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A National Pastime No More?
It’s a testimony to the traditionalist bent that runs through Ricochet — and our shameless attempts to lure George Will over — that some of the most prolonged discussions in the site’s history have involved baseball (I recall at least one discussion of the designated hitter that resulted in casualties). Increasingly, however, we seem to be the outliers. We may still call the game “the national pastime,” but the title is largely vestigial. These days, baseball is more of a regional interest than a national obsession. From Jonathan Mahler in the New York Times:
On Tuesday night, the first game of the 2014 World Series drew just 12.2 million viewers to Fox, making it the lowest-rated Game 1 on record. Game 2 on Wednesday night fared somewhat better, with 12.9 million people tuning in.
It goes on:
For most of the last century, the start of baseball’s World Series — with its red, white and blue bunting and occasional ceremonial first pitch from the president — was always a major event. The opening game of the Fall Classic has provided some of the country’s most enduring sports memories, including Willie Mays’s over-the-shoulder basket catch (1954), Sandy Koufax’s 15-strikeout performance (1963) and Kirk Gibson’s walk-off home run (1988).
But this week, more people watched “NCIS: New Orleans” and “The Big Bang Theory,” and — for that matter — “The Walking Dead,” the cable show about zombies. The audience for “Sunday Night Football,” a regular season game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos, was almost twice that of Games 1 or 2. Even last Saturday night’s college football matchup — Florida State University versus Notre Dame — drew more viewers than either World Series game.
Perhaps the most compelling statement about baseball’s relative standing among American sports fans is this: Last summer’s World Cup match between the United States and Portugal drew 25 million viewers, roughly double that of the World Series opener.
OK, if you’ve witnessed an Obama first pitch, you know it’s probably not a net loss to the game to forego the presidential imprimatur. That’s form you wouldn’t accept from an eight-year-old girl. But that World Cup line? American exceptionialism is dead. (Further proof of this fact: my spell-check always flags the word “exceptionalism.” The bile that rises in that moment is biological proof of conservatism.)
Now, you can argue that television audiences for everything have fractured, which is true so far as it goes, but, as noted above, baseball’s biggest moment of the year isn’t even competitive with regular season fare from college or professional football. That may be partially attributable to the presence of a small-market team (the Kansas City Royals) in this year’s World Series, but the allure of the Royals’ Cinderella story (it’s been nearly 30 years since they’ve been in a championship series) ought to mitigate at least some of that. Still, there just aren’t many eyeballs to be found once the games get underway.
There’s a long-standing debate over what’s caused the decline in the game’s popularity. Was it the fallout from the steroids scandals (or at the least the fall-off in offensive production that occurred once the league cracked down on PEDs)? The fact that the American people no longer have the attention span for a game played at such a comparatively glacial pace? The fact that a 162-game regular season schedule dilutes the product?
Questions for the Ricochetti: is baseball’s second-tier status in American sports a cyclical phenomenon from which it will recover or is the game in the midst of a decline from which it will not return? Have you found your own interest in the game waning? And what — if anything — could arrest the slide?
Published in General
Its just really boring to watch. Its sad to see its decline, but its just so dull.
Is MLB managed by NASA?
My interest has waned. Games are too long.
I still follow the box scores, but arguably I watch very little anymore. The death of the superstations (WGN America is or will be discontinuing coverage of most Chicago sports teams – including my Cubs), the fact that I am too cheap to pay additional dollars for the MLB package on top of my already pricey, bundled-junk, satellite service, these are the primary factors anymore. For the last several years, about the only thing that drove my interest was fantasy baseball.
However, despite the above, I will always love the game. I love being on the field with my kid and his team. It is still a great game.
But accessibility and economics remain inhibiting factors.
Ask me again when pitchers and catchers report. My tune will likely have changed again by then.
