Several news outlets have gotten hold of the bad news in TV ratings: ratings for local broadcasts of games are doing great, but the ratings for national games have dipped badly. It seems that individual teams are popular, but the support for the sport in general is weak. I can relate to that; I've followed the Blue Jays through thick and thin, but don't really pay attention to other games.
So what's the problem? Many sports pundits have lined up to blame it on their personal pet peeves. But a lot of people have focused on the length of games. And I've been impressed with how willing people are too change the game. In the past whenever anyone has suggested that baseball should be sped up, someone - probably Tim McCarver - reassures everybody that the game is perfect and everyone in the stadium is having fun and eating hot dogs and not thinking about being home by ten. But now it seems like everyone's willing to impose time limits on at-bats, ban visits to the mound, or eliminate warm-up pitches.
Impressive, but I don't think this is baseball's real problem. After all, football games are just as long. Here's my take on some of the major problems:
Steroids
People always look at the steroid issues as being about trust. That has been a problem, but here another problem: stats. Baseball has always been bigger on numbers than any other sport, but now it's biggest numbers are meaningless. It used to be exciting when Cecil Fielder or Brady Anderson went above the usual number of home runs. But now, the records have been pushed out of reach, and aren't taken seriously anymore. They should just erase them and make what everyone feels the reality: Maris and Aaron are the record holders again.Stars
I could write a whole post on how nauseating the Derek Jeter retirement hype has been, but instead I'll just say this: have you considered that he isn't even the best player on his own team? No, I'm not talking about A-Rod, who isn't so impressive anymore (see point one.) No, I mean Ichiro Suzuki. But he doesn't get nearly the publicity, because he played most of his MLB career in Seattle, and to the baseball media, he might as well have stayed in Japan.Of course, bias to big markets affects all sports, but in most others there is still the possibility for a Kevin Durant, Peyton Manning, or Sidney Crosby to gain national fame from a secondary market. In baseball that's more difficult, even with exceptional accomplishments. Consider Yasiel Puig and Miguel Cabrera: who has the greater accomplishments in the last few years, and who gets the most attention in the media. If you're only going to look to a handful of franchises for your nationally-recognizable stars, you're really limiting yourself.
Anonymous teams
The competitive imbalance that has plagued baseball for years did a lot of damage. It seems to be fixed now, though I'll reserve my final judgement until I see one of these youngster-laden small market teams win the world series.But a big problem that remains is the transient nature of teams. Big market teams churn through stars they've bought elsewhere, and small market teams are a conveyor belt of prospects that are used for a couple of seasons before being sold to the highest bidder. Wannabe teams either have second-rate fill-ins while they restock the farm system, or they parachute in expensive trades and signings trying to get to the top.
So one way or another, players move all over the place. Yes, there's more player movement in all sports these days, but in the NFL teams can usually hang on to a player for most of their prime, and in the NBA and NHL most teams can afford to at least hang on to a core of players.
But baseball's generous free-agency has lead to a generation of Yankees-Red Sox games that look like all-star games. And now we have to get excited over Royals-Mariners games featuring players we've never heard of. If you don't have a rooting interest, it's hard to get excited about such arbitrary matches.
No comments:
Post a Comment