Most of the sports fans I know are basketball and football fans. I know very little avid baseball fans. I am 20 years old. This is not just me happening to know a lot of football and baseball fans. This is not a regional thing either. It’s because I’m 20. Most young people do not cherish the game the way young people used to 50 – 100 years ago. I don’t know anyone that collects trading cards. I don’t know anyone that honestly has a favorite baseball player (although I know some Yankee and Mets fans), but I know a lot of Russell Westbrook and Tom Brady fans. Baseball isn’t a sport that is a goner. You still have a lot of people in this country that enjoy the sport. However, most of them are old. You still have people that watch the games, but mostly at the ballpark not as much on TV. The fact is that baseball is declining. Why though?
Let me be clear. Major League Baseball is thriving. They’re doing what a business supposed to do, make money. However, BASEBALL is declining. The sport itself is suffering. How is this possible? It’s possible because the kids don’t like it like they used to. The children are our future. Sports are something that is passed down from generation to generation. I am a Knicks fan because my parents are Knicks fans.I am a Mets fan because my dad is a Mets fan. I am a Jets fan partly because my dad is a Giants fan. However, there is brick wall between the younger generation and the older generation when it comes to the sport of baseball. The MLB can make all the money they want now, but when it’s time for the younger generation to spend money, they’re not going to be thinking about baseball. They don’t play it. They don’t watch it. They are not about it.
Many people blame the fact that the sport is too long (which it is). Many people blame the fact that you need so much equipment and a suitable area to play in comparison to other sports (which is true). I heard a new argument today from somebody that works in sports broadcasting that because there’s so many games and they’re all on TV that the American people almost take it for granted. It isn’t a must see event like football being the once a week event that it is. This same person said that the best players are almost always in the championship games in other sports and they are always there whereas one really good player will only hit around 4 times in a game and his impact on his team won’t be as much as it would be in other sports. All of these things are true. However, most of these factors existed years ago when baseball was the premier sport in the country.
The one thing that would be necessary for all those factors to be true is a change in attention span. Kids today can get almost whatever they want whenever they want. Why would they wait for a baseball game to end? Why would they watch a baseball game tonight when they could watch the same team play against the same opponent tomorrow? I understand it.
Why can’t a man flip his bat after a home run? It’s ridiculous. That video was cool. It’s one of the few things that the casual fan would enjoy about the game: a celebration after a home run. It’s ridiculous. Discouraging that discourages kids from playing the game. Kids don’t play, kids won’t watch. It’s all about the kids. Baseball needs to stop thinking like a pastime and think about the future.
The Soapbox 