It’s hard to answer the question, as my personal data is corrupted by the fact that my interest in watching any sport has waned over the years. I was always a football, basketball and baseball fan. Now for various reasons I hardly watch them at all. Ironically, when I want to put on some background noise when I’m doing other things, I put on streaming hockey. Not sure why, as I was never a hockey fan. It’s just something different, I guess.
With that context, I say this: baseball was always a pastime more than a sport. Literally a way to pass the time. So baseball’s not just competing with football; it’s competing with social networking. I go with the attention span theory.
Well, that and the insufferable Bob Costas.
Good question, Troy.
I’m going with the glacial pace. Baseball might draw more of an audience by implementing rules to speed up the game. I enjoy the subtlety and skill, but just can’t sit there all night watching a batter step out of the batting box, refasten his gloves, knock his shoes, and adjust his… uh package after EVERY PITCH! (Please forgive the minor CoC violation… mea culpa). Batters should be required to ready themselves, step into the batters box, and not step out until the play is over (on base, strike out, walk, etc.).
Speeding up the game may draw some of us back. Until then, only if the Tigers are in the Series (that opinion is statistically insignificant, n=1).
There’s no one reason. (There never is.)
Baseball is soap opera in an event driven world. It is daily, not weekly.
Love of the game is acquired from father to son in a world where fathers are more a biological fact than a everyday presence.
It requires children who aren’t put on a shelf or tied to a game console/smartphone all the time. This why the superstars of the game come from the poorer Latin countries.
It is not a bettor’s sport, especially in the regular season.
On the upside, MLB.TV is the most successful of all the league streaming services. The Postseason has been streamed on the apps of MLB, TBS and Fox Sports. These are not included in the Nielsen ratings. And while the measurement of national games appears to waning, local coverage during the regular season has actually increased 24% over the last decade according to Mike Mulvill of Fox.
Anybody know much about attendance trends at AA, AAA, and other semi-pro games?
Is the decline about baseball in general, or more about MLB?
I personally like the Can-Am league, because it isn’t affiliated with MLB. It means that one can follow a Can-Am team throughout the season without fear that the best players will be lost in mid-season to a MLB team.
Fair point. In other sports, delay of game is a relatively serious infraction.
The minors are healthy. Last season 54 teams drew over a half million in season attendance. More and more teams are trying to put one or more of their minor league affiliates inside their big league television markets. The Reds have teams in Dayton (A) and Lousiville (AAA), the Indians have Columbus (AAA) and Akron (AA), the Mets are in Brooklyn (A) and the Tigers in Toledo (AAA).
It provides some marketing synergy and a handy way to send recently DL’ed players on rehab assignments.
I’ve argued for a pitch clock often. Change the rule so once the batter enters the box for the first time, the pitcher may throw at any time, and the batter can’t stop it without using a team time-out.
After each pitch, the clock starts and the pitcher has X-number of seconds to throw to the plate or a base in a pick-off attempt, or the batter is awarded first base.
The NBA resisted the shot clock for a long time, but it ended up helping the game massively.
As EJ said, there is more than one reason, but here are a few.
1. Baseball is terrible on TV. Terrible. It is great in person or on the radio. The radio feeds on MLB.com are a GREAT feature.
2. The DH. Evil. Pure evil.
3. The game has slowed considerably. The one thing MLB ought to be doing is figuring out ways to speed up the game. The time between pitches. The batters stepping out of the box to throw the pitchers off, etc.
4. Team hopping. Players use to be with teams for long periods of time. Now, players jump from team to team. This kills fan loyalty. MLB ought to ban contracts of less than 5 years.
Every sport has this problem. Can’t explain why other sports aren’t experiencing the same drop off.
That is sad. Is manhood still a thing? It should be.
The playoffs were fun this year. And if SF wins the series that will be 3 in 5 years, that is a Yankee-type dynasty. People should tune in.
I enjoyed playing baseball when I was a kid, but I never could understand why anybody would want to watch it. Golf is a thrill-ride by comparison.
