Baseball: A dying sport?

[MattC13]

I think it is from the inside. But, I rarely watch it, and the following points are based on from what I've heard:

-Steroids
I know alot of other sports get flammed for steroids, but it's mainly baseball. I mean, come on, who would be crazy enough to inject 20 needles in your arm just to get a home run? I wouldn't, but we know Bonds would.

-Playoffs
This just rips me up, the baseball players play, 120 games a year and get about a week off every year, and for what? Only 8 teams make the playoffs! That's just really, really stupid. It should be like the other sports, like in the NHL where 16 teams make it, or the NFL where 12 teams go on.

-Attendance
I've watching baseball on TV, and I've seen probably 200 people in the front rows, with 120000 seats around them empty. Yet, they claim that theres 200000 there. Are they making that stuff up. (I think i'll be wrong on this point)

-Fights
In the attendance of "200000" people. Accoring to EA Sports, they put in crowd fights. So, what does that tell you about the real thing? I've never seen one (Only some guy get removed because of his foghorn), but, I'm sure they're happening all the time.

Now, will someone come and either support me or prove me wrong? I'd time to get the deal straight.

 

[omfgomfg]

does "dying" mean, headed towards death?
if so, then baseball is certainly nowhere near dying.
you know, the stock market will inevitably have its high points and low points.
depression is certainly a bad thing. but it always recovers in the end.
it has never failed to recover to this day. take this as a metaphor for the sport of baseball.
however, i'd like to state that baseball is nowhere near a depression, much less a low point.
it'll be centuries before the general consensus stops liking it.
just so you know, that last statement was based upon nothing at all.
so it's your choice whether to believe in it or not.

 

[MattC13]

does "dying" mean, headed towards death?
if so, then baseball is certainly nowhere near dying.
you know, the stock market will inevitably have its high points and low points.
depression is certainly a bad thing. but it always recovers in the end.
it has never failed to recover to this day. take this as a metaphor for the sport of baseball.
however, i'd like to state that baseball is nowhere near a depression, much less a low point.
it'll be centuries before the general consensus stops liking it.
just so you know, that last statement was based upon nothing at all.
so it's your choice whether to believe in it or not.

Can you stop being so spritual and answer the question ktnx?

 

[TheMike54]

Steroids:
Steroids is more of an issue in baseball because the league is taking the initiative to try and clean up the sport. Football has experienced numerous steroid snafus in the past few seasons; Shanw Merriman and Rodney Harrison (HGH) to name a few. As far as using steroids as a performance enhancer, a large portion of baseball players use steroids to gain an unfair advantage on the playing field but many also use them as a way to speed up recovery from an injury.

Steroids is an ongoing issue in all professional sports but it has become synonymous with baseball due to their pro-active approach to eliminating them from the game.

Playoffs:
Each MLB team plays 162 games in a season (extra in case of a tie as seen last year between the Colorado Rockies and San Deigo Padres). While it is understandable to want an expanded playoff field in baseball, the fact that only 8 teams advance to the playoffs despite playing a long and grueling schedule hardly qualifies as evidence illustrating that "Baseball is dying".

Attendance:
So far this year, the highest average attendance (Home and Road games) is 42,866 for the NY Mets and the lowest is 21,407 for the Florida Marlins*. These numbers are expected to increase as we enter summer and people have more time to attend games. So, no the announcers aren't lying about attendance.

Crowd Fights:
Once again, this has nothing to do with the liveliness of baseball. Crowd altercations happen in all major sports and have no bearing on the "liveliness" of the sport.

Anyways, as you can probably tell, I don't think baseball is dying at all.

 

[pockyD]

lol @ 200k; most soccer stadiums don't even hold that many

the fact of the matter is, with 81 home games a year, and mostly spent sitting in hot outdoors weather, people aren't interested in making multiple trips to a baseball game, if at all. With 162 games total, any given game doesn't have a significant impact (until later in the season)

and of course people nowadays find baseball boring

 

[Amide]

Baseball isn't going to die soon. But you made good points. Steroids. It ticks me off. Giambi admitted he took them so he gets off the hook. What?!?!?! Oh yeah, fights. You need to go to a Yanks Red Sox game, cheering for the opposite stadium's team. Everyone screaming, hurting, drinking. Fights are AWFUL.

 

[hippochinfat!!]

It may become less popular, but it will never die out.

 

[mortgage1]

Ya its very dangerous games but apart from this became very popular game.

 

[notftomearth7]

Baseball isn't a "dying" sport, I just think that it's lost all credibility due to steroids.

 

[~rh]

I still enjoy watching baseball. Going to the games is still very enjoyable as well.

 

[doom dragon 105]

i loathe baseball

 

[Deleted member]

I wouldn't say "dying" but it's losing it's fanbase pretty quickly because football is more exciting. Baseball is a sport that measures who sucks the least because if you hit the ball 4 times out of 10 you're pretty much guaranteed in the hall of fame, It's more exciting to see the guys HIT the ball than watch them miss or foul it.

 

[shadow3.0]

BASEBALL MUST LIVE! =)

No seriously...

 

[GI Josh]

i really don't like baseball, so I hope it does die

 

[Immortal_One]

There is a lot of dysfunction in baseball these days, and for that reason, American Football is now being coined America's pastime. I certainly believe that American Football is now the prime sport of this country, but mostly because I'm biased against baseball from my childhood.

It was coined America's pastime because during the days of the civil war, people played it in the USA as well as in the CSA. All good things must come to an end, and to some, baseball will always be Number 1.

Personally, I'm not very "American", but I like American Football

 

[TheMike54]

i really don't like baseball, so I hope it does die

Great logic there.

 

[Red Hawk One]

Are $150 cheap seats at a game (alright, at the All-Stars game) something that happens to a dying sport? I don't think so.

But seriously, if you're worried about the steroids scandals, look at baseball's past: The Black Soxs scandal, Pete Rose being banned for gambling, Babe Ruth enjoying food & beer a little too much, these are but a few of the sport’s controversies. Baseball is about as riddled with scandals as Washington, but it's still the national pastime. Why? Because it's a fun game to play and watch.
Plus, even if it dies out in the U.S., it still is extremely popular in other countries, such as Japan, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. There are actually schools in the Caribbean dedicated to teaching kids how to become professional ballplayers. On a final note, I believe baseball is actually GROWING in popularity outside the U.S.

 

[mantlecore77]

Baseball isn't a "dying" sport, I just think that it's lost all credibility due to steroids.

Exactly. I couldn't have said it better myself.