First week of the MLB season canceled

There are various independent leagues throughout the USA which are not associated with MLB or the NA. Indy league baseball is rather underrated fun. The college baseball season has started - you can find games on youtube and league online channels.
 
Bit by bit, baseball is fading from the national consciousness. I don't know why that is; maybe it's too slow for the times. I do know I used to be a big fan in the 60s and 70s -- even the 80s and 90s -- and now I couldn't name more than a half a dozen MLB players. I don't know anyone who really follows the sport.

So the cancellation of opening day/opening week doesn't hit me too hard.
 
JimBob1952 said:
Bit by bit, baseball is fading from the national consciousness. I don't know why that is; maybe it's too slow for the times. I do know I used to be a big fan in the 60s and 70s -- even the 80s and 90s -- and now I couldn't name more than a half a dozen MLB players. I don't know anyone who really follows the sport.

So the cancellation of opening day/opening week doesn't hit me too hard.
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I can understand the fading interest, I feel the same regarding some other pro sports. MLB hurts their brand with walkouts and cancelled games/seasons. I don't pretend to understand the business issues involved but they don't do any favors to themselves, either side.

Baseball brings back childhood memories of my dad listening on his old AM radio to games. I grew up a Braves fan, traveled to Atlanta several times for games in the past and after last years championship season was looking for another run.
 
I think the season lasts so long and they play so many games that a single win or loss doesn't mean a whole lot. The playoffs I find more interesting because each game means plenty.
 
JimBob1952 said:
Bit by bit, baseball is fading from the national consciousness. I don't know why that is; maybe it's too slow for the times. I do know I used to be a big fan in the 60s and 70s -- even the 80s and 90s -- and now I couldn't name more than a half a dozen MLB players. I don't know anyone who really follows the sport.

So the cancellation of opening day/opening week doesn't hit me too hard.
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Me too, exactly.

For me there were two main reasons for my fading interest...

1) Young players applied science to the game - I totally understand copping an edge, that's a totally legit move, but the heart went out of the game when training across the board focused 100% on "the science" and the players all performed like programmed robots. It got to be so predictable it was just too boring to watch. (That's gotten increasingly better over the past decade)

2) Baseball became more a business than a sport. Trades and "retirements" that fans absolutely hated, inter-city and even interstate sales of entire teams, coaches getting retired because they didn't like this crap any more than fans did and didn't fit the new mold, closures of great old stadiums because they didn't look swell on TV anymore (plus owners wanted to increase ticket revenue)... that's what really killed it for me.
 
Like so may others have said, Baseball is no longer a sport, but a business. Billion dollar contracts with TV networks, players signing contracts worth nearly a half billion dollars and the price of going to the stadium has changed my opinion of the game. The fans no longer play a major part of the game. If no fans ever showed up for a game, the teams could still survive on the money from sponsors, TV contracts and sales of memorabilia items. The owners may not take in as much as they do now, but they wouldn't starve either.

If Tropicana Field (Rays) would fill their parking lots at an average price of $25 per vehicle, they would take in the tidy sum of $175,000 per home game, or just over $141,000,000 per season. Of course, the number of home fans at the Trop have decreased severely since its opening.
 
I don't like these disagreements. Was a big Mets fan. Tom Seaver was my guy. I had seats once, out in the bleachers, towards the very end of his career. Saw him come out of that warm-up area. I had no clue how HUGE that guy was! Looked like a linebacker. Shoulders as wide as any football player.
 
Yes, but we remember the 'thunk'' of the bat when the ball flew from the 'sweet spot,; stretching for that impossible grounder- feeling it in
our mitt.
These ancient memories send us to the TV, to watch and remember a time long ago.
 

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