This thread isn’t an elaborate whoosh? People seem to be taking it seriously, but then each new post by the OP suggests to me that they’re wrong to do so.
You’re just upset because you haven’t stolen home base or kicked a touchdown.
(Or whatever it’s called when the tight end intercepts a pass from the goalie.)
Maybe. I’ve never watched football. It has violence, though, which I imagine is the principal attraction for the masses. (But yes, I am aware that there is plenty of strategy to the game for those who want more than people slamming into one-another very hard.)
It is relatively rare for a pitcher to be a decent hitter, and those that are don’t get enough credit for it.
I propose that each RBI a pitcher gets as a batter shall be subtracted from his earned runs as a pitcher.
I fell asleep trying to read DSYoungEsq’s description of soccer.
I think they should award home runs based on attendance. Perfect attendance for, let’s say one month (no games missed) gets a player one home run during the following month.
They would have to refine this rule to decide whether it’s the player or the manager who chooses which at-bat to cash in the HR.
And the rule should start in the American League.
If violence were the main attraction, boxing would be a lot more popular. Or they’d ban pads in football. Or allow more backfield motion. Either way, your assumptions and baseline knowledge of both baseball and football are staggeringly thin.
Oh, and I also think that every team should field a tenth player, a “tall-stop”, if you will. This would be a guy who flies around the stadium with a jetpack, trying to catch fly balls before they become home runs.
OH! And the offense should ALSO have a guy with a jetpack. HIS job would be to catch fly balls, and deliver them into the stands to MAKE HRs. And the tall-stop would be permitted to crash into him to prevent this.
There. Now that the world has a REAL REASON to have jetpacks, maybe the rocket scientists of the world will get off their lazy butts and develop one.
Make sure they spell my name right when they put me in the HoF for this contribution to the game. Michael. The “a” comes before the “e”.
I’d like to see more triples, which have gone down more or less steadily for over a century. To go along with that I’d love to see a new park open with some rather distant fences, but every time a new stadium comes along and the perception is that it favors the defense too much, the owners in question get all “Oh Noez!” about it and promptly move the fences in (or home plate out). <sigh.>
Years ago I read something where players/ex-players were asked for suggestions on how to liven up the game. I believe one of the ex-Pirates players suggested that on a foul ball in the stands the batter should be entitled to any bases he can get before it’s touched by a fan.
That would give fans for teams like the Pirates an incentive to show up to help their club.
Since I’m a baseball fan it hurts me to say this but I disagree with your claim that baseball is not broken. Just look at the way most of the play-off games are scheduled on TV this year–the entire first round and half of the second round have been banished to TBS rather than broadcast TV. Until fairly recently, the networks always showed them on prime time. Now, it almost seems like they’re trying to hide the games. Apparently, the networks’ regular programming along with competing college football and NFL games is too much for post-season baseball. Also, fewer American kids are playing baseball these days so they’re not picking up on the sport. They’re the next generation of potential fans and if they don’t develop an appreciation for America’s Pastime, the generations that follow them almost certainly won’t either.
Right now, in terms of overall popularity and fan interest, I would still consider baseball to be #2 but only slightly ahead of basketball (both the NBA and college). However, I think basketball is going to surge ahead for good soon and baseball is going to continue it’s slow fade into irrelevance. Baseball is not broken in the sense that it’s so damaged it can’t function. Rather, it’s more like there are a number of surface cracks that are gradually growing longer and deeper until the sport falls apart piece by piece.
As for home runs improving things, I think it would just cheapen home runs as a dramatic event in the game.
What network do they show NBA playoffs on again?
NDP, I would have to see some numbers on Basketball ratings vs. Baseball. Last I checked baseball had a large edge and pulled in far more money. (Again thanks to having twice the games).
Now I will concede the current pricing structure of seats and everything else in the ballparks is getting crazy and less kids have reasonable access to the games, but minor league baseball has had a great resurgence over the last 20 years and kids are a large chunk of this audience. A minor league ballgame is usually no more expensive than a movie and often cheaper.
The TV thing, TBS is apparently on the most cable systems and a pretty major outlet. They outbid the networks is what it comes down to. Fox will now cover the rest of the game IRC. ESPN shows a lot of national games and of course has the big Sunday package and Fox has the Saturday afternoon package. Baseball is pretty available. What percentage of people do not have access to TBS and ESPN, I believe it is actually small these days.
Baseball is trying hard to fund programs in the cities. They have a big initiative to do this. Hopefully it works or you are correct that they will fail to raise a new generation of baseball fans, but from what I can see Basketball peaked under Jordan and has dropped since he retired as baseball has grown throughout that time.
Well, here are some numbers for the NBA vs. MLB for 2009 playoffs. It is not exactly apples to apples, but gives an idea.
From here: Average attendance of all first-round MLB games was 4.8 million over 13 games.
From here: The first 16 games of the 2009 NBA playoffs had an average rating of 2.2. That should be roughly 2.5 million viewers. And consider that the NBA had at least some of those games on ABC.
The idea that the NBA is likely to pass MLB in ratings seems to be unfounded at this time.
The numbers I’ve seen do show that the NCAA tournament gets higher ratings than the first round of the MLB playoffs, but that the World Series does significantly better.
It seems to me that the NBA’s popularity may have peaked during the 90s, while college basketball is now what’s growing rapidly in popularity.
The first round of the baseball play-offs may be rated higher but the thing to keep in mind these ratings are good for basic cable. If they were on one of the four broadcast networks (like they used to be), those numbers would not be so good. That’s why Fox let TBS have the games.
You’ll get no argument from me that baseball executives are doing a poor job of scheduling the postseason. But your arguments are slightly flawed. First, TBS is a big deal station. If you have cable, you have TBS. And around 80% of the country has cable or satelite.
Also, your basketball comparison makes no sense, as the early NBA rounds are shown on TNT, which is owned by the same company that owns TBS.
Three million kids play baseball in a league affiliated with Little League Baseball. There are also hundreds of unaffiliated leagues as well. I don’t know how that compares to historical rates, but that is a lot of kids playing a lot of baseball.
Citi Field, this year. Distant fences, with very high walls. Not that it helped . . . 
There is some suggestion that this be done in Citi, but so far, no plans to change things.
Calling baseball broken, then pointing to the NBA & NFL as not-broken is a bit silly. Baseball has its issues, but, if I can get poetical about it, I can see the home court and stadiums of Michael Crabtree and Stephen Jackson from my seat at AT&T Park. People are getting sick of that kind of shit in football and basketball, while baseball, despite steroids and rising prices and the 1994 strike is cleaning itself up and doing a pretty damn good job, too.