lets face it, I have better shit to do. I also agree there are WAY TOO MANY GAMES.

When I was a kid going to games with my dad it was all about the snacks, pop and mini bats he would buy. I would also bring my glove in hopes of catching that illusive foul ball. I give the man credit for sitting through those games with a son hopped up on sugar. I have never taken my son to a twins game, NFL or NHL only.

(contemplation timer is running...)

baseball finished the 2007 season with just over $6 billion in revenue. And that puts it about dead even with football. In the last four years, the NFL has grown by about 25 percent a year, which sounds right. Baseball's grown by 50 percent a year. And attendance at an all-time high.

I don't show any interest(Phillies fan) until the post season, and I still won't watch an entire game of dudes standing around spitting for 3.5 hours. Also, they play like 892 games a year...I don't have 3 hours a night to watch that shit.

Football is once a week, they've got cheerleaders in stripper outfits, they smack each other in the mouth and do a silly dance when they score. Football FTW.

Yeah I've lost all interest in the past few years. I tune in for the 9th inning, of the last game, of the world series and that's about it.

Hard comparison. In baseball teams play over 100 games a year while football play 16.

baseball was compared to football earlier in the thread. point remains- baseball revenues and attendance are at an all time high.

Most owners would love a cap but the players union will never go for it. The MLB players union is much stronger than the NFL's was when it got a salary cap. Perhaps they could get a cap if they agreed to expand by 2 more teams and thus providing the union with 50 more dues paying members. That's the only way I see a cap becoming reality in MLB.

I liked to play and watch baseball. I liked playing and watching football more.

I used to go to most of the games for every series the Texas Rangers played at home.

But, when MLB went out on strike in 1994 and canceled the World Series, it ruined the game for me. I have not been to another game since.

football is the the new american past time. Football teams play 16 high powered games that are marketed heavily vs 120 games stretched over 6 months. baseball can be great to watch when you have a team worth a shit. GO MARINERS....

The world series may get shitty records but MLB keeps setting attendance records.

That's 162.

chalk it up to shorter attention spans...people want instant highlights and baseball is too cerebral...

fair weather fans are always a kick too...guys who don't wear their baseball caps unless their team is in the playoffs...otherwise, back in the closet they go...but that's likely all sports...

I still like to sit down and watch a good baseball game and watch strategies develop over the course of 9 innings...how strategy can turn on a dime based upon the situation...

Baseball is dead that say-- cant you just believe them!!

Baseball fans would not agree. The world series wasnt epic by any stretch.... but it was a good story. A story about a boy named George who went and spent way too much money and tried to buy a championship- but lost to

pitching pitching pitching(ignore that yankee rant)

I still love baseball. Cant wait till April again

I havent watched a baseball game in over 20 years. It was boring as hell then, I cant imagine that its gotten any more exciting since then.

yup, a great story
The rays making the post season for the first time ever...The Phillies having not been to a post season in a long time...It was nice not seeing the same handful of teams in the world series

i love baseball. big Mets fan. but i agree, especially in the playoffs with all the delays with pitching changes, the last 3 innings take a million years. I am fan it's hard to watch.

they really need to limit the timeouts that batters take too. everyone is stepping out of the box before every damn pitch. it takes forever.

my favorite sports to watch are hockey and football. Hockey is non stop action.

Boring.
As.
Fuck.

i think that it's really hard for a lot of people to watch baseball on TV, even fans. i personally love the game and watch it on TV but being there is just a whole different experience, obviously.

i agree it's been really different since the 94 strike but i still love the game.

People who say baseball is boring just don't understand the game. I enjoy football, MMA, and other sports, but baseball is the most interesting to watch for me. It's a very complex game if you learn it and very rewarding once you understand it.

As for it dying, baseball has had record ticket sales (in a declining economy) these last few years so I don't see it dying.

As for this years ratings, of course, a Rays vs. Phillies series postponed by rain would have low ratings.

Watching grown ups in pyjamas running after a little ball.

Baseball's attendance has been on the rise mostly because of brand new stadiums in many cities - people in the first few years of a new stadium go to see and experience the new ballpark - Camden Yards was packed until the novelty wore off, Skydome the same thing - now they're half empty or less and the same thing will happen to these newer stadiums

Like I said, baseball appeals to the 50 plus crowd - as the Baby Boom generation ages and retires they have more free time to go to watch baseball. And baseball is a very cheap ticket compared to NFL,NBA and NHL, you can easily get tickets to MLB games for 10 bucks and under.

I'm not saying baseball is going to die - but it's no longer anywhere near the 'national pastime' - it's a niche sport. The only sport that isn't a niche sport now is the NFL.

Yeah, with that many games, it's like watching a regular season game isn't even exciting because it's like if they win or lose, who cares, they still have a pile of games to go. Just like basketball and hockey.

Whereas with football, pretty much every game matters, plus the fact that it's got a lot more action, makes it more apealing to me.

First off, it IS pretty much all sports. Secondly, there's nothing more painful than your team vying for the worst record in the league for not a handful of games like in football, not maybe 20 games or so like in basketball, but for like 80 or 90 games in baseball. In football, there's not much time to feel the pain of a season gone wrong (during the season at least), but in baseball it's a long drawn out slow death. Yea, my Padres sucked serious ass this year.

I agree about it being more of a cerebral game, and in general it being more interesting to watch on that level than football. I'm actually beginning to appreciate golf and even soccer more than both.

