Sigh...Another baseball strike? (1 Viewer)

[Dave Poehlman]

None of this would be happening if Bud Selig were alive today.

Man, the Brewers are busy stinking up their new stadium.. I don't think this town would even know if there was a strike.
Baseball: you get paid millions of dollars to go stand in a park and you don't even have to work when it rains!!

 

[Dennis Reno]

Besides, we've been without a major league team in Detroit for many years now.

Sad but true Scott, but I don't think anyone really cares around here!
[rant on]
As for the players and owners, let 'em strike. What the hell do they have to strike over???
I loathe MLB and its 3+ hour games, ever-changing strike zone and its multi-million dollar crybabies. Watch MLB? "Not if you tied my tongue to your tail-pipe and drove me eighty miles-an-hour naked across a field of broken glass." I'd rather watch kids playing the game for the love of it, work in my yard or simply lounge around and watch the grass grow. I'd much rather watch a good movie!
I'm proud to say that I haven't attended a MLB game in years nor have I watched more than ten pitches in any season. IMO anyone who does shouldn't bitch about what is going on.
[/rant off]

 

[Richard Travale]

Of course there's a strike, the Expos are playing well.

 

[John Thomas]

There's got to be some sort of restructuring; I'm sorry to all the kooks out there, but I don't buy into the whole "the Yankees win because of supernatural forces" idea. It's money, plain and simple. They're big market, many other teams are small market and with the way baseball's going, it benefits the big-market teams substantially more so than the small markets.

MLB is my favorite sport overall and a strike would only make me despise those who called for it. I certainly wouldn't ever attend another game and probably not watch it on television again. There are some changes that need to be made but the strike isn't about -those- changes.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Amen, Dennis. I used to attend about a dozen Tiger games a year, and would watch a lot more Tiger games on television. Now, I have not been to a game since 1993, nor have I watched one on TV since the '94 strike. Between the ridiculous financial structure of the league, the Detroit owner's disinterest in spending any money to field a real team, and the continuing lengthening of average game times, I have absolutely zero interest in MLB anymore. I do not think I could name one player on Detroit's roster, and I used to be able to rattle off the individual stats of most of the team regulars back in the '70's and '80's.

By looking at the attendance figures in Detroit, I think the rest of this area must feel the same way.

 

[LarryDavenport]

But Scott, unless people in Detroit go to games, which creates revenues, the Tigers can't put a winning team on the field.

I think if contraction is not the answer, then some teams should pick up and move. The Expos might be better off in Vancouver, BC or Buffalo. Milwaukee proves that just because you build a new ballpark, if your team sucks, no one will want to watch. And Texas fans know that just because you go out and spend a butt load of cash to get a bunch of homerun hitters, if your pitching sucks and you lose games, there are a lot better ways to spend your sunny days (like playing baseball yourself).

Florida bitched for years and tried to woo teams to move down there (including the Mariners). Now they have two teams, neither of which Floridians have shown much interest in. Even Oakland, who has a really good team despite a relatively low payroll, doesn't sell out games, even when their team is in first place (I had no problem getting playoff tickets the last time I visited).

ESPN said last night that if a strike were to happen, it will probably start on October 1st, the beginning of the playoffs. There is also talk of players boycotting the All-Star game.

The players and owners have to get together this time. Another World Series lost to a strike will kill baseball! Perhaps the answer is some sort of across the board profit sharing.

 

[JonZ]

Add me to the list of people who gave up after the last strike.I USED TO LOVE baseball.

I just dont get it - its a dream to play baseball for a living. What I wouldnt give to do what they do. 25 MIL?!?!?!?!

Hell,Id do it for $200,000 a year(much less even, its WAY more than I make now)

And its the fans they screw when they strike.

Money needs to go into schools not stadiums.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Another strike, at the very least, will result in a dramatic overhaul of baseball's structure. Given the declining attendence, plunging ratings, soaring salaries, our post-Sept. 11 perspective, the nonsense of interleague regular-season play, Major League Baseball as we know it will not survive. The game will, in some way, but not under its present auspices.

Time to return the game to its pre-1968 purity: 15-inch-high pitching mounds, no designated-hitter rule in the AL, and maybe even revert back to the pre-1962 schedule of 154 regular-season games.

If there is another strike, baseball as it is organized now deserves to die. It's MLB that's striking out big time.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

But Scott, unless people in Detroit go to games, which creates revenues, the Tigers can't put a winning team on the field.

Larry,

The drop in attendance at Tiger games began after Illitch purchased the team and refused to put any money into it. He was using the tactic as leverage to get the taxpayers to build him a new stadium, claiming that he would then put money into building a competitive team. However, once the taxpayers paid for his new ballpark, Illitch failed to live up to his part of the bargain. Fans showed up for the first season at new Comerica Park, but are once again deserting a team that is really a minor league organization, both in finances and talent.

Of course, since Illitch also owns the Red Wings, he gets a lot less criticism than he deserves over this. The Red Wings are the town darlings, and their success overshadows Illitch's dismal failure with the Tigers.

 

[LarryDavenport]

I feel your pain Scott. Until Nintendo bought a huge chunk of the M's, Seattle had terrible ownership and a terrible GM (Woody Woodward). Since Nintendo was willing to shell out bucks for talent (including GM Pat Gillick) we've been winners ever since. Without our present ownership, we wouldn't have as many fans despite our nice new taxpayer funded ball park.

Though I don't follow the politics or stats of other teams like I do the M's, I think the Red Sox seemed to have similiar problems with lousy owners. Maybe Jason Seaver or another Sox fan can chime in here, but I think a big part of Boston's current success is that the new owners got rid of the GM (Brian Cashman I think) and getting rid of Carl Everett might have been the best move they ever did.

Chemistry is highly underated!

 

[Phil L]

The fired Red Sox GM was Dan Duquette (sp?). Brian Cashman is the Yankee GM.

 

[Jed M]

I love these people who believe that if fans in Kansas City and Detroit would just go to games everything would be OK. Sure... I got an idea, why don't you go see Jason X? Sure it sucks and it is not going to get better even if 100 trillion people see it, but I like to give my money away. I was in NYC last summer and these people actually think baseball is fair. What??? If new yorkers actually believe this then it is scary for MLB. I know the Yankees have always won, but anyone who is a true fan of the game and has been for a while knows that this is different. In fact if you wanted to find another time in baseball to compare our time to, I would say about 1880, because there were only about 5 teams. And last but not least, people who give the, "well look at the twins and A's" excuse need to be informed that there are eight playoff teams. When you have six teams that spend 80+ million dollars, and two of them who are worthless, somebody needs to fill the extra spots. Those people please get back to me when someone under 80 million actually makes the WS. And, no, spending money does not guarantee winning, I'm not dumb, but I am smart enough to know that by not spending money you will never win. Make the playoffs, sure, someone has to. Win? Nope.
Sorry about this but I used to be one of the biggest baseball fans out there. The last six years have really turned me to football and college sports. I guess I see the major difference between the other major sports and baseball is that the 87 football strike and the mid 90's basketball and Hockey strikes all produced changes that made the game more competitive. The baseball strike has actually worsened the game. Fans can forgive a sport for striking if it actually was for the better, but I don't know anyone outside of some nuts Yankees or Arizona fan that believes MLB has improved since 1994. If they strike again, why would anyone believe it will be different this time? I think some people are grossly overestimating the intelligence in baseball.
Sorry but I had to vent. This subject really gets me going as you can tell.

 

[Ashley Seymour]

I loved baseball as a kid and still do, but sadly my viewing and interest wane a bit every year. Baseball is still the most conservative sport when it comes to change, juiced balls, now parks expansion, contraciton, strike zone, not withstanding. Another work stopage though will probably start a radicalization in the sport.

The owners want realignment to cut down on travel costs and have a more sensible TV schedule. But that will still only help the strong teams and give chump change to the small market guys.

Here is a realignment that may give the owners pause.

AL two six team divisions

NL two six team divisions total 24 teams

$$ league 8 teams (yes I know-expansion)

The teams in the $$ earn their way in by having the highest payroll on a two year moving average and are in the league for two years.

So now the Yankees every year have to go head to head with seven other teams just as profligant. The 8th highest spending team can continue to spend with the hope of moving up or cut back and be replaced by a nouveau riche team from the AL or NL that moves in to take the spot.

The AL & NL play a league championship series after a 154 game season, and then meet the $$ League champs -who play 162 games for only one spot - for the World Series.

Who does it help more, the players or the owners? My first guess would be the owners. The AL AND NL teams would be competing for their championships with drastically reduced payrolls and little incentive to pay much more unless they wanted to move over to the $$ League, which probably draws a lot of fans and has lucrative TV contracts.

Stupid idea? Unrealistic? Yup. But we are about to hear a lot worse over the rest of the season

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Another example of how little interest there is in baseball in the Detroit area -- coverage of last night's Tiger game was on page 8 of today's Detroit News sports section. This would never happen for a Red Wings, Lions, Michigan football or MSU football game -- those teams always get the front page for coverage of games. The Pistons were off the front page of the sports section on occasion, but this never happened to the Tigers in "the old days". Now, it's a common occurrence.

 

[Dennis Reno]

Scott - you mean they actually reported on a Tigers game??? They must be trying to make people ill!

 

[Mark Kalzer]

Of course, Detroit has an NHL team in the final four. The same situation is here in Toronto. Original six teams, pretty much the hockey capitals of our respective nations. Everyone's all hyped up about the hockey playoffs. Of course the baseballs teams are going to get little attention. I read an article where at a Blue Jays game which had an attendence around 12,000, a lot of the fans were wearing headsets tuned into the hockey game, and the whole crowd cheered whenever the Leafs scored. The baseball players all though the cheers were directed at them. (Like it's never happened before...)