Does MLB need changing?

[OregonDucks]

Maybe you die hard baseball fans think the baseball is great regardless and needs no change whatsoever. But today at work I got into a conversation with a co worker and he said that the Masters is more watched than the World Series. I was shocked at this info and we started talking about what MLB needs to do to change things up to get people interested in baseball again.

This might stem to greater things than just the MLB, such as, over here in Oregon, Lacrosse has really grown in popularity and younger kids are playing Lax now rather than baseball.

But I think at the MLB level, there needs to be some major changes.

-Something has to be done about the same old teams at the top every year. Tired of the Yankees, Red Sox year after year. or Giants, Phillies, all your big market teams tend to always be the only ones in the race for the WS since they are the ones with the money. You will never see the Royals and other smaller franchises getting a shot.

-Shorten the season? Sorry, but 162 games is a crap load, and is that many games really necessary? It gives casual sports fans no reason to tune into any games.

-Shorten the games? Reduce the 9 innings down to 7? This actually could benefit MLB $$$ wise in the long run, similar to how QBs are protected in the NFL, pitchers would be greatly protected getting a shorter game. Meaning, great pitchers have longer life span in the pros.

Again, maybe baseball fans feel that MLB is just fine and nothing needs changing. But IMO, the sport is growing "old" and is slow in todays fast paced world.

 

[4thstreet]

shorten the season for sure.No one likes to sit in 30-40 degree weather in April,and then again in late september and October.

Go to about 120 games.
Salary cap has got to be implemented.These 100+million dollar contracts are ridiculous.

 

[Smoke]

I always thought they should shorten the season by about 20 games and make the league division series 7 games instead of 5.

 

[bone3421]

first off LOL................ change baseball because lax is finally in oregon..LOL

baseball is fine and the yanks are on the way down and have won 1 WS in what 8 years

and LOL at throwing the giants in their they went 54 years without winning before their current success......the nats/rangers/a's/braves/reds and more are poised for long sustainable runs

the only thing baseball needs to change is to quit pandering to the wrong fans and let the ones who have supported the game enjoy the game for what it is and always has been

if you dont like baseball that is YOUR problem as a sports fan the game will always be great to the ones that know/follow it

 

[bone3421]

and to use the argument that a 4 day event that happens once a year is more watched than the WS is weak.........the yankee fans dont watch the WS when they are not in it

just like "heat" fans that dont care if wade/james arent on the team.....

the masters draw because it is the masters and is a amazing event

when you talk about team sports it is way different than individual sports...
team sports has just about whole cities checking out once their team is eliminated(oct/football season),yet
they will all tune in to see who wins the masters(especially if tiger/phil is in the running)(april)

i will end with another LOL LOL

 

[bone3421]

i cant keep from laughing at this absurd topic

 

[Driaz]

i cant keep from laughing at this absurd topic

LOL....this guy also started a topic once asking if baseball fans actually watched/followed all of our teams games.......

Nope, we're baseball fans, but only watch like once a week.....LOL

 

[Driaz]

The only thing OD posted that I would be ok with is going back to 154 game season......they can't keep expanding playoffs and keep the 162 game schedule or we get these ridiculous cancelled games because of snow......Selig has actually learned a little bit though, because the scheduling at least this year favored southern venues and domes being at home early......take advantage of geography if we are starting the season so early.....

 

[powerchord86]

i cant keep from laughing at this absurd topic

 

[bone3421]

The only thing OD posted that I would be ok with is going back to 154 game season......they can't keep expanding playoffs and keep the 162 game schedule or we get these ridiculous cancelled games because of snow......Selig has actually learned a little bit though, because the scheduling at least this year favored southern venues and domes being at home early......take advantage of geography if we are starting the season so early.....

hell just bring back dbl headers once every other week and be done with it......problem fucking solved

 

[Driaz]

hell just bring back dbl headers once every other week and be done with it......problem fucking solved

There you go, and not day/night ones where you have to buy two tickets......LOL.....like that would ever happen again.......

 

[bone3421]

yeah they are going to make you buy 2 tickets....that will never go back

 

[bamabear82]

i cant keep from laughing at this absurd topic

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Shorter season is a great idea. I also like PEDs, did anybody not like the roid era? 500 ft home runs and every pitcher topping out in the 100s? Yes please

 

[powerchord86]

 

[apachef4]

I agree with all of you that a shorter season would not be bad, but I just don't think it's going to happen. That's four home games, and they are never going to give that money back.

I love the idea of going back to scheduled double-headers. Even if it is a day-night instead of a one ticket deal, I would definitely be for it.

 

[OregonDucks]

baseball fan or not all sports are changing in a way. Huge football fan, yet the NFL is changing drastically, whether we like it or not. In some way the NFL is changing for the better and many other ways its becoming a pussified sport.

But isn't baseball losing viewership of recent years? I Know they striked a huge TV deal recently, but I think majority of people are tuning out of baseball.

 

[bravesfan]

Baseball is an acquired taste, shortening the games and seasons will not fix anything.

The masters does not have to compete with Football season for ratings like the world series does.

The only thing I would change is to have stricter payroll mandates, including a HARD salary cap and required smaller market teams to stay within 70% of the cap. This will require revenue sharing like the NFL does. All in an effort to create more parity in MLB

 

[Nasty_Magician]

A salary cap is a must if the sport wants to survive long term. You cannot have a team spending $200 million more than another. The Yankees and thoes teams are really bad but so are the Astros. People get bored with the same 5 or 6 teams in it every year. Parity sells.

OD is right in the sense that sports need to evolve. Football is constantly evolving, hockey realized they were drowning and decided to do something about it. It's a neccessity in sports. Adding a wildcard game was a good start, working toward a salary cap or a better system than what they have now at the next CBA is a good idea. In all honesty if you knocked off 2 weeks of the season most people wouldn't notice or care.

 

[OregonDucks]

is there a new CBA coming up soon? It would be interesting to see if say the MLB went on a lockout and lost say a couple months of their season, like NBA and NHL did. and they started up in June? How that would impact the sport...I remember reading, maybe on here someone in the hockey board asking if the lockout and reduce # of games actually helped the popularity of the sport. Gained more interest.

If a lockout in baseball brought the season from 162 down to 120's how and if that would even help out interest in a season. But it seems that other pro sports have done a relatively decent job at capturing the casual sports fans attention or viewership, NFL has done an incredible job at this. But it seems baseball hasn't really done that.

And to say that the MLB doesn't care about the casual fan tuning in, you are wrong as of course ANY pro sport wants the casual fan tuning in from time to time because that means more $$ and it is all about $.