Is baseball losing it?

[John Corn]

I saw this thing on HBO, forgot the name, but it was something like "When it was a Game". Is talked about how people used to drool at the chance to see a Sunday double header, and usaually left wanting more. Nowadays you REALLY have to like baseball to sit through just one game. Back then teams never lost players to free agency and stuff so there was none of this "be nice to them because they might be your teammates tommorrow" thing. Back then people played for like 600 dollars a month, some players make more than that per game.

[Cyclone]

Its gone from "______ will ruin baseball" to "baseball has been ruined".

[Msguy]

Baseball is still a fun game for me. Growing up in Chicago I used to love being taken as a youngster to Wrigley Field. We all have to understand baseball is a business while it is also a game some players and teams are just better than others. It has to try and survive just as any company would and if a player doesn't perform he'll be traded or cut just as someone who worked somewhere and didn't do his job they'd be fired.

[jeffwtux]

Baseball has lost it. MLB has let economics and geographical demographics kill baseball. Exhibit A: The AL East. If the season ended today, the standings for the AL East would be in the EXACT SAME ORDER FOR 6 CONSECUTIVE SEASONS!!! What's the point of even playing the games? In the 80's(granted it was before they broke into 3 divisions), 6 or the 7 teams in the division finished in first place(the only team that didn't was the Indians). Now there is no competition. Sure, the big markets are in the playoffs every year, but the fans everywhere else just don't care. That AL East stat is just sickening.

[John Corn]

Back then baseball was a pastime. Now it's all business. :)

[Msguy]

You are Soooo Right John Corn.

[music_beans]

Baseball should die. Football should prevail. :D

[jeffwtux]

JohnCorn: there's nothing wrong with it being a business. It was a business in th 80's. Players were making millions in the 80's. However, revenue was far more equal. There wasn't this extreme disparity in cable TV revenue that we have now. That's the culprit. BASEBALL IS DEAD

[IndyMichael]

MLB lost me '94, when the World Series wasn't played. Now I just follow our local AAA team. The Indianapolis Indians have a great ballpark and you can take in a game, for less than a nightime movie ticket.

[Jacob S]

A lot of things are not what they used to be. Even collecting baseball cards is different than what it was in the 80's. In the early 90's it started taking a big change and became more business than hobby in many cases.

[Maniacal1]

Even spring training has become big business now. When I first started going to spring training in the mid-80's, it was me and a whole bunch of people with blue hair. Then came fantasy camps and spring training tours and sleepy Florida backwaters became baseball cities for 8 weeks.

That said, though, I'm still a baseball fan, and I always will be.

[HarryD]

I'm a fan of baseball.. great game. What MLB needs is a real commissioner.. not this charliton they have now..

[jeffwtux]

The 94 strike was more of a side effect rather than the actually crisis. I say every season since has been just as bad. I say the fact that the AL East has finished in the exact same order for 6 years is far more of an outrage, just as it's an outrage that they Braves have won their division almost every year since 91. Basically 2 of the 6 divisions(both east divisions) haven't had a race in 6 years. That means that 8 teams know at the start of the season that the wildcard is the best they can hope for. The problem isn't that baseball has become a business. The problem is that baseball has become a BAD BUSINESS.

[John Corn]

Is baseball a reflection of the game degenerating or more a reflection of the economy, the advent of more cable televised games, etc?

I love the game, warts and all...but I find myself preferring to sit in the comfort of my own home to watch it rather than fork over all the associated costs/hassles of going to a game...

How are TV ratings for the sport overall?

[jeffwtux]

JohnCorn: no, I don't think it's the econcomy either. Baseball has been dead for about half of the teams since '95. That covers the economic boom. I'm sure from your perspective it hasn't been that dead since the Indians have been winning(at least until last year), but Major League Baseball has been less popular than COLLEGE hockey in Michigan over the last 7 years.

[jeffwtux]

Oh, sorry my earlier post I made an exaggerated assumption. I said that the AL East has finished in the exact same order the last 6 years. Like I said in the first post, what I meant was, if the season ended today, the AL East will have finished in the exact same order 6 years in a row. Whatever it is 5 or 6, that's sick.

[Rursery]

Admission for the inaugural San Diego Padre game in 1963 was $.50 for military personnel (upper level). I recently attended a St Louis Cardinal game and the ticket was $18.00 (upper level). You do the math!