The Future Of Baseball

[LA2]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

They need to outlaw the shift to promote social distancing on the right side of the infield.

Excellent point. Chris Davis's BA would finally recover.

[Rich Mac]

On 6/8/2020 at 2:36 PM, Tony-OH said:

A lot of good point here but I wanted to point this one out. I think I would count as a baseball fanatic. I run a website dedicated to a major league team, watch or attend over 250 major and minor leaguer games, played the game until my mid 40s, have scouted amateur and pros, and have coached up to the High School level.

Up until this year, I couldn't have imagined what a summer looked like without baseball. so much of my time was dedicated to the sport over the years that I actively wondered what I would do. Well, hundreds of miles on my Harley, hours upon hours in my pool, hours and hours of playing board games with the kids/friends, hours and hours of watching new shows and even reruns of old ones that I used to enjoy, hours of hiking and walking, and even signing some Karaoke in my basement later, I found that life still goes on. 

I'm honestly so fed up with everything right now, that I'm quickly finding myself not caring about whether baseball returns or not. 

So if this is my opinion, what is the opinion of the under 40 crowd that already has baseball the 4th popular sport? Back in my day (70s-80s), my community alone would have six-eight team baseball leagues from age 5-15. When we weren't playing baseball, we were finding a field, good backyard, or "rightaways" to play whiffleball all while pretending to be our favorite players. 

Sure there were All-Star teams, but we didn't have travel ball and parents weren't dishing out tons of money and time which of course puts pressure on the kids. We played until late June, sometimes into July for All-Star tourneys, and they we went and played all summer and didn't play anything organized.

When was the last time you saw some kids playing whiffle ball somewhere and pretending to be Trey Mancini or Adam Jones? 

Baseball is dying sport that probably would be fairly irrelevant in 30 years anyways, but if they just shut a season down due to the greed of the players and owners, I truly think that irrelevancy will stat it's spiral much quicker.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again, if baseball doesn't come back this year, I doubt the Hangout will be here next year. Or if it is, I won't be.

I can't agree with this post more.

Each and every day I find myself caring less and less about what happens with baseball. The other three major sports leagues have gotten their act together and have plans for returning this season. The MLB has abandoned its fans and appears on the verge of forfeiting an entire season. At a time when over 1 in 10 of us are unemployed they are haggling over dollars instead of safety precautions.

Our society wouldn't miss a beat if the MLB were to fold tomorrow. The current situation shows that in glaring fashion.

[scOtt]

On 6/8/2020 at 11:22 PM, survivedc said:

Playing baseball with 2 people is just as authentic as playing football with two people. Maybe even more so, if you have a bucket of balls you can reasonably imitate the batter-pitcher experience. In fact, Patterson park near me, I’ve seen significantly more people playing some version of baseball than I have seen playing a version of football.

When we were 12, 13, 14 years old, my best friend and I spent endless hours playing variations of baseball. The games varied from his back yard to mine but we played endlessly. Over the fence was a HR. Up on The Balcony was a double. Outside the yard (50-60 feet wide) was foul.

[scOtt]

On 6/8/2020 at 6:57 PM, MongoBoy said:

Time to dump her and get a 35 year old.

Or trade her in for two 18 year olds...

[MongoBoy]

19 hours ago, LA2 said:

Excellent point. Chris Davis's BA would finally recover.

But his bat speed will have slowed so much that he would start to swing too early and bang it down to the third baseman.

[Mr. Chewbacca Jr.]

20 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Okay, so maybe that's a thing for high-end prospects.  But I don't think that's anywhere in the decision making process for kids trying to figure out if they want to play football or soccer or baseball or (more likely) sitting on the couch eating Cheetos playing Fortnite (admitting only the olds think Fortnite is still a thing).

I think most people play multiple sports though? It's not like kids are deciding what sport they want to specialize in when they are seven. Anybody who played sports at my high school did something all three seasons (fall/winter/spring). 

By the time an elite athlete gets to high school, they're going to start getting offered scholarships and start considering being a professional athlete as a career. They'd obviously start putting financial considerations into their decision-making process at that level.

 

[eddie83]

11 minutes ago, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

I think most people play multiple sports though? It's not like kids are deciding what sport they want to specialize in when they are seven. Anybody who played sports at my high school did something all three seasons (fall/winter/spring). 

By the time an elite athlete gets to high school, they're going to start getting offered scholarships and start considering being a professional athlete as a career. They'd obviously start putting financial considerations into their decision-making process at that level.

 

Seven may be a little young but unfortunately you are seeing more kids commit to one sport earlier and earlier. Considering the timing of the seasons with indoor options you can play basketball and soccer pretty much year round. 

