2018 MLB Season Thread (1 Viewer)

[Dennis Nicholls]

Agreed! Sadly however, the prospect of schools letting out early to catch an afternoon World Series game has long passed. The kids seem to be almost an afterthought, these days!

The kids are the future of baseball. If they can't watch games growing up, they won't watch them as paying adults. Ban night games.

 

[Mike Frezon]

The kids are the future of baseball. If they can't watch games growing up, they won't watch them as paying adults. Ban night games.

And yet the ultimate baseball of any season--the World Series--has start times after 8pm ET...knowing that with expanded TV breaks, etc that those games will easily go 3+ (if not 4+) hours long.

I forever repeat the story of putting my 7 year old son to bed during game 7 of the 1997 World Series. I had to score the game after he went to bed so that I could give him a complete play-by-play the following morning of how it ended (in 11 innings!).

 

[Tony Bensley]

The kids are the future of baseball. If they can't watch games growing up, they won't watch them as paying adults. Ban night games.

I can understand the heavy leaning towards night games revenue wise, but why not schedule at least one weekend World Series day game to encourage all ages family viewing? Also, on the larger TV revenue front, why on earth doesn't the World Series start on the weekends anymore? I'd think that scheduling was more lucrative as a 7 game series would cover two weekends, or am I missing something?

CHEERS!

 

[Malcolm R]

And yet the ultimate baseball of any season--the World Series--has start times after 8pm ET...knowing that with expanded TV breaks, etc that those games will easily go 3+ (if not 4+) hours long.

Heaven forbid we inconvenience the west coast viewers who may miss the beginning if the game were to start earlier. This also happens with prime time NFL.

I've never understood why it's more important for the west coast to see the start of the game than for the east coast to see the end? Isn't the end of every game the most important part? Why should the east coast have to be sleep deprived, or record for delayed viewing, if they want to watch the end?

 

[holtge]

Heaven forbid we inconvenience the west coast viewers who may miss the beginning if the game were to start earlier. This also happens with prime time NFL.

I've never understood why it's more important for the west coast to see the start of the game than for the east coast to see the end? Isn't the end of every game the most important part? Why should the east coast have to be sleep deprived, or record for delayed viewing, if they want to watch the end?

Ah, the age-old debate about start- and end-times for sporting events being broacast to multiple time zones. Honestly, as a kid (and even into my young adult years), I had no problem watching Atlanta Braves baseball games on WTBS, even though the start times for me (Mountain Standard Time) were two hours earlier than the Eastern Standard Time start. Sometimes, multiple rain delays would affect start times and progress through the games as well. But my family and I would watch those games -- whether they started at noon, 5:30, 7:30, or sometimes even 8:30 at night. Of course, that was many years ago. Braves baseball hasn't consistently aired on TBS for 20 years now. But I guess my point is that my love for Major League Baseball started for me at a young age because the games were on when and where I could watch them. There are too many channel choices/packages/events today to make watching a game as easy as it once was. Consequently, TV programmers have to air those games when they believe the majority of people will be watching. But I do miss my Atlanta Braves afternoon baseball...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I really could have done without Fox showing mini-commercials in between at-bats. That felt like crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed.

 

[TonyD]

I really could have done without Fox showing mini-commercials in between at-bats. That felt like crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed.

I’m seeing this all over sports now.

Was watching a basketball game last night and they did that during a free throw.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I’m seeing this all over sports now.

Was watching a basketball game last night and they did that during a free throw.

I'm fine with it if it reduces the number or even the time of commercial breaks.

 

[TonyD]

It isn’t.

These are happening during the actual games not in between innings or at timeouts.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm fine with it if it reduces the number or even the time of commercial breaks.

The problem is that it’s not. They’re just adding these in addition to the regular commercials, not instead of.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The problem is that it’s not. They’re just adding these in addition to the regular commercials, not instead of.

If so then it's a sports industry issue due to the high costs these networks are paying these sports leagues to broadcast their games. They have to recoup their monies by increasing advertising dollars. Fans have attached greed to just the players, but the owners are even more greedy as they keep on trying to increase their revenues. That's why advertising on uniforms has started here in America like it's been over in Europe. Even if you decrease the players salaries, ownership will continue to maximize profits to line their pockets even more so and ticket prices will continue to rise, not decrease. Everybody is greedy, the owners, the networks and the players. Nobody is innocent here.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I generally think the players are the least greedy of the parties. The players see how much is being made off of them and want a share of that - and I get that.

TV viewership is down across the board and while live sports is one of the better options for a network, they still don’t get the eyeballs that they used to. And people still delay slightly to fast forward commercials. This is probably a tactic to ensure that I can’t skip these commercials no matter what.

But what’s next? Individual sponsorship of each pitch?

 

[Robert Crawford]

It always amazes me that the common fan usually sides with the multi-billionaire owners over the millionaire players. Like that multi-billionaire is going to give them a break on ticket prices.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I wonder if that's just a side effect of the athlete salaries being so widely reported. The press spends the bulk of their time focusing on what players make and not on how much team owners and media outlets are profiting, so that's where the ire gets directed.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I wonder if that's just a side effect of the athlete salaries being so widely reported. The press spends the bulk of their time focusing on what players make and not on how much team owners and media outlets are profiting, so that's where the ire gets directed.

That's part of it with sports radio and media outlets. Also, I suspect some fan envy too.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I was actually thinking tonight that the commercial breaks between half-innings were WAY too long (besides those distracting "quick word from advertiser xyz" breaks. They just drag on and on...

 

[Osato]

I think for AAA that if it’s 2 nl teams they let the pitcher bat. If an AL team plays an NL team the DH is used. Host team does not matter.

I’m about 90% sure I am recalling this correctly.
I went to several Gwinnett Stripers games this season. Always have to check the spelling on this teams new name. Formally the Braves.

Good times!

Red Sox in 4 games!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

6 PM to 9:30 PM ….. good to be in Mountain Time.

So I say D
I say D-O,
D-O-D-G-E-are-S.
The team that's all heart,
All heart and all thumbs,
They're my Los Angeles, your Los Angeles,
Our Los Angeles...
Do you really think we'll win the series?
Bums!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I'd like to point commissioners Crawford, Frezon, et al to today's WSJ.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/our-insane-ideas-to-save-baseball-1540476969

The WSJ expounds on not just one but six crazy ideas to "save" baseball.

What's Our Worst Idea to Save Baseball?

A
Introduce hustle boards

B
Ban mound visits

C
Strike four!

D
Baseball stoppage time

E
Wheel of Fortune

F
Learn from Europe

G
They're all terrible

The learn-from-Europe twist is to demote each league's worst team to AAA status, and promote the best AAA team in each league to major-league status.

 

[David Norman]

I love the whole idea of starting at 8pm for the West coast crowd to be home. Seriously, for most std Office workers in the Bigger Cities how many of them can even get close to home by 5pm? Actually nice for the kids home from school though

OTOH with TIVO/DVR stuff it's easy enough to record it and play it Just Like Live and skip all the std commercials as long as you could keep people from telling you the result along the way. I used to do that all the time for afternoon Baseball or Football games when I'd have to work weekends or a 6am to Midnight day

The WSJ authors need to be drawn and quartered. Mostly baseball needs to saved from itself and leave it alone and stop trying to make it The X-Games Cool. Field of Dreams style -- Baseball makes people remember what it was like when ......