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Discussion » Questions » Sports » For you baseball fans: in your opinion, who’s to blame for the decline of entertainment and excitement in professional baseball?
Rizz

For you baseball fans: in your opinion, who’s to blame for the decline of entertainment and excitement in professional baseball?

Or am I an oddball on this? I miss the days of base stealers, contact hitters, more people on base, less strikeouts. All adding excitement and drama to the game. Now it’s virtually a home run, strike out, or a walk. Fewer balls in play. Less drama. To me there’s a few factors that contribute. During the steroid era home runs were at an all time high, exluding last season which set a single season home run record. This brough fans back to the game and drove attendance rates higher. Since then we see an emphasis on walks and home runs in major league players and their development. Almost extinct are contact hitters who hit .300or better and hit for doubles and triples. Almost extinct is small ball— moving runners over, putting together multiple hits, stealing bases. This has really been the case since these “super nerds” who honestly don’t know a darn thing about baseball who invented this “sabermetrics crap. Gone are scouts who judge on talent and potential by seeing people play in person. Now it’s all about these “advanced statistics and measures”.

Posted - September 7, 2018
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Responses


  • 5391
    I’ve honestly never found pro baseball all that exciting to begin with. 

    Now, it’s a rare player who stays with a team for very long, it’s hard to know who’s playing anymore, if you can even pronounce their names. Nobody plays hard, everyone is worried about their stats, their contract, their longevity, not getting clowned on Sportscenter; nobody (except maybe Bryce Harper) looks like they’re even having fun anymore....unless they’re into the playoffs. Non-playoff teams are collecting their checks and playing just enough not to get injured. Ho-hum. 

    MLB games have gotten so pricey there’s not much bang for the buck. $50 for an upper deck seat; $14 artisan sandwiches and $7 sodas. 10 bucks (or more!) to park, $25 for a damn cap.
    Then there’s the dead time: between pitches, between batters, between half innings. Inning after scoreless inning.
    Not to mention the possibility of kicking out a C-note or more to sit through an 11-inning, 4 hr, 1-to-nothing snoozefest. 

    This time of year, I’d rather watch college football. 

    This post was edited by Don Barzini at September 8, 2018 7:30 AM MDT
      September 7, 2018 9:44 PM MDT
    3

  • 1502
    I do feel and agree the passion is missing. Like other sports the ticket prices and concessions are way out of control. It isn’t affordable for an average family these days. How sad. It used to be affordable for everyone. $5 tickets next to the foul poles. $2 for a hot dog and soda. Now that’s at least $12 at ballparks. A contributing factor to some stadiums is they aren’t owned by teams and owned by corporations. Last time I went to baseball game in my area parking was $12. That was six years ago. I don’t know what prices are now. I refuse to go.

    The local NFL team was affordable in the 80’s and 90’s. Nose bleed tickets way in the upper deck are $75. If you prepay for parking it’s $35 or $40. I believe it’s $60 at the time of the game. This is regular season. The prices are much worse for playoff games. I haven’t attended an NFL game in 8 years. Besides the ludicrous prices, getting out of the stadium after the game is a nightmare. I can sit at home, watch cheaper, and eat better cheaper.

    A college about 45-50 minutes away has an elite basketball program. Face value tickets are next to impossible to get unless you are a student, a high dollar donor to the university, or a big business who sponsors the university or donates. The school take some in the money off players who aren’t compensated outside of free education and food expenses. I argue the school has the better end of the deal. Ticket prices have inflated at an alarming rate. Partly due to the coach’s roughly $5,000,000 annual salary. I went to a game a few years ago because I found ridiculously good ticket prices. Concession prices were reasonable compared to pro venues and arenas.  
     
      September 7, 2018 10:21 PM MDT
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  • 5391
    I rarely attend pro sports events anymore. I was given tickets to a Dolphins game last season, the experience was somewhat lackluster (they got whipped by the Saints 20-0) for the $300 face value on the tickets. No doubt this reality is different elsewhere. The time lost exiting the venue added to the general disappointment of that day. 

    Guaranteed contracts are, IMO, strangling the passion out of professional sports. Athletes get their fat paydays and then go into cruise control because they don’t need to try so hard. Unless it’s a contract year. 

    I’ve attended sports events at colleges my kids attended in recent years, and found them more fun and less, shall we say, “corporate”. 
      September 8, 2018 7:29 AM MDT
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  • 10586
    Both the players and the owners are to blame.  It's no longer about having a fun game, it's all about making money and winning at any cost.  
      September 7, 2018 10:01 PM MDT
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  • 16698
    Pro sports of all kinds have become more about the money and less about the game.
      September 7, 2018 11:07 PM MDT
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  • 22891
    have no idea
      September 8, 2018 4:48 PM MDT
    0