I am not a fan of it in general. I would be worried about burning a kid out and injuries using the same muscles over and over. 

[Mr. Chewbacca Jr.]

On 6/9/2020 at 12:09 AM, survivedc said:

I don’t think baseball’s problem is that it’s boring to play, it’s that it is boring to watch if you aren’t involved. Football had turned it into a one day a week event (technically 3 sure) basketball has a continuous loop of explosive plays and dynamic personalities (at least they have convinced most of America they are). 
 

Baseball certainly needs to do a better job of getting less privileged youth involved. The cost to furnish equipment and facilities for a few leagues in each city they are based is a drop in the bucket to teams, and while I know this happens to a degree, I wish they did more.

The NFL is way better at putting its product on TV. A random Thursday night game between two crappy teams opens up with a big pre-game show, some popular musician signing a song, the network's top announcers, awesome camera angles, slick graphics packages, replays, pre-packaged videos that provide context. They're great about making sure they educate you about what other teams are doing - so then when they play next week, you know who they are and want to tune in. It's on one of the major networks that anyone can access. It's a pretty engaging show. 

But, MLB will have two old dudes sluggishly calling a playoff game on TBS with a lead-in of an old episode of Friends. 

[Mr. Chewbacca Jr.]

10 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Seven may be a little young but unfortunately you are seeing more kids commit to one sport earlier and earlier. Considering the timing of the seasons with indoor options you can play basketball and soccer pretty much year round. 

I am not a fan of it in general. I would be worried about burning a kid out and injuries using the same muscles over and over. 

Good point. That was one of the theories going around why Tommy John Surgery was becoming so common a few years ago - kids getting overused way too young.

[eddie83]

3 minutes ago, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

The NFL is way better at putting its product on TV. A random Thursday night game between two crappy teams opens up with a big pre-game show, some popular musician signing a song, the network's top announcers, awesome camera angles, slick graphics packages, replays, pre-packaged videos that provide context. They're great about making sure they educate you about what other teams are doing - so then when they play next week, you know who they are and want to tune in. It's on one of the major networks that anyone can access. It's a pretty engaging show. 

But, MLB will have two old dudes sluggishly calling a playoff game on TBS with a lead-in of an old episode of Friends. 

I get what you are saying but volume of games is a critical part of this. Football is an easier sport to follow. It takes much less time investment than baseball. When you watch a game at 1pm on a Sunday you are inundated with updates from all the other games.

Football is like a weekly TV drama where one show or game is reviewed and then anticipation builds for the next show/game. Baseball is daily. Even the playoffs are a best of 5. There isn’t a one game winner take all build up except for the WC games.  

Imagine if baseball only played 16 games, once a week. Each teams top starting pitcher would compare to a QB in the NFL. The Yankees and Red Sox would only play one game a year in Baltimore and vice versa. Obviously baseball is not built this way but you get my point. 

[DrungoHazewood]

27 minutes ago, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

Good point. That was one of the theories going around why Tommy John Surgery was becoming so common a few years ago - kids getting overused way too young.

My personal theory based on my own sample of one is that years ago almost as many or just as high a percentage of kids needed Tommy John, but it didn't exist.  Or it just wasn't a thing for 12-year-olds.  I'm sure my shoulder/labrum/UCL looks like Dresden after the firebombing just from endless hours of playing catch and playing sandlot ball and softball.  At some point about 25 years ago I felt a sharp pain in my arm and shrugged it off.  Now every once in a while I go to throw a snowball at my kid and it feels like an ice pick got jabbed into my tricep.

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

The NFL is way better at putting its product on TV. A random Thursday night game between two crappy teams opens up with a big pre-game show, some popular musician signing a song, the network's top announcers, awesome camera angles, slick graphics packages, replays, pre-packaged videos that provide context. They're great about making sure they educate you about what other teams are doing - so then when they play next week, you know who they are and want to tune in. It's on one of the major networks that anyone can access. It's a pretty engaging show. 

But, MLB will have two old dudes sluggishly calling a playoff game on TBS with a lead-in of an old episode of Friends. 

While nothing you say here is wrong, one thing you need to consider is the difference between being the only game on that night vs one of many like with MLB. Also, it's hard to get too pumped up about one game out of 162 until late in the season when they start having playoff considerations. 

Football with it's action and 16 game schedule is perfect for the bar and sports restaurant scenes too. Baseball is more of an in the background sport at those bars, at least until you get into big games or late in games when the score is close.

 

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, eddie83 said:

Seven may be a little young but unfortunately you are seeing more kids commit to one sport earlier and earlier. Considering the timing of the seasons with indoor options you can play basketball and soccer pretty much year round. 

I am not a fan of it in general. I would be worried about burning a kid out and injuries using the same muscles over and over. 

