re: MLB has to adapt or the league is going to die

quote:

---

I like the pitch clock. Everyone farting around did more to disrupt the traditional flow of the game than that. I like doing away with the crazy shifts; I had mixed emotions about that at first but it had gotten out of hand.

---

You like the pitch clock. I don't care about it, one way or the other. But what does the target demographic you speak of think about it? Are the numbers reflecting a change in interest? I also liked getting rid of the over-shifting. I mentioned that earlier. I don't think it brought in any new fans to speak of, if any at all, but I didn't grow up watching second basemen catching line drives in right field, so I was glad to return to something familiar.

quote:

---

The thing is, they have tweaked the rules when necessary for 150 years. Pitchers took over the damn game in 1968. So they lowered the mound to try to bring things back into equilibrium.

---

That's one major rule change in the first 100 years of the game. I never said that there has never been a need for a rule change in the history of the sport. But we are "tweaking" things constantly now, it seems, and to what avail?

quote:

---

I’m sorry, letting the sport die because “this isn’t the sport for some people” is a non-starter.

---

You missed the point. I don't want the sport to die. I don't think it will die. But if you change it into a completely different sport from what it is, which is what it seems it would take in order to get people to stop complaining about the lack of action, then you've already killed it. Because it's not even baseball anymore, at that point. So IF it has to die, let it die with dignity, as I said before.

I think the concern that baseball will just die out, because we didn't do enough to cater to a certain demographic, is overblown, however. I'm not an old man. I'm not a kid anymore, but I'm far removed from the age group who are considered the "old fossils" of baseball past, and I enjoy this game. You know why? Because my dad, who enjoyed it, got me into it. There are people like me everywhere. And we'll pass it on to our kids. So there will always be enough of a following for baseball to exist.

But the numbers won't be as great as they once were, because people, for all intents and purposes, are being "programmed" from an early age to expect everything now. It's the nature of the instant access, short attention spanned society we're becoming. Baseball just doesn't move fast enough for people like that. The pitch clock picks up the pace between pitches, but a single at bat can go on for a few minutes. And some people just can't take that. They don't appreciate the game within the game, and just want something to happen, already.

Are we going to make a rule where you only get a certain amount of foul balls, and then you're out? Are we going to put time limits on innings? These are the kinds of outlandish "solutions" that would likely be necessary to up the pace enough, but then it wouldn't really be baseball, and I'm not sure if it wouldn't drive away more people than it would bring in.

quote:

---

The worst thing about MLB is the payroll discrepancy. Team's gross revenue shouldnt be less than other team's payroll. MLB will forever be a joke, until it rectifies this.

---

16 different World Series champions since 2000. Spending money does not equal a dynasty or parity.