Outdated practices, lack of change turn fans off
With the conclusion of the most watched television event of the year, we are in an awkward period of sports: baseball season. America’s original source of athletic entertainment has seemingly been lost in the shuffle of today’s sports world. Long gone are the days of baseball card trading and packed Little League tryouts. The first game to steal America’s heart has taken a backseat to football and basketball and maybe even martial arts.
Baseball purists will make plenty of arguments that the short attention span of audiences has caused the decay of this once-loved sport. But if attention span was the issue, hockey would be a lot higher on the totem pole than it is currently.
Baseball is not an economic game. You cannot just decide on a whim that you want to go out and play. You have to have a ball, bats, gloves and a significant number of players. Basketball’s only demands are that you have a ball, a hoop and a patch of concrete. Children in urban areas simply don’t have the resources to play baseball.
Professional baseball’s minimal use of video replay to check the game’s calls is also mind-boggling. Umpires during the World Series have made incorrect calls while the millions of people watching at home sit helplessly and watch.
Baseball has nobody to blame but itself. The game has continually turned a blind eye to opportunities to advance itself or bring new technology to the game. Its static rules and rudimentary policy to leave any and all aspects of the game untouched will inevitably make younger generations grow more apathetic to it.