How do you explain the decline in baseball's popularity?

I've never thought baseball was particularly interesting.

The slow pace is a major factor, but the number of games is brutal. MLB has 162 games in the regular season. That's an insanely high number of games. And these games are not short games. Spending several hours watching a game that isn't even 1% of a season feels almost meaningless. And if you are watching a team that is already eliminated from playoff contention, it feels even more meaningless.

If you go down to the minors, things become less interesting for different reasons. If your team somehow ends up with a really good player, you'll probably not see him for long before he gets called up to the next level. It's like going to a football game in which the practice squads are battling it out against each other.

If the individual games mattered more, that would make a difference. It's why the playoffs are actually interesting. I don't really watch them, but I could at least understand getting excited about them. Every single game matters. As soon as the series is won, the series is over.

 

1. Pace of play is too slow.
Pitchers take too long between pitches.
Batters step out of the box too often.
Pitching changes are too frequent and slow down the game. (This has been addressed for 2020.)

I want to make the distinction that it is the pace of play and not the duration of the games that is the problem. Of course, if the pace of play were to quicken, games would be completed in 2 1/2 hours or less, once again.

2. Emphasis on drawing walks and waiting for a home run has removed much of the strategy.
Entire innings can be played without the ball being put in play. These are long innings, too.
As a result, hit and run plays are rare. Stolen bases are rare. Bunting is rare.

3. The National League still uses the DH.
No one wants to see a pitcher attempt to hit. Worse, knowing that the pitcher is going to bunt whenever there is a runner on base and less than 2 outs means that team has just given up 1 of their 27 allotted outs. Yes, there are a handful of pitchers that can hit as competently as a backup catcher, but who wants to see that?
Also, a side effect of the pitcher batting in the NL is that NL pitchers really only have to face seven batters in an opposing lineup, as the catcher usually bats eighth and isn't a very good hitter and the pitcher bats ninth and is an automatic out.

 

Baseball, at all levels, is a beautiful sport of strategy and physical skills. Today's audience comes for entertainment, not for understanding. When you understand the complexity of the game you find it is brilliantly played and mastered at the elite level of MLB. If I had no responsibilities in life, I would spend 162 days, plus playoffs, studying the game. I realize I am not a typical observer. Most can't stand or don't want the intricacies of the game. They want their cocaine/meth high, not an intellectual exercise.

 

Finally something we agree upon.

 

It is only glorified rounders, which girls played at school,.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/news/who-invented-baseball

 

As I said.

 

Repent

 

I actually get in about 100 games a year. Sometimes it is just going on in the background but I love watching my Reds.

 

You're making an argument for the popularity of MLB. You don't get those salaries for a game no one watches.

 

Jeff Wilpon

 

Urbanization. Access to land and equipment requirements.

A lot easier to throw up a hoop or a couple of impromtu soccer goals.

 

The few times I've watched cricket, I felt like I was five again and my dad was trying to explain football.

Hockey is my favorite sport at the moment. Fast paced, minimal rules. Fisticuffs. What's not to love?

 

Yea... that doesn’t require any real maintenance. Lol

 

OK so if you live in New Jersey, what are your choices? The METS!?!