I was a diehard. More than any of my friends. I have followed the game relentlessly since college. But I'm ready to leave. The people running baseball don't seem to like it and that makes me not care anymore. It's too depressing.
Baseball was an escape.
Now it's just a microcosm of the rest of society. The rich won't give up a single dime to make concessions to the working class. Tell me what else is new.
In the 23 years I’ve been listening to the Poscast, I haven’t been able to disagree with you on baseball. This is no exception. Spot on. It’s an absolute whiff on MLB’s part. The tarp is still on the infield and my butt is raw from these bleachers. The marble races on Youtube are what passes for sport right now. Damn you, baseball, for making me watch Youtube marble races.
Baseball ownership seems to have an institutional memory that *still* resents losing the benefits of the Reserve Clause 45 years ago. The MLBPA is, by far, the most powerful player union in sports, and as such, they have reaped the greatest benefits of a somewhat free market (ie. paid something close to their actual market value). A couple of owners embraced the change, but, most of ownership spent the next two decades fighting an unsuccessful full-frontal assault on the MLBPA, failing miserably each time. Since then? They've fought and won some skirmishes at the margins. We're probably all seamheads to one degree or another here, so, I know, I re-hashing old news. What has struck me over the years since Peter Seitz set the players free, is how much time and effort ownership has put into talking their sport down, from "big market - small market" talk to the threats of contraction. I cannot fathom how an industry can thrive when the people who should be its greatest proponents spend so much time bad-mouthing their product.
The grand irony, of course, is that baseball seemed poised to be able to return to play safely much easier than any of the other sports. It’s not a contact sport, there’s a huge field of play for maximum physical distance. The fact that it came down to money. Again. .... it’s sad and disappointing.
Joe- baseball's other historic advantage has been that from June to August, there is no other game in town (with all due respect to golf fans). With the advent of MLS (in a normal year), the NBA going through mid-June, pre-season football starting in August, college football playing games a week before Labor Day- that advantage is shrinking (and this year it's entirely gone). What they have proven is that they are still dysfunctional- no other labor relationship between leagues and players is this broken. They would be well to study some economic history and see where these levels of conflict have buried families, companies, corporations and even countries. Just go play ball...
"We die hards will be there when baseball finally comes around because we’re" - suckers. And they know it. What they don't get, is that there aren't as many of us as there used to be, and they're not making enough new ones...
Oh boy! Plus they've shown a million replays of games while telling us what the outcome of the game will be. Why would anyone watch 9 innings of a no hitter with zero suspense because you already know it's going to be one? IDK. Maybe it's just me.
Exactly - and MLB.com tells you every game that will be on and the outcome. I haven't watched any. I don't know what they're thinking. I wonder what the ratings are and if they're puzzled by why they aren't higher. The people running the game just don't seem to have much sense in many ways imo but again, maybe it's just me.
I was a diehard. More than any of my friends. I have followed the game relentlessly since college. But I'm ready to leave. The people running baseball don't seem to like it and that makes me not care anymore. It's too depressing.
Baseball was an escape.
Now it's just a microcosm of the rest of society. The rich won't give up a single dime to make concessions to the working class. Tell me what else is new.
In the 23 years I’ve been listening to the Poscast, I haven’t been able to disagree with you on baseball. This is no exception. Spot on. It’s an absolute whiff on MLB’s part. The tarp is still on the infield and my butt is raw from these bleachers. The marble races on Youtube are what passes for sport right now. Damn you, baseball, for making me watch Youtube marble races.
Baseball ownership seems to have an institutional memory that *still* resents losing the benefits of the Reserve Clause 45 years ago. The MLBPA is, by far, the most powerful player union in sports, and as such, they have reaped the greatest benefits of a somewhat free market (ie. paid something close to their actual market value). A couple of owners embraced the change, but, most of ownership spent the next two decades fighting an unsuccessful full-frontal assault on the MLBPA, failing miserably each time. Since then? They've fought and won some skirmishes at the margins. We're probably all seamheads to one degree or another here, so, I know, I re-hashing old news. What has struck me over the years since Peter Seitz set the players free, is how much time and effort ownership has put into talking their sport down, from "big market - small market" talk to the threats of contraction. I cannot fathom how an industry can thrive when the people who should be its greatest proponents spend so much time bad-mouthing their product.
The grand irony, of course, is that baseball seemed poised to be able to return to play safely much easier than any of the other sports. It’s not a contact sport, there’s a huge field of play for maximum physical distance. The fact that it came down to money. Again. .... it’s sad and disappointing.
Joe- baseball's other historic advantage has been that from June to August, there is no other game in town (with all due respect to golf fans). With the advent of MLS (in a normal year), the NBA going through mid-June, pre-season football starting in August, college football playing games a week before Labor Day- that advantage is shrinking (and this year it's entirely gone). What they have proven is that they are still dysfunctional- no other labor relationship between leagues and players is this broken. They would be well to study some economic history and see where these levels of conflict have buried families, companies, corporations and even countries. Just go play ball...
Boy these last two blogs sure paint a depressing picture of baseball. justified, but sad.
Posnanski for Commissioner! I loved your ideas to goose baseball’s image during the downtime.
Baseball, because of its history, had a head start but they blew it
"We die hards will be there when baseball finally comes around because we’re" - suckers. And they know it. What they don't get, is that there aren't as many of us as there used to be, and they're not making enough new ones...
When will we see another of the “60 Best?”
If you read the introduction to the last one you’ll see that there would be a break until June 8.
Thank you. I was worried bb
It's not that relevant to the overall point, but they did do the MLB: The Show tournament with the players.
Oh boy! Plus they've shown a million replays of games while telling us what the outcome of the game will be. Why would anyone watch 9 innings of a no hitter with zero suspense because you already know it's going to be one? IDK. Maybe it's just me.
Right. Those replays would be more fun to watch if they didn't have the corner text telling you why that game was special.
Exactly - and MLB.com tells you every game that will be on and the outcome. I haven't watched any. I don't know what they're thinking. I wonder what the ratings are and if they're puzzled by why they aren't higher. The people running the game just don't seem to have much sense in many ways imo but again, maybe it's just me.