The Young People

Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat.

The ball is juiced.  Everybody knows the ball is juiced.

The interesting question is this.  Why is the ball juiced?  What is the point of this silliness?

ESPN’s baseball coverage focuses heavily on Home Runs.  As though The Young People will see that Home Runs are being hit and go “ooooo.  Home Runs!  Home Runs!  Super!  I’m going to watch Sunday Night Baseball now!”

They won’t.  The Young People have better things to do with their time than watch Sunday Night Baseball.  Game of Thrones.  Music Festivals.  Beaches.

I don’t care what The Focus Groups say.  So, 400 kids from New York and California told you that they would be more inclined to watch a baseball game if there were more home runs so you juiced the ball?  They told you that they would be more inclined to watch a baseball game if the games were shorter so you expanded the strike zone this year?

The Focus Groups are as overrated as Analytics.  The Intelligentsia is played out.

Is there really less interest in baseball these days?  The local markets/local teams/local broadcasts seem to be doing just fine.  A ton of people are going to baseball games.  A ton of people are watching baseball games from their markets on their TVs (and their smartphones and other Super Things!).  A ton of people are buying baseball merchandise.  There is a ton of money in local broadcast deals.  Baseball players are making a ton of money.

From that perspective – the perspective of the local markets/teams/players – baseball seems to be doing just fine.

Where isn’t baseball doing just fine?  National broadcasts.  The national media.  What a wise man once referred to as The Legacy Media.

Baseball is a sport that is meant to be watched night in and night out, following one team.  Mike Francesa once said that a baseball season is like a book, and that each game is like a chapter in that book.  Watching a random game from outside your local market in the middle of the regular season is like opening a book and reading a chapter in the middle of it.  If you’re a diehard baseball fan, and you have a strong familiarity with the chapters that proceeded it, then that can be an enjoyable experience.  If you’re a casual fan?  The beach is calling.

When people talk about “the health of the game” and “the state of baseball”, etc., what they are really talking about is the health of the national baseball media.

Who cares?  I could care less about Tom Verducci’s bank statement.  Or his haircut.

Just get rid of national broadcasts of games altogether.  Instead of doing national broadcasts of games just do a three hour highlight/analysis show every Sunday night wrapping up the week in baseball.  Hype The Playoff Games relentlessly.  Those games are AWESOME.  Baseball in the playoffs is like an entirely different sport.  Each game is about 100 x more important than a single regular season game, and the atmosphere reflects that.  Every Young Person who tunes into a random game on a Tuesday night on ESPN in the middle of June is less likely to tune in for games that are extremely entertaining in October.

Then again, there is a lot of money to be made in national broadcasts of baseball games.

Whatever.  Just get rid of national broadcasts entirely, including The Postseason.  Let the local markets cover those games.  90 % of the viewership in October comes from the fans of the teams playing, presumably.  Let diehard baseball fans get a subscription to watch all of the games in October.  Then we won’t all have to deal with John Smoltz and Ron Darling pretending to not be rooting against the Yankees.  Then Ernie Johnson can stop pretending to know anything about baseball.  Then Joe Buck can go away, finally.

Baseball is a local game.  Go Local.

 

So, the juiced ball is pointless.  It is also unethical.  Baseball is just now beginning to move on from the steroid era, and the tainted record books that came along with it.  And now we’re muddying the waters with the juiced ball for what purpose?  Again, The Young People are too busy being Awesome for your silliness.

Does the juiced ball benefit all players equally?  Recent years have seen an interesting phenomenon in the game.  Many short players have all of a sudden turned into extreme power hitters.  Jose Altuve.  Francisco Lindor.  Scooter Gennett.  Rougned Odor.  Ozzie Albies.  Brian Dozier.  Jose Ramirez.  Brad Miller.  Do the Physics of the juiced ball cause it to fly further when it is struck by the swing of the bat of a little person?  Is the juiced ball nothing more than a conspiracy to help the vertically challenged feel better about themselves?  To make Greg Gutfeld smile?

This should have been a consideration for MVP voters when they gave Altuve MVP last year over Aaron Judge who hit 52 home runs in his rookie season.  Maybe anti-Yankee bias played a part?

Will Yankees fans tune in to Sunday Night Baseball this year because of Alex Rodriguez?  Even if they will was that a Faustian Bargain worth making for ESPN?  Baseball is just beginning to move on from the steroid era, as I said above.  Now, the ball is juiced in an effort to get people to tune in to Sunday Night Baseball to listen to who?  The face of the steroid era himself.

I miss Curt Schilling.  Whatever happened to him?

I miss Bud Selig.  His bold stance against Alex Rodriguez in 2012 was a proud moment for Major League Baseball.  It should have signaled the end of the PED era.  Now, Rodriguez has been welcomed back with open arms.  His ubiquity this year works against the Yankees.  They welcomed Rodriguez back to the organization this past offseason.  That was a huge mistake.  The Yankees are ripe for collapse.  They will collapse this season, as I have been saying day after day on Twitter for months now.

When they do, don’t bother asking me why.  Just put on Sunday Night Baseball.  You’ll see.