This is something I’ve observed first-hand. A kid needs to have a catch with his father, and they have to go out and shag flies and grounders.
But I also blame soccer. Too many kids, it seems to me, play soccer instead of baseball. I’m not bad-mouthing soccer. But the less kids play baseball, the less they appreciate the game, and the less they care about who wins in the big leagues. It’s hard to play baseball with the neighborhood kids when your mom drives you to soccer practice every day.
Perhaps paradoxically, expansion may have hurt interest in the game. When there were 8 teams in each league a kid like me could name every starting position player on every team and tell you something about him. Vada Pinson was the fastest from home to first. Pete Rose never, ever swung at the first pitch (until game 5 of the 1980 NL playoffs between Houston and Philadelphia. It shocked me out of my shoes). Roger Maris won the AL MVP the year before he hit 61. And Willie Mays, well, you know.
Today, who are these guys? Who can keep track of 750 players? For most of the players on the Giants and Royals, the post-season is the first I’m hearing of them. It’s hard to care much about who wins under those conditions.
I was an umpire for 20 years in High School and sandlots. A lot of your complaints rest with the men in blue. They control the pace. Consider rule 8.4 in the MLB official rules:
8.04
When the bases are unoccupied, the pitcher shall deliver the ball to the batter within 12 seconds after he receives the ball. Each time the pitcher delays the game by violating this rule, the umpire shall call Ball. The 12-second timing starts when the pitcher is in possession of the ball and the batter is in the box, alert to the pitcher. The timing stops when the pitcher releases the ball.
The intent of this rule is to avoid unnecessary delays. The umpire shall insist that the catcher return the ball promptly to the pitcher, and that the pitcher take his position on the rubber promptly. Obvious delay by the pitcher should instantly be penalized by the umpire.
Has that EVER been enforced?
This weekend I’m tuning to see who wins the MLS Supporter’s Shield — Seattle or LA. Also very interested in whether Portland can grab the last playoff spot away from Vancouver. And, of course, Man U vs. Chelsea on Sunday.
Couldn’t care less what happens in the World Series. Wouldn’t even know it was going on if not for facebook. The game is too slow and I feel no connection to any teams.
The only sports I enjoy watching even when I don’t have a particular rooting interest are soccer and college football. I’m a rabid San Antonio Spurs fan, but have little to no interest in any other NBA games. I think baseball is becoming more like that; you tune in if you have a team, but if you don’t then you don’t.
When my youngest son was in his teens he looked at the title of a book I had brought home from the library: “Polio: An American Story.” He then asked “What’s polio?”
That was a good thing.
I fear when one of my future grandchildren are in their teens they will look a a book titled “Baseball: An American Story,” and ask “What’s baseball?”
Seawriter
12 seconds from the time the batter is “in the box, alert to the pitcher” seems like an eternity, particularly when there’s no corresponding rule requiring the batter to step into the box and become “alert to the pitcher” within a certain amount of time.
The NBA put in a shot clock because the ends of games became deadly dull games of keepaway. It did do it quickly: the NBA had a shot clock with a decade of its founding. Men’s college basketball, however, resisted the shot clock for another 30 years. Finally, the 24 second clock came from observations of well-played, entertaining games, then using the possessions/game to drive the clock time. In other words, the clock was derived from ideal, observed game play, not imposed.
While there are time wasters that should be clamped down on, the umpires have much of the authority within the rules to do so now. Pace of play when no one is on base is the most obvious focus. Interesting strategy sidebars among announcers and viewers — which fill other gaps in play — aren’t as relevant when run probabilities are low.
Perhaps tweaks like not allowing batters to step out of the box fully could be considered. But most of what’s needed just needs to be enforced.
The current average is 23 seconds. It should be pretty obvious when someone is dawdling.
TV ratings are the only measure of sport’s viability?
The average MLB game time is shorter than the average NFL game yet I don’t hear clamoring about that.
