Is baseball becoming more despised and why? (golf, draft, uniform)

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by JazzyTallGuy

Young people live in the world if instant gratification and they feel the need to be constantly excited and titillated by the media.

BASEBALL DOES NOT PROVIDE THAT!

You shouldn't be surprised that younger people are no longer interested in baseball. Also baseball is usually something that you develop a love for at a young age that usually stays with you for life. It is something that is usually introduce to a youngster BY THEIR FATHER. In a nation with more single parent homes headed by women WHO INTRODUCES KIDS TO BASEBALL?

NOBODY!

Interesting you mention fathers. My father got me into baseball when I was 10. He got my brother into baseball. However, my brother was more of the athlete. than me. He is currently playing baseball at a private college. I am still watching baseball to this day.

However, I know many people who have fathers and don't like baseball.


Maybe I could understand the culture of instant gratification. I know many people who can't sit and watch baseball. I can sit and watch a baseball game, and just kick back and have a steak.

[NewToCA]

Baseball doesn't have the explosive actions fans look for in a sport today.

Look at the highlights of any sports show, it will show basketball dunks (usually with over-the-top player theatrics after the dunk) and jarring NFL hits (again with player theatrics). Baseball doesn't feature this, and a lot of kids growing up today just view it as boring.

[expect]

Originally Posted by green_mariner

I am a baseball fan. I have been a baseball fan since the 90's. Despite never having been to a World Series, I still root for the Mariners. I like soccer as well. However, I am noticing, that baseball is becoming more and more disliked. I am finding this attitude among the young people, American and foreign alike. What is it about baseball that more and more people are not liking?

im not from seattle but i've watched the mariners play in seattle.. in a meaningless game against the reds in 2010.. and the stadium was PACKED. so i dont know exactly what you're basing this on. the atmosphere was one of the best i've ever experienced at a baseball game too.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by expect

im not from seattle but i've watched the mariners play in seattle.. in a meaningless game against the reds in 2010.. and the stadium was PACKED. so i dont know exactly what you're basing this on. the atmosphere was one of the best i've ever experienced at a baseball game too.

That was because you were among people at the stadium. I haven't been to a baