Thoughts on MLB: instant replay, attendence decline, lack of names.

Following our NBA topic earlier in the day, we turn our attention to Major League baseball as a business. Popular belief has now turned into reality. Baseball has clearly lost the ratings war to football in recent years, and appears to be surrendering to the NBA on a national level. This is America's pastime, yet poor attendance, poor ratings, and poor participation have our beloved sport's back against the wall. Oh yea, steroids didn't help. Or did it? That's a debate for another day. Today we will focus on the top three reasons I believe baseball isn't nearly garnering the attention it did even 10 years ago:

Instant Replay: For years now, fans and critics have expressed their desire for Major League Baseball to "get with the times" and adopt an instant replay policy. Many felt baseball was stuck in the past and too stubborn to make any changes. Of course, baseball has turned a blind eye in the past haven't they? Well, I believe it was in 2011, or 2010, baseball decided to employ an instant replay scenario involving only home-runs. While this certainty helped get many calls right, fans still wanted more. Here we stand today, with "full" instant replay on anything other than a strike. In fact, managers now have challenges, much like football. I won't sit here forever going over the rules because quite frankly we'll be here forever. Two weeks into the baseball season, instant replay has felt like a success. So whats the problem you ask? In this world today where we need instant feedback and instant decisions, instant replay isn't so instant enough. Baseball is a long and drawn out game, and the replay system isn't helping one bit.

Attendance Decline: Add in the arrival of beautiful HD TVs coupled with the ticket prices of various ballparks in big cities such as New York, L.A., and Chicago, all come out to one thing: attendance decline. Now I haven't ranked my list in any particular order, but this may be #1. Sure, every sport has had a decline in attendance, but Major League baseball's has hurt the most. Hockey and Basketball play in 15-19,000 seat arenas. You have to be really bad not to fill an arena more than half of the time in an NBA or NHL season. For football, the once-a-week element of a game, coupled with the absolute rabbid fan bases in major cities, equates to sold stadiums all over the country. With only 8 home games a year, a fan is more willing to spend their money to see a game. In baseball, the lack of success from many big market teams, such as the Mets, Angels, and Cubs, has not helped bring down attendance. In the end, many factors come into play, but baseball stadiums are way too big to have 30,000 fans a night.


Lack of Names: Baseball is very much an individual sport. When you are in the batter's box it's you vs 9. Unlike the other three major sports, single baseball players, not teams, are what has made this sport so popular. Ever since the so called "steroid era" has quieted down, so have the home runs. Pitching is back on top in the baseball world, and quite frankly, that just does not hold a person's interest. Names like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Manny Ramirez captured the attention of an entire nation in the late 90's and early 2000's. Gone, for now, are the home run races. They have been replaced with 20 game winning, sub 3.00 ERA pitchers. Names like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, and Yasiel Puig have helped baseball in recent years, no doubt, but I don't feel like there are enough big names in the sport today.