Breaking: Nobody Cares About Baseball
Can you name a baseball player who is nationally famous? I can’t. There are plans to bring back baseball by realigning the leagues to make them more regional, thereby cutting down on travel.
Just typing that sentence made me fall asleep. Baseball is boring. Nobody likes it.
How Trumpian. “Nobody likes it” means “I don’t like it.”
That said, I have no interest in it this year.
That’s fair.
Baseball would be more exiting if they disbanded the farm system, localized the teams, and had relegation and promotion like they do for English and European football. That way your local team could eventually be promoted up to the major league if it’s successful enough, and subsequently, bigger teams could be relegated to a lower league if they are unsuccessful.
At the end of the season the top three teams in each league move up a league while the bottom three move down a league. For instance, a team like the Blue Rocks could eventually bring major league baseball to Wilmington if it is successful enough.
This system has been debated over the years for American sports and it has always been rejected because, in America, sports are all about corporations and investors, and those people generally don’t want the risk of being relegated to a lower league .
Major League baseball in Wilmington? They’d have to build a new stadium. The current one couldn’t produce enough revenue to get top players they’d need to “move up” to Major League. They’d also have to draw fans from the entire region, and obviously you couldn’t squeeze them all into Frawley.
Brighton&Hove, Norwich City, Burnley in the Premiere League? How could that be?
Maybe soccer has overcome this problem. If so, how? How big are the stadiums in the places you cite?
In soccer, generally speaking, a team improves when someone invests more money to buy better players. If they move up into the top two leagues they get more revenue from TV money, especially in the Premier League. Once the money starts coming in they can build a bigger stadium. The Blue Rocks, currently in Class A, are in the 4th league down. If they made it to the 2nd league, the Championship League in English football, they could afford to add a second deck, or seat around the outfield.
Burnley plays at Turf Moor, currently the smallest Premier League venue at fewer than 22,000 seats. Norwich City’s holds 27,000, and Brighton’s stadium holds a bit over 30,000. The seating discrepancy always amazes me, but they make it work. I think television money and wealthy owners who will actually spend money is the reason why. I’m not sure that could happen in baseball – but it would be fun to see the Red Sox bumped down to AAA to make room for the Lansing Lugnuts.
Exactly, and it’s a huge boost to the local economies of the towns with smaller clubs.
It would also be neat if Baseball had something like the FA cup where all the teams in the entire FA have the chance to compete in the tournament and you end up with games between huge clubs like Manchester United or Chelsea going against small clubs you probably have never heard of like Yeovil Town, Forest Green, or Tranmere.
It would be the equivalence of a team like the Yankees showing up at places like the Delmarva Shorebirds or the Wilmington Blue rocks for a one off game.
My son advocates for this all the time. He makes the point that American sports teams have only one thing to play for, the league championship, while European football teams have two, three if they’re in one of the all-Europe leagues.
Thanks. What would the capacity be then? Big enough to move above the second-level league you refer to? How big are the stadiums in the top league?Or would TV etc. bring in enough revenue even with a smaller stadium? Would the league tolerate a franchise that was consistently good enough to be in the top level if it didn’t expand the stadium beyond what those additions to Frawley would bring? Is this more than anybody needs to know about soccer? Or the Blue Rocks, for that matter.
It would realistically take several years and many tens of millions of dollars to get to the Premier League level, both in players and stadium seating. You’d essentially have to outspend the Phillies to get there.
But one way of raising the cash — other than having a Saudi prince buy the team — is to develop players that you sell to the Premier League teams, or even Championship League teams. They play for you for a couple of years, establish themselves, you sell them off and invest in more youngsters.
That’s how baseball’s minor leagues used to operate before Branch Rickey invented the farm system.
I don’t miss baseball so much, but I’m struggling to get through the day w/o fantasy baseball.
Baseball was infinitely interesting and fascinating, until the current emphasis on power hitting. Home runs are boring because they are all the same, like every three-point jump shot is the same. Ever watch a highlights film of home runs? Same thing over and over again. The only difference is the announcer’s call, and even the announcers are running out of ways to make it interesting. On the other hand, every 35-yard touchdown run is different.
There were 41 rushing touchdowns of 30 yards or more all last season. Just sayin’.
Agree completely, Puck. All home runs and strikeouts, all dunks and three-point shots (though I still watch both sports because I’m an incorrigible sports fan). Agree about football, too. It’s a beautiful game to watch, irrespective of head injuries and such. It’s the only kind of “classic” game rerun I’ll watch these days because it doesn’t really matter much who’s playing. Prefer live games, of course, but that won’t happen soon.
Is it football season yet? I wonder if the DE lottery will allow online betting for football? I wouldn’t have to face the 12 PM Sunday crowd at the local newsstand.I could establish an account online with funding and then play weekly and refund if necessary.