Here's another guy who thinks baseball needs to be sped up to fix it, citing deteriorating World Series television ratings and our attention deficit lifestyle as factors. Baseball is fine, it's greed that's killing it. Long commercials and expensive tickets are making it difficult for the casual fan to get into the game. Even then, it's difficult to get a really good seat, assuming they are not available sold out to corporations who don't attend, unless you're willing to shell out $70 or more or so per ticket. Small market teams that will never be able to compete, at least long term with the big market teams (anyone remember the late 70s when it seemed the KC Royals & the NY Yankees were always battling for the American League pennant?). Unless you have a new stadium in a big market, fergetaboutit. As for timeliness, watch a regular season game and they go much more quickly and are generally more informative (if your local announcers are any good). I love baseball and watch it throughout the year, at least until October. Come the end of the regular season, the games that started just after dinner, now don't start for another hour or so. While I might luck in with an early playoff game during the first week or two of October, that ends as baseball reaches it's final rounds. I don't watch the World Series, at least until the end of the game, because the games don't start until 8:30 ET, which is around my son's bedtime. During the regular season, night games begin around 7PM and end around 9:30/10:00, which is around my bedtime. With all the commercial breaks World Series games don't end until midnight. Sorry, I have to be at work the next morning so unless it's my Mets team in the Series, I'm not staying up to watch the game. Even then I'd probably couldn't do that 2 nights in a row; when the Mets last made the Series I fell asleep watching the games more than once, not from boredom but from rising before 6AM that morning. I find it hard to invest my time in something I'm barely going to watch. During the regular season, night games start and end at a reasonable hour for those of us who have school and work in the morning. Not so in the post-season, unless an occasional day game is scheduled. More and more of us have longer commutes and are getting up earlier and earlier these days. Let the World Series end at a reasonable hour here in the East, where most of us live, and I'd bet the rating would rise. Another issue is that it seems we have the same teams in the post-season year in/year out. Oh, I know you occasionally get fresh blood like the Cubs or Phillies, but, even as a New Yorker, I'm tired of seeing the Yankees every fall. As a Mets fan, I'm happy my team has enough money to be in it every year, but I'd enjoy watching other teams such as the Twins, Pirates or Royals make it to the big show once in awhile. How is baseball going to entice fans from Pittsburgh to watch when their team is eliminated by May 15th? As to viewers departing during long commercial breaks, the answer is simple: shorter commercials. Of course that would ultimately mean less money as TV and radio stations would have fewer commercial slots to sell so all involved would have to to stop being the guy who killed the golden goose which I don't see happening. Further, a lot of people say the lack of sudden excitement is killing baseball. I disagree. Excitement is there, it's just not always apparent. Baseball is subtle. You have to think. Will walking this batter help or hurt my team? Time for a pitching change? What if the runner steals second? What if he strikes out? Then what will be the next step? Maybe something will happen, maybe nothing will. These questions can arise in the first inning or they can arise in the ninth. Think, don't just react. Even then, a manager's move is not always as apparent as a football coach's who gets to see the results of his play very soon after he calls it. Anticipation can be great. Baseball is also something to relax to after a long day. Yes, it doesn't have the slam-bam style our culture has devolved to but the trick isn't to speed up the innings but to retrain ourselves to enjoy the nice slow pace of a game as we try to relax on a summer evening, listening to the announcers explain a play in great detail (or some other piece of interesting information). While the boom play of football is fun, the slap stick sudden goal you can't see until replayed in slow motion in hockey can be exciting, baseball is something you have to wait on many times to see the big play. Learn to enjoy the tenseness of a World Series game as it builds until it is destroyed with just a swing of the bat. Appreciate baseball like a chess game, a slow methodical process where the outcome depends on a few seemingly minor moves made somewhere between the start and the finish.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Talking baseball
Here's another guy who thinks baseball needs to be sped up to fix it, citing deteriorating World Series television ratings and our attention deficit lifestyle as factors. Baseball is fine, it's greed that's killing it. Long commercials and expensive tickets are making it difficult for the casual fan to get into the game. Even then, it's difficult to get a really good seat, assuming they are not available sold out to corporations who don't attend, unless you're willing to shell out $70 or more or so per ticket. Small market teams that will never be able to compete, at least long term with the big market teams (anyone remember the late 70s when it seemed the KC Royals & the NY Yankees were always battling for the American League pennant?). Unless you have a new stadium in a big market, fergetaboutit. As for timeliness, watch a regular season game and they go much more quickly and are generally more informative (if your local announcers are any good). I love baseball and watch it throughout the year, at least until October. Come the end of the regular season, the games that started just after dinner, now don't start for another hour or so. While I might luck in with an early playoff game during the first week or two of October, that ends as baseball reaches it's final rounds. I don't watch the World Series, at least until the end of the game, because the games don't start until 8:30 ET, which is around my son's bedtime. During the regular season, night games begin around 7PM and end around 9:30/10:00, which is around my bedtime. With all the commercial breaks World Series games don't end until midnight. Sorry, I have to be at work the next morning so unless it's my Mets team in the Series, I'm not staying up to watch the game. Even then I'd probably couldn't do that 2 nights in a row; when the Mets last made the Series I fell asleep watching the games more than once, not from boredom but from rising before 6AM that morning. I find it hard to invest my time in something I'm barely going to watch. During the regular season, night games start and end at a reasonable hour for those of us who have school and work in the morning. Not so in the post-season, unless an occasional day game is scheduled. More and more of us have longer commutes and are getting up earlier and earlier these days. Let the World Series end at a reasonable hour here in the East, where most of us live, and I'd bet the rating would rise. Another issue is that it seems we have the same teams in the post-season year in/year out. Oh, I know you occasionally get fresh blood like the Cubs or Phillies, but, even as a New Yorker, I'm tired of seeing the Yankees every fall. As a Mets fan, I'm happy my team has enough money to be in it every year, but I'd enjoy watching other teams such as the Twins, Pirates or Royals make it to the big show once in awhile. How is baseball going to entice fans from Pittsburgh to watch when their team is eliminated by May 15th? As to viewers departing during long commercial breaks, the answer is simple: shorter commercials. Of course that would ultimately mean less money as TV and radio stations would have fewer commercial slots to sell so all involved would have to to stop being the guy who killed the golden goose which I don't see happening. Further, a lot of people say the lack of sudden excitement is killing baseball. I disagree. Excitement is there, it's just not always apparent. Baseball is subtle. You have to think. Will walking this batter help or hurt my team? Time for a pitching change? What if the runner steals second? What if he strikes out? Then what will be the next step? Maybe something will happen, maybe nothing will. These questions can arise in the first inning or they can arise in the ninth. Think, don't just react. Even then, a manager's move is not always as apparent as a football coach's who gets to see the results of his play very soon after he calls it. Anticipation can be great. Baseball is also something to relax to after a long day. Yes, it doesn't have the slam-bam style our culture has devolved to but the trick isn't to speed up the innings but to retrain ourselves to enjoy the nice slow pace of a game as we try to relax on a summer evening, listening to the announcers explain a play in great detail (or some other piece of interesting information). While the boom play of football is fun, the slap stick sudden goal you can't see until replayed in slow motion in hockey can be exciting, baseball is something you have to wait on many times to see the big play. Learn to enjoy the tenseness of a World Series game as it builds until it is destroyed with just a swing of the bat. Appreciate baseball like a chess game, a slow methodical process where the outcome depends on a few seemingly minor moves made somewhere between the start and the finish.
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