Kids really are starting to focus on one sport earlier and earlier. My son played three sports when he was 6-12, Baseball, Wrestling and Football. By the time he was 12, he was on the top travel Wrestling team in Maryland and we were travelling all over Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Being at an elite level like that, it became apparent you have to wrestling and train all year around so baseball (much to my chagrin) was the first to go by 8th grade. Besides, if you are at an elite level in one sport, it's sometimes hard to just be a regular rec league players in another, or at least that's how he looked at it so he wrestled through the spring and summer. 

He was recruited in the 8th grade by several private schools for wrestling and once he choose Archbishop Spalding, he decided he would still play football. Although he was not very big (118 pounds his Freshman year) he was a starting running back and kick returner and the football coaches really wanted him to keep playing, but by the end of his Freshman football season, it was clear he was already missing "unofficial" wrestling workouts and honestly, the injury factor was too high in football.

So by his Sophomore year, he was a full-time, all year around wrestler. He ended up a two time High School All-American, MIAA Champion, and finished with 179 varsity wins over four years (10th all-time in MD) and ended up being recruited to wrestle at the University of MD where unfortunately shoulder injuries cut his college "career" short.

So for at least my son, you can see how he gradually gave up the other sports as he got older and focused on the one that was "going to get him into a top college". Without wrestling, there was no way he would have gotten into U of MD out of high school since it's a highly competitive academic school (my son was a two-time All Academic Big-10 so it's not like he was a dummy). So did eventually focusing on one sport get him where he wanted to go? In Matt's case, yes.

In another situation, when I coached baseball at Spalding, every single one of our starters played baseball only.

 

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, eddie83 said:

Seven may be a little young but unfortunately you are seeing more kids commit to one sport earlier and earlier. Considering the timing of the seasons with indoor options you can play basketball and soccer pretty much year round. 

I am not a fan of it in general. I would be worried about burning a kid out and injuries using the same muscles over and over. 

In my experience, my kids have ended up committing to soccer by the time they were 10.  But it wasn't because, or not completely because, they were super focused on being the best soccer players.  It was a combination of things, including being on a team of friends.  And they wanted to focus on what they're good at.  So when there's a sport where they can play with their buddies and they're good it makes it fun, they really don't have much incentive to go play something else.

They're also among the smallest kids in their classes and on their teams, so that makes football or basketball a challenge.

Also, juggling multiple sports today can be borderline insane.  A lot of sports have both spring and fall seasons.  Indoor soccer and basketball and wrestling overlap.  I've coached kids who played baseball and soccer at the same time, and there are a bunch of times where they had to pick which game or which practice to go to.  They were at a game or a practice six days a week.  I have no idea when they'd get their homework done.  And at least here where I Iive select soccer teams are a year-long commitment, where you're expected to play spring and fall seasons along with futsal in the winter.

[eddie83]

54 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Kids really are starting to focus on one sport earlier and earlier. My son played three sports when he was 6-12, Baseball, Wrestling and Football. By the time he was 12, he was on the top travel Wrestling team in Maryland and we were travelling all over Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Being at an elite level like that, it became apparent you have to wrestling and train all year around so baseball (much to my chagrin) was the first to go by 8th grade. Besides, if you are at an elite level in one sport, it's sometimes hard to just be a regular rec league players in another, or at least that's how he looked at it so he wrestled through the spring and summer. 

He was recruited in the 8th grade by several private schools for wrestling and once he choose Archbishop Spalding, he decided he would still play football. Although he was not very big (118 pounds his Freshman year) he was a starting running back and kick returner and the football coaches really wanted him to keep playing, but by the end of his Freshman football season, it was clear he was already missing "unofficial" wrestling workouts and honestly, the injury factor was too high in football.

So by his Sophomore year, he was a full-time, all year around wrestler. He ended up a two time High School All-American, MIAA Champion, and finished with 179 varsity wins over four years (10th all-time in MD) and ended up being recruited to wrestle at the University of MD where unfortunately shoulder injuries cut his college "career" short.

So for at least my son, you can see how he gradually gave up the other sports as he got older and focused on the one that was "going to get him into a top college". Without wrestling, there was no way he would have gotten into U of MD out of high school since it's a highly competitive academic school (my son was a two-time All Academic Big-10 so it's not like he was a dummy). So did eventually focusing on one sport get him where he wanted to go? In Matt's case, yes.

In another situation, when I coached baseball at Spalding, every single one of our starters played baseball only.

 

All this adds up. At least he was doing different things through age 12. I do think one of the big pulls is being afraid you will fall behind others by playing mutiple sports instead of focusing on one.  Obviously as you get older you see kids narrow sports down.