Still America’s Pastime?

Growing up, baseball was the sport for many of us.  Often times it was the first sport we played as a youth and the first sport we heard our fathers reminisce about.  It was America’s Pastime, no questions asked.  From playing pickle in the street to home run derby in the backyard to collecting hundreds upon thousands of baseball cards, baseball was IT.  Yeah many of us played other sports but baseball was our first love.  Then, for many, something happened, baseball lost its luster.  But why?

The answer lies with why many still love the ol’ game.

Baseball is the same sport it was 50 years ago, and that’s the problem. 

Baseball hasn’t evolved like the other sports.  The NFL and the NBA are more popular than ever.  The NFL is the elite league.  The shield has evolved like no other.  The use and continued expansion/evolution of instant replay, the willingness to change rules for the better, allowing the fans to be a part of the game, Fantasy Football, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, the list goes on.

Meanwhile, baseball refuses to use technology to its advantage.  Just in the last few years, their stubbornness when it comes to instant replay has altered what they value most, their history.  One not perfect game that was, one no hitter that wasn’t, an infield fly that traveled well into the outfield, missed home run calls, misunderstanding of rules, you get the idea.  Baseball is dying a slow death.  They have done little to keep or encourage the young black athlete to choose baseball over football and basketball despite having their RBI program (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities).  Baseball is still stuck in the newspaper age while the rest of the sports world has gone from print to internet, to facebook and twitter.

Many argue that to become relevant again and to close the gap on the NBA and NFL Major League Baseball needs to step into the new age and change the pace of the game.  Baseball historians talk about no clock in baseball and act like it’s a good thing, and it likely was decades ago when you listened to the game on the radio.  But, in today’s day in age, where most people’s phones have more technological capabilities than the shuttle that took man to the moon, information is at your fingertips and people want things in an instant.  Not many people aged 18-35 are willing to sit through a three hour 3-1 snooze fest.  Last year, ESPN’s Rick Riley wrote an intriguing comedic article on baseball and the length of the game.  Many of the rule changes he suggested seemed outlandish, but, the more thought given to some, the more sense some of them made.  There is no reason a batter needs to step out of the box after every pitch and readjust his gloves, tap his shoes, stare at his bat, dig in, do a few waggles, check the sign, spit, lick his bat, kiss his bat, shrug his shoulders, stretch his neck, and adjust his you know what. Keep the fans baseball; don’t be so hesitant to change.

Baseball needs to use technology to its advantage.  When a batter hits a double or triple or when an outfielder makes a great catch, show how fast he ran like football does on a breakout play, show how far he dove or how high he jumped.  When a batter hits a shot show the speed the ball came off his bat and the flight of the ball like they do in the home run derby.  Show the break of the pitch with a ball tracker and tell the viewer how many inches the ball actually moved.  Obviously you wouldn’t want to see this on every pitch put it’d be cool to have a Clayton Kershaw curve tracked.  Baseball has done some of these in the past but not very often.  Have flex scheduling down the stretch like the NFL and put games with playoff implications on Wednesday Night Baseball and Sunday Night Baseball.  Show someone besides the Yankees and Red Sox. (EDITORS NOTE: Hey now!)

Baseball’s unwillingness to change in today’s fast paced world is causing the casual sport fan to lose interest.  The diehard fan will ALWAYS watch.  Part of the NFL’s success is that traditionally non-sport fans love to watch.  My wife loves watching football.  She thinks baseball is too slow and too long and too boring.  Sure baseball has done a few things right, but only after catastrophes.  Baseball has some of the best drug testing and policies around for American sports.  But, Baseball refused to admit it had a problem with PED’s for years.  The sport that is predicated on historical statistics has let its most hallowed ones fall to cheaters, hello Mr. Bonds.  Baseball’s All-Star game winner now gets home field advantage.  Some love it, some hate it, but, it brings some added interest to an otherwise over rated game.  That change didn’t come until baseball was embarrassed by the 2002 all-star game that ended in a tie.

 

Baseball is a great game but it could use some tweaking.

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