Would fans in Colorado care if Major League Baseball went away?
Mar 1, 2022, 6:00 AM
They’re not going to really do this are they? Major League Baseball isn’t going to shoot themselves in the foot again and cancel real baseball games because billionaires and millionaires can’t figure out how to divide a gazillion-dollar pie?
In the past, baseball has wounded itself but, it’s never been mortal. This time it could be. The sport is already in trouble. A long, protracted shutdown could spell its doom.
How should I list the sport’s problems? A lack of competitive balance. Too many teams trying to tank. A game that is aging itself out of the younger demographics.
Let me say up front. Baseball will never totally lose me. They got me. It’s been part of my life forever and I’ll never be able to swear it off entirely.
But my 15-year-old son and his buddies? Yeah, they like going to the occasional game and they play it in high school, but are they watching the games? Are they talking about it amongst themselves? Are major league baseball players the athletes they’re looking up to and buying their gear over other athletes in other sports? The answer to all those questions is no.
The games are too long. There’s no action as every at-bat ends in a walk, a strikeout or a home run. Shifts are choking the life out of the game. Analytics are ruling the day instead of playing and managing the game based on a century’s worth of feel and common sense. Starting pitchers are commended for pitching five “grueling” innings. Every reliever who comes in is throwing 98-miles-per-hour cheese that hitters just can’t catch up with.
As mind boggling as it is that baseball owners and players are squabbling over gobs of money during a time where inflation is soaring, people have had their lives turned upside down due to a pandemic and there’s a war going over in Ukraine that we all get to watch like a reality TV show, the game’s biggest problem isn’t the actual lockout.
It will eventually get settled. Cooler heads will prevail as soon as game checks go missing. But, baseball’s real problems will still exist. Baseball has to change. Baseball has to stop clinging to its past and really energize the way the sport is played.
Here are some of the changes that need to be made to the game:
• Implement a full-time DH in both leagues. No more sending pitchers who can barely make contact up to bat.
• Get rid of shifts. Position players play in their traditional spots.
• Move the mound back to a distance that gives the hitters a better chance of hitting. Make the bases larger to incentivize more base stealing.
These are just a few ideas. I’m open to even more. I know some of the baseball diehards reading this will howl about changing the fundamental way the game is played. I say, who cares?
You know what sport doesn’t care about upsetting the traditionalists? The NFL. They are constantly changing the rules to benefit the offense and create more scoring. They understood long ago that fans would like the changes. And they were right!
Does the NFL even come close to resembling the way football was played 30 years ago? Nope. Has it hurt the NFL? Nope. In fact, it’s never been bigger or more popular.
Baseball needs to do the same. It’s not America’s pastime anymore. It’s getting close to being irrelevant, or worse. Ending this silly lockout is the first step. Then, the real hard work begins.
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