The World Series drawing low ratings is pretty easy: The BoSox coming back from 3 games down against the rival Yankees to win their first one in eons is the pinnacle of World Series, and probably the only way it could be topped at this point was if the Cubs did something to that effect. In general there's been a lot of great ones in recent memory, so if one doesn't live up to those, it doesn't draw in the viewers, and I don't think many people really gave a crap that the Devil Rays were there for the first time.

I actually didnt know the world series was going on until i heard that the phillies won last night...

Thats how down the road it is... I think the last time i noticed the world series was when the cubbies almost took it a few years back...

If only the Cubs had won the World Series.

The whole world would have stopped, and I would be on a year long binder!

That would require the Cubs to actually win playoff games.

I would rather watch a baseball game then a soccer match. I know a lot of people love soccer, but I think it is very boring.

I will agree though, baseball has become very dull lately.

PFFT. I know! That year was the Expos year.. that strike prvented us from making (finally) good post season profit (assuming no shocker) and because of the strike, we lost 4 key player that wwinter: Larry Walker, Marquis Grisson, John Wetteland and I believe it was Moise alou the 4th one). This is when the Montreal fans stopped going to the games and it was the beginning of a long agony...The last year, we had a B team on the field ( except for Vladimir Guerrero which was ready to sign a real contract anyways..) and fans were tired of seeing their team lose every decent player year after year...

Again, I haven't really followed but I believe they don't do better ratings since they move to Washington, and the stadium is not full... Oh and the last year, with owner Jeffrey Loria (aka Judas) he managed not to have a TV deal in the local market...After that, it was so easy for him to move the team..He can suck Bud Selig's dick because it was all the plan form the minute he was interested in buying the team..That fucker!

I am a big baseball fan and I think it is far from dead. Sure there are teams that don't do so well and don't draw that many fans because they are either in a bad market or always losing. The Rays are a great example. They sucked since day 1 of their existence and this year even with only a few weeks left in the season they were in a race for the AL East pennant and they were still playing in front of a half full crowd. Only when it got real close to the end did the start drawing bigger crowds.. Mutt makes a good point. When teams get a new stadium people go to check it out and they draw well, but if they don't field a good team the stadium alone can only be a draw for so long.

Baseball has always been a regional game. They enjoy a large fanbase from their home cities and surrounding areas but there are only a few teams that have a real national fanbase. The Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers and Cubs all have fans nationwide, but unless you live in the northwest you probably don't give a damn about the Mariners. The NFL has big regional followers, but most teams also enjoy a national following.

The thing I think I like most about baseball is that while there is no salary cap there is still chances for the little guy to make good. Sure the Yankees and Red Sox spend a ton and are always in the mix, but sometimes they aren't and every year there seems to be a small team from a small market that makes a splash. The Rockies last year and this year the Rays and Phillies hadn't been in the mix in a long time. The Mets continue to spend money and fail as do the Cubs. So for me it is always new and interesting and it is something you can actually afford to take your kids to (if you have them). You can get a seat the bleachers for most teams for under $20 get a beer and a hot dog and enjoy an afternoon at the park. You can walk around and see the park and watch batting practice and just have a fun, lazy afternoon or evening and you never know what you are going to see. Maybe that night someone throws a no hitter or hits for the cycle or you get to see triple play.

Baseball has been around over 100 years. It has survived world wars, strikes, and a a depression. It is going nowhere anytime soon.

you can blame that on MTV, the new gen ration can't follow anything that last longer than 2 seconds :)

There is a lot of truth to that statement. I don't have kids and I understand when I was a kid I probably had a short attention span, but my brother's and friend's kids all seem to be on Myspace, texting, watching TV and listening to their Ipods all at the same time. Their attention spans seem to be about 2 seconds long.

Baseball is fun to play, but boring to watch.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Sad but true

I think it's somewhat sad, to be honest.

A lot of different factors.

Kids these days (hahaha, am I getting old or what?!) tend to be less active outdoors. It's a simple fact, at least in this area. My 7 year old son doesn't get out nearly as much as I did as a kid, and that is his parents fault due to the retarded hysteria about the "dangers" of him being out of sight for more than 5 seconds. I include myself in that, but at least I realize I'm somewhat insane.

When you don't play the game from a young age and learn it's intricacies, a game like baseball really starts to get boring as hell. Football though, the average person simply cannot play competitively but still be wow'ed by the athletic catches/runs/hard hits/etc.

The other reason, for me at least - was the strike. It hit during the "formative" early-teen years, and it hit hard. Everyone in my 7th grade class were HUGE baseball fans (well, the boys) and we traded baseball cards all day long. After the strike, a lot of the magic was simply lost, and many no longer had much interest. I know they have had labor issues in the past, but this one just seemed to hit "kids" hard for some reason. Those kids then grew up into the young adults who largely ignore the game today.

Also the world simply moves at a faster pace. 90% of the young population doesn't have a f-in clue about the "behind the game" game taking place w/ management, pitching matchups, etc. That is where baseball is interesting - not watching homeruns and the like. Baseball as a "wow me" sport simply does not compete with the likes of the NFL or NBA. It's very difficult to try to explain to a complete noobie the game in one sitting, vs. football - where they can immediately get into the game after 5 minutes of explanation.

So yeah.. I find it somewhat sad, and somewhat of a mark of what this country is becoming. But then again, I'm a negative person by rule :)

To the other guy from MN - interesting you're in this area, I am too!

-Phil

youre all fucking idiots.

I don't understand professional sports.

It's like porn. Would you rather watch someone get paid to fuck a hot big breasted blonde chick, or would you rather get laid yourself?

I was a basket ball super star in high school; I'm forty years old now and I still play basket ball nearly every weekend. But you couldn't pay me enough to sit there and watch someone else play.