MLB's Self Imposed Suicide

[emmett16]

Kids no longer have any interest in baseball.  I live in the Bethesda area and the local league has 4 select teams for the 10u age group, that down from 10+ just a few years ago.  I don't think there are any 9u select teams this year.  My son is the ONLY kid in his entire grade (4th) that plays baseball.  For years, decades even, the owners have been killing the sport in an attempt to line their pockets as much as possible.   The playoffs this year are yet another example.  Why in the world do the games start at 8pm? (rhetorical questions - I know exactly why).  Television coverage of baseball has become so boring that even myself, a life long baseball fan, has trouble making it through games.  The game is slow and boring for the casual & new fan.  There are 162 mostly meaningless games throughout the season and the first game of importance, postseason pressure, exciting plays, etc. was aired after all children went to sleep.  At what point will baseball market their stars and make sure they are put in front of young eyes?  It is painful watching baseball commit suicide.  MLB is so far behind the marketing/branding curve, that I don't think they will ever catch up.  In fact I think we will see the game slowly die out during our life times.   

[Ridgway22]

18 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

Kids no longer have any interest in baseball...... 

Not trying to be contrarian or contradict you, but i remember my Dad in 80's saying the exact same thing. He had a whole litany of "it ain't like it used to be, these kids today, when i was a kid....." We just happen to love chess and it is currently a checkers world. I absolutely do NOT want an MLB game to become like a NBA / NHL experience, which is more dance club than athletic endeavor. That being said, I completely agree with you that MLB is freakin' horrible at promoting itself. And the time zone thing, that is tricky. I'm on the West Coast, fan of an East Coast team, 4-7pm is a perfect window for me. But young kids on the East Coast? How many get to see an entire game, even on TV?

A very small sample size, but this is what happened in Oxnard, CA when I was a kid. After school, we would go to the local high school and play baseball on the practice / JV field. Then one day, a kid broke his leg, parents sued, and we were not allowed on school grounds any longer unless it was a school event. The shutdown was district wide, and with no place to play baseball, we all started playing basketball instead. Logistics, space, and equipment wise, baseball is the most difficult sport for kids, which doesn't help.

I sincerely hope the game we love doesn't die out as you predict, but finds a way to recapture our imagination with its simple beauty, complex grace, and a gawd darned competitive O's team.

[emmett16]

The lockout goes into effect today at 11:59pm and there is not one news story on any major news outlet about the labor negotiations.  The general public:

1. Doesn’t even know about the impending lock out 

2. could care less if there is a season next year or not
 

sad state of affairs for the game we love. 

[Frobby]

Oh, I think people know about it.   But they won’t care until next season is actually threatened.   The timing of the contract expiration allows the owners and players about two months to reach a deal before things get dicey, so nobody’s panicked yet.   It does bother me that the negotiations haven’t been serious in the slightest up until now.   

[emmett16]

It bothers me that the day before the lockout the major news running, on various sports sites, was MLB's use of two balls.   The PR and branding of MLB is beyond terrible.  It's almost comical at this point.

[OriolesMagic83]

I sometimes feel that if MLB appointed leaders with the sole objective of killing the sport, they couldn't do much worse than what MLB has actually done.  The late start times, playoff games on FS1 (had trouble finding it myself the first time), overly long games, etc don't help.  I thought the 10th inning, runner on 2nd was at least a small move in the right direction.  I can really see baseball being like boxing or horse racing in 20 years.  A couple of big events a year, otherwise the public has no interest.  I'm sure some people will say we are already there or close. 

[Tony-OH]

3 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I sometimes feel that if MLB appointed leaders with the sole objective of killing the sport, they couldn't do much worse than what MLB has actually done.  The late start times, playoff games on FS1 (had trouble finding it myself the first time), overly long games, etc don't help.  I thought the 10th inning, runner on 2nd was at least a small move in the right direction.  I can really see baseball being like boxing or horse racing in 20 years.  A couple of big events a year, otherwise the public has no interest.  I'm sure some people will say we are already there or close. 

Baseball has always been about listening or watching or attending once in awhile. Because the season lasts all summer, I think there will always be some interest, but the age group for people who watch just about every game has to be about 45+.

That's dangerous and if they think a work stoppage is going to help, I think they going to really, really hurt the game because there are already a lot of annoyed people now with professional sports as a whole. Billionaires fighting with Millionaires is not a good PR move.