Baseball is fine as is; please don’t tinker with the rules just so those that insist that everything is in motion at all times (and then complain about their fast paced lives) can be momentarily amused. They will soon be on to the next shiny thing that catches their eye anyway.
I can only speak for myself.
I’ve been a full-season ticket holder to the Milwaukee Brewers for 19 seasons (and went to a lot of games each year for a long time before that). When I first started the full-season ticket thing, I was going to 75-80 games a year – my personal best was 85 games in one year, counting road games. And I always stayed for the whole game. I NEVER left early, even if the team was down by 12 runs – Hey, 2 or 3 grand slams, we’re right back in this one. I lived and died with every pitch. I was there for extra innings on those weeknight games at County Stadium in April when there were only 1000 people in the stands all huddled under blankets because it was 35 degrees out.
I still have the tickets, but I’m down to attending about 25 games a year. I sell the rest on stubhub or to family and friends. And the games I do go to, I’ll often leave before its over, and I find my attention wandering during the game.
So what happened?
1. I moved to a house farther from the stadium, got married, and had kids. It’s an incredible time suck to actually go to the games. I have to leave the house shortly after 6 to make the first pitch. And I can’t take the kids with me to weeknight games because they have to go to bed.
2: I have to disagree with those who say the game is bad on television. The in-game experience at the stadium is getting more and more annoying. Without even taking into account the chances of having obnoxious drunks around you (something I’ve been pretty luck with the last few years), the loud music between every pitch, the games, contests, scoreboard videos and commercial announcements between innings get old. As much as I love Miller Park, I miss the days of sitting in County Stadium with no distractions other than a scoreboard that was completely useless for showing anything beyond the batting order and line score, and a sound system that was so inadequate you were lucky if you could hear them announce the name of the next batter.
3: Technology and attention spans. During some of the between pitch or between inning downtime, the lure of the smartphone and internet access beckons. And then you start reading an article or blog entry and all of a sudden you’ve missed half an inning.
4: The most important stat in the box score is Time of Game. They do have to do *something* to speed up the game! The 4 hour snoozathons are unbearable. On the other hand, I remember one game this year I was at that they knocked out in something like 2 hours and 10 minutes. It was awesome. One of the best games of the year.
Specific to the World Series:
1: The appeal has been damaged by interleague play. It was cool for a year or two. Get rid of it.
2: Start the games earlier. On the weekends, play day games.
3: This year there was a long gap between the end of the final playoff round and the first WS game. Logistically difficult, but they should have played game one a few days earlier.
It’s not second-tier.
Baseball is the tortoise in a world of hares. It’s basically the same as it always was. Just keeps chugging along. Meanwhile, horse racing and boxing and football come and go.
Baseball and jazz are the sights and sounds of America. They’re just there. Always there. In the background. Even if we don’t pay them attention they are there. And we need them there.
That is annoying. If both league playoffs end early, why wait to start the series? Because it all has to fit into the TV schedule. I understand that if you want the TV money you have to play by their rules, but at some point people forget that baseball is still going on. The season ended a month ago and the NFL is already at the midway point of its season.
Good work questioning the premise of the OP.
I think it very much has to do with the limited attention span of most Americans now who expect instant gratification and immediate results. Baseball is a relatively quiet, highly nuanced game and even as a *sports kid* I always preferred football and hockey. *Hail Marys* and power plays were infinitely more exciting to watch.
[This changed as I grew up and attended my first Yankee game with David Wells on the mound. His performance immediately made me understand the power of the psychological strategies that Koufax and Gibson and Drysdale so skillfully executed.]
Also, it isn’t helpful that one of the game’s most popular players has just retired. :(
The NLCS ended on a Thursday.
Saturday: College Football
Sunday: NFL Football
Monday: Monday Night Football
Tuesday: The World Series may begin.
Football’s not stopping them from playing World Series games on Saturday and Sunday this week…