Real Baseball Fans Are Watching… Just Not Enough Of Them

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• vtmet October 24, 2011 at 3:37 pm

  John,

  Real baseball fans are sick of seeing the same teams in the World Series every year…I’m venturing a guess that whenever the following teams are the likely favorite in the World Series, it leaves most of the fans of everyone else very uninspired: the Yankees, the Phils, the Red Sox, the Braves and the Cardinals…I really don’t want to watch any of those teams win, and don’t want to see Yadier Molina’s cocky smile every time that the camera is on him…

  Plus, Fox baseball coverage is the most annoying imaginable…and for whatever reason, they actually think that pompous Tim McCarver and his idiot sidekick Joe Buck don’t grate on everyone’s nerves…
  • any October 24, 2011 at 4:07 pm

    the phils are a new phenonmena, and will disappear quickly once the pitching drops off, and they will be back to purely a regional team. Though they are fun to hate at the moment.

    and before 2008, they appeared in the WS about as often as the mets.
  • Metfan October 24, 2011 at 6:09 pm

    You make a great point about the announcers. How wonderful would it be if the home team announcers called the game for their respective clubs. It would be a treat for the fans and who knows the players better than their own play by play guys and it would be a thrill for the announcers too. We would hear guys like Steve Stone, and The Hawk Harrelson, and Keith Hernandeez if the Mets make it and the best of the best Vince Scully.
• any October 24, 2011 at 4:09 pm

  I don’t see the proposed change to the WC as diluting the pool really (if I remember exactly what it is going to be!)

  I thought they were going to add a 2nd WC in each league, and make it a 1 game “play in” series? or was that an earlier proposal? if they are just adding that layer, it is not that big of a deal, and certainly does not put them in the NFL dilution category!
  • Metfan October 24, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    I know let’s put everybody in and play until New Year’s Day!Do the idiots in charge of baseball realize that mediocrity breeds mediocrity. I can see two wild card teams facing each other with an average team BA of 235 and a staff ERA of 4.50. Wow I can’t wait!
• Bayonne Mets Fan October 24, 2011 at 5:37 pm

  Great post John,

  When we were growing up in pre-Interleague days the Cards, Cubs, Pirates all used to come into Shea more often and if the Mets were competing for a playoff spot that season against any of those teams there would be more people in the stadium more often. That’s now lost because the rivalries have faded due to inter league play. Back then the Giants and Dodgers would also come to Shea more often and were a good draw at the time too.

  I think this idea of adding more teams to the Wild Card by Bud Selig is terrible. It seems now baseball is working harder to try and draw interest when it never had to before. It’s a shame because we used to go to games because we loved the game itself and had a great time with friends. The game sold itself but now it has to look hard for reasons to try and draw fans in.

  And the rise of saber coinciding with the decline of attendance? I know some people are gonna groan and go “There he goes again” But it is what it is. Is it related? We don’t know for sure.

  There’s a newer generation of baseball fan that is learning about the game in ways most of us didn’t. We learned about the GAME of baseball while the newer generation is learning baseball first through allegedly advanced statistics and then maybe, just maybe actually watching the game unfold.

  Maybe they don’t have an appreciation of the thought process that goes with determining the right kind of strategy for any given situation. And that’s what this great World Series has been largely about this year – defensive and offensive strategy, timely hitting and good pitching and to me that is plenty exciting. Thinking along with the manager during the games is half the fun or in some cases most of the fun, at least that’s the way I look at it. I can’t help it if some saber goon prefers to read the boxscore after the game and thinks they can discover what happened during the game just by doing that. If they do than they don’t know what they’re missing, it’s a shame, and a DANGEROUS path for the newer fan of this wonderful sport to take.

  I know some saber guy may shoot back with a snarky, sarcastic remark to this observation but I think it’s something that is most definitely worth discussing. How can you just dismiss the rise of saber coinciding with the fall of attendance without looking at it first.

  Also I happen to think there’s a lot of people that get disgusted by the total lack of hustle/effort we see on a lot of players these days. This was a dangerous trend i started complaining about on this site years ago and it has gotten worse. And players from all organizations don’t pay attention to the basic fundamental of the game like they used to and that in turn results in a lesser quality product we see on the field.

  Players not hustling, players not paying attention to fundamentals and in turn turning off some fans like me, and also a newer generation of fans that doesn’t give a darn about the right way of playing baseball.

  Are you reading this Bud Selig? If not I certainly hope someone sends you to this site to read my words.
  • Bayonne Mets Fan October 24, 2011 at 10:37 pm

    And Tim McCarver just referred to Albert Pujols turning over his shoulder to look back at the ball while running and how doing that slows you down. And we see Met players do it all the time.

    It’s just mind boggling the complete disregard for basic fundamental baseball we see at the major league level. Maybe that’s one of the reasons some fans (the smarter ones at least) are staying home more and more because why should we pay top dollar to see 75% effort?
  • any October 25, 2011 at 8:59 am

    I doubt that people are become BB stat geeks without first getting hooked on the game.
  • Donal October 25, 2011 at 10:20 am

    “There’s a newer generation of baseball fan that is learning about the game in ways most of us didn’t. We learned about the GAME of baseball while the newer generation is learning baseball first through allegedly advanced statistics and then maybe, just maybe actually watching the game unfold.”

    You’re saying a desire for a deeper understanding of the game leads to lower attendance and ratings.

    Because, really, no one gets into sabermetrics without being a huge baseball fan. How on earth else do you explain the time and energy spent on it? That’s love right there.

    “Maybe they don’t have an appreciation of the thought process that goes with determining the right kind of strategy for any given situation.”

    No, we want to understand it and build on it.

    “I can’t help it if some saber goon prefers to read the boxscore after the game and thinks they can discover what happened during the game just by doing that.”

    What is a sabergoon? And why on earth do you think they don’t enjoy watching the games?

    How on earth can someone enjoy a baseball boxscore without loving the game itself?
• Mr North Jersey October 25, 2011 at 10:14 am

  Looking for what is wrong with attendance? How about the economy? According to MLB attendance rose 4 straight years until it peaked in 2007.

  Year/Total
  2004/73,022,969
  2005/74,926,174
  2006/76,042,787
  *2007/76,215,082 (seven days of the regular season was still remaining)

  mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20070924&content_id=2227457&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

  MLB attributed many reasons for such records ranging from Wild Card and Interleague Play, the construction of fan friendly ballparks and increased competitive balance though I don’t know It’s due to what seems to be suggested, the luxury tax.

  MLB sited that “for only the second time in history, all teams’ winning percentages are within the .600 to .400 range.”

  mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20071002&content_id=2245590&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

  Fast forward to 2011. SI’s Tom Verdicci wrote earlier this year, “baseball attendance on a per-game basis (the best rate to measure, and what is used here) was down 8 percent last year(2010) compared to 2007, its all-time high, and down seven-tenths of one percent from 2009, or an almost indistinguishable 209 people per game.”

  He then adds, “Oh, and how did that most favored nation known as the NFL do over the same period? NFL attendance also dropped three straight years. Last season it was off 2.5 percent from 2007 and a nearly-identical eight-tenths of one percent from 2009.”

  sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/tom_verducci/05/03/bud.selig.attendance/index.html

  The point being that when looking to find why attendance is down what looks to be the most plausible reason much times is. In this case the economy.
• Gregg October 25, 2011 at 1:40 pm

  I think this is a case of MLB’s worst dream come true. No big market teams from either coast in World Series. A World Series feature any of the NLCS, or ALCS teams would have been a ratings disaster. MLB is doing a great in creating parity, but just an awful job of marketing their teams and players. The Cardinals have a rich baseball tradition, which should be exploited by MLB. The Rangers are looking for their first World Championship, MLB should be be playing it up.
  During the regular season MLB should be highlighting all the of its great players not only Jeter, A-Rod and whoever the flavor of the month is.