re: MLB sees largest attendance spike in 30 years

NFL is the worst TV product of those 3.

You literally have stretches where the broadcast is touchdown, commercial, kick off, commercial

Awful.

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and if mlb opens up the teams viewing, and no black outs, it will continue to go up. fans grew tired of not being able to watch a game, 50miles from them in next state, because 3 hours south of them they had a team.

let people watch who they want

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To be fair, MLB has no control over that. Cable companies do. MLB can't lift blackout restrictions.

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To be fair, MLB has no control over that. Cable companies do. MLB can't lift blackout restrictions.

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Maybe. There's certainly situations of the mlb blackout rule that are just dumb for no reason. This is something that needs to be modernized for the future of the sport and viewing of fans.

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The worst state blackout-wise is Iowa, which is blacked out by six teams; Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs, Royals, Twins, and the White Sox, even though all are a multi-hour drive to see any of the teams in person.[2] Local broadcasts are not necessarily available in the whole blackout territory. For example, Bally Sports Wisconsin is unavailable in Iowa, so Milwaukee Brewers games are unavailable in the state. So not only can Iowa not get the Brewers on local channels, they also can't get them on streaming due to being "in the market".

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Wait til the playoff TV ratings come in and they are the lowest in years.

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not with the dodgers, Braves, Orioles, Jays, and Texas teams in the playoffs. You’re underestimating the size of those fan bases.

I still hate the rule changes. You could achieve the same effects but not go to the extremes they did.

Instead of a pitch clock have the umpire keep a watch and enforce pace of play. Think of it like the 5 second rule in basketball.

A pitcher should be able to attempt as many puck offs as possible. This rule change has actually hurt the game because the drama does not build. You will see this play out post season.

I liked it when the pitcher hit. Strategy. I also don't like the 3 batter minimum.

Begrudgingly, I'm fine with the shift. I'll give them that one.

The Manfred Man at second base in extras is the greatest abomination this sport has ever seen. Beer league softball rules.

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NFL is the worst TV product of those 3. You literally have stretches where the broadcast is touchdown, commercial, kick off, commercial

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It really is awful. I think I really only get excited for the idea of football, not the actually games anymore. Like it’s the start of fall, fresh from the dog days of summer and slow sports weekends, etc. But honestly unless I have a real interest in the game I may watch a quarter. I’ll change it to something else because of a stoppage in play/commercials and not even realize I missed the whole game.

Does baseball offend you?

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Baseball is not, in fact, dead... I love the game and love to read this news, but as a traditionalist, I still disagree with every new rule implemented this year - each one. In fact, I am a proponent of eliminating the universal DH in both leagues and making pitchers hit. Make Baseball Great Again Edited to add: Apologies...I misstated my position. I am in favor of banning the shift, because the way it's been employed the last several years is not in the spirit of the game.

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First, I have to give MLB credit for not having the misnamed “ghost runner” rule in the post season. I don’t particularly like it in the regular season, but it would be absolutely horrid to have it in the World Series.

As for saying “every new rule is bad” I also have to disagree. Watching 3:30 games where the batter had to step out after every pitch to adjust his batting gloves or cross himself, or the pitcher take time to walk around the mound or whatever took away from the game of baseball. Do I like the idea of a “clock”? No, but it had gotten so bad that something had to be done and the game is better for it. I’d go so far as saying that having the clock actually gets the game to be played like it should be.

I do miss the loss of strategy due to the universal DH and, to a lesser extent, the three batter rule. I guess I see, however, that pitchers hitting had become antiquated as it was only done in the NL. I imagine that people probably felt the same way about the advent of platoon football, or kickers and punters being specialist who weren’t also players.

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Wait til the playoff TV ratings come in and they are the lowest in years.

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This - put very simply - whether you are talking about MLB or college baseball is a regional sports. There are never going to be good national tv numbers.

But folks will go see their teams play if they are doing well. There were some teams doing well in MLB this year that have not done all that well in the recent past and that boosted the overall numbers.

I love it, I'm a Cub fan and I make at least 2 or 3 trips to Wrigley to see them play each year and another trip to a road venue. But I'm not watching the Braves and Dodgers in August and while I may check in on games for a minute to see the scores in the playoffs, I ain't watching much if the Cubs ain't playing.

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I genuinly forgot MLB was even still around. It is a totally and completely dead sport nationally.

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I always get a chuckle when someone on this board proudly demonstrates a brand new way to say about themselves, “I am an idiot.”