Today, Jeff Passan and Yahoo! Sports published one of the most intelligent pieces of journalism I’ve ever read, and I felt obliged to include a link to it below. Read it first, then my page to get the full picture of what's happening in baseball.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AjOrXnD5adc_rxJJaLyQSBYRvLYF?slug=jp-passan_world_series_ratings_baseball_health_102511
As an insanely rabid baseball fan, I believe the sport has four major problems to overcome. The first two have existed since the sport began, the second since television began, and the third since 1992.
Item One – It Takes Work ‘Cause You Gotta Want It
Baseball is a very complex sport that requires much from its’ fans because often there are dozens of things happening when it appears nothing is happening at all. It is a subtle game that requires a certain elegance of thinking to understand and love, and involves hundreds of statistics when managers complete lineup cards or make personnel changes during the game.
Americans today have the same problem with baseball they have with everything: the vast majority of them have short attention spans when it comes to things that don’t provide instant gratification. Besides a three-run homer or well-turned double-play, baseball will never provide instant gratification.
Item Two – New York City? Get A Rope!
The media center of this country is New York City. As a result, everything in our national broadcast and print media has a New York bias built in.
An example of this is the recession. There are and have been lots of good-paying jobs in this country during the recession. Manufacturing and financial jobs have disappeared from the east coast and near mid-west, but other sectors are booming in Texas, Wyoming, North Dakota, Alaska, and other locations with very low costs of living, and little or no state income taxes. But you don’t hear much about these jobs because the people who write and report the news are urban and east coast based.
The point is this: millions of people are Yankee fans, but not many of them are baseball fans. They’re Yankee fans because the Yankees receive the most air time on SportsCenter. They’re Yankee fans because it’s easy to be a Yankee fan. Since 1900 the Yankees have spent the most in players’ salaries to insure they would win the most championships which always builds a fan base, because America loves a winner. Had a salary cap been in effect for the last 100-plus years, I doubt the Yankees would have done as well.
Item Three – Television; Boob Tube or Groove Tube?
The rectangular shape of NFL gridirons and NBA hardwood floors fit the television screen much better than the quarter-round of a baseball diamond. There isn’t much going on behind the scenes in either basketball or football, so fans don’t have to think much to enjoy the action.
Don’t misunderstand me, I am not implying football and basketball fans aren’t intelligent, just that they like checking their intellect at the door when it comes to watching sports. This doesn’t make them right or wrong, just different from baseball fans.
Item Four – Can I Interest You In A Barely Used Baseball Team With Low Miles?
I remember baseball when the commissioner was elected by the owners for life and had ultimate power to act in the best interests of baseball even when the owners didn’t like it. Having a real commissioner was the only thing that kept both the owners and players in line.
Having a real commissioner ended in 1992 when Faye Vincent resigned after a no-confidence vote by the owners. This was the result of an owner’s coup against Vincent after he agreed with the players and their arbitrators that the owners colluded against the players in 1985, 1986, and 1987 to fix prices on free agents. It cost the owners $280 million to settle, and angered the main architects of the collusion, owners Jerry Reinsdorf of the White Sox and Bud Selig of the Brewers, to the point of asking the owners to vote on Vincent remaining as commissioner.
It figures that a used car dealer like Selig and a Brooklyn lawyer like Reinsdorf would try something like this. They got caught and paid up, then decided it was time to have a commissioner that would take care of the owners rather than “the best interests of baseball.”
Selig and the owners had an opportunity to fix a huge problem during the strike that cancelled the end of the season and the World Series in 1994. But in the standoff the owners blinked first when they agreed to revoke the salary cap and return to the old agreement. What were the owners afraid of? They were already the most hated and vilified people in America, if they would have just stuck to their guns, the cap would have stayed, and fans in places like Pittsburgh and Kansas City would now have the same money as the Yankees to spend on players’ salaries.
Bud Selig has done nothing to promote or help baseball and I am counting the days until he leaves. Any fan who follows the game sees him for what he is – a slimy used car salesman with only his own interests in mind. For a guy successful in marketing, and after all the years as an owner and commissioner, he still doesn’t understand the game, the players, or its’ fans He’s too busy wringing his hands worrying about the television ratings of Cardinals/Rangers compared to an NFL game or his dream World Series matchup of Yankees/Dodgers.
Epilogue – What If We Had A World Series And Nobody Came?
Intelligent sports fans and writers realize that you don’t compare sports to each other in terms of television ratings. I guarantee you that real baseball fans everywhere are watching the 2011 World Series, which has given us many, many great moments. All I can say is thank you to Jeff Passan for reminding me of what I already knew, and to the baseball gods for allowing me to watch.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AjOrXnD5adc_rxJJaLyQSBYRvLYF?slug=jp-passan_world_series_ratings_baseball_health_102511
As an insanely rabid baseball fan, I believe the sport has four major problems to overcome. The first two have existed since the sport began, the second since television began, and the third since 1992.
Item One – It Takes Work ‘Cause You Gotta Want It
Baseball is a very complex sport that requires much from its’ fans because often there are dozens of things happening when it appears nothing is happening at all. It is a subtle game that requires a certain elegance of thinking to understand and love, and involves hundreds of statistics when managers complete lineup cards or make personnel changes during the game.
Americans today have the same problem with baseball they have with everything: the vast majority of them have short attention spans when it comes to things that don’t provide instant gratification. Besides a three-run homer or well-turned double-play, baseball will never provide instant gratification.
Item Two – New York City? Get A Rope!
The media center of this country is New York City. As a result, everything in our national broadcast and print media has a New York bias built in.
An example of this is the recession. There are and have been lots of good-paying jobs in this country during the recession. Manufacturing and financial jobs have disappeared from the east coast and near mid-west, but other sectors are booming in Texas, Wyoming, North Dakota, Alaska, and other locations with very low costs of living, and little or no state income taxes. But you don’t hear much about these jobs because the people who write and report the news are urban and east coast based.
The point is this: millions of people are Yankee fans, but not many of them are baseball fans. They’re Yankee fans because the Yankees receive the most air time on SportsCenter. They’re Yankee fans because it’s easy to be a Yankee fan. Since 1900 the Yankees have spent the most in players’ salaries to insure they would win the most championships which always builds a fan base, because America loves a winner. Had a salary cap been in effect for the last 100-plus years, I doubt the Yankees would have done as well.
Item Three – Television; Boob Tube or Groove Tube?
The rectangular shape of NFL gridirons and NBA hardwood floors fit the television screen much better than the quarter-round of a baseball diamond. There isn’t much going on behind the scenes in either basketball or football, so fans don’t have to think much to enjoy the action.
Don’t misunderstand me, I am not implying football and basketball fans aren’t intelligent, just that they like checking their intellect at the door when it comes to watching sports. This doesn’t make them right or wrong, just different from baseball fans.
Item Four – Can I Interest You In A Barely Used Baseball Team With Low Miles?
I remember baseball when the commissioner was elected by the owners for life and had ultimate power to act in the best interests of baseball even when the owners didn’t like it. Having a real commissioner was the only thing that kept both the owners and players in line.
Having a real commissioner ended in 1992 when Faye Vincent resigned after a no-confidence vote by the owners. This was the result of an owner’s coup against Vincent after he agreed with the players and their arbitrators that the owners colluded against the players in 1985, 1986, and 1987 to fix prices on free agents. It cost the owners $280 million to settle, and angered the main architects of the collusion, owners Jerry Reinsdorf of the White Sox and Bud Selig of the Brewers, to the point of asking the owners to vote on Vincent remaining as commissioner.
It figures that a used car dealer like Selig and a Brooklyn lawyer like Reinsdorf would try something like this. They got caught and paid up, then decided it was time to have a commissioner that would take care of the owners rather than “the best interests of baseball.”
Selig and the owners had an opportunity to fix a huge problem during the strike that cancelled the end of the season and the World Series in 1994. But in the standoff the owners blinked first when they agreed to revoke the salary cap and return to the old agreement. What were the owners afraid of? They were already the most hated and vilified people in America, if they would have just stuck to their guns, the cap would have stayed, and fans in places like Pittsburgh and Kansas City would now have the same money as the Yankees to spend on players’ salaries.
Bud Selig has done nothing to promote or help baseball and I am counting the days until he leaves. Any fan who follows the game sees him for what he is – a slimy used car salesman with only his own interests in mind. For a guy successful in marketing, and after all the years as an owner and commissioner, he still doesn’t understand the game, the players, or its’ fans He’s too busy wringing his hands worrying about the television ratings of Cardinals/Rangers compared to an NFL game or his dream World Series matchup of Yankees/Dodgers.
Epilogue – What If We Had A World Series And Nobody Came?
Intelligent sports fans and writers realize that you don’t compare sports to each other in terms of television ratings. I guarantee you that real baseball fans everywhere are watching the 2011 World Series, which has given us many, many great moments. All I can say is thank you to Jeff Passan for reminding me of what I already knew, and to the baseball gods for allowing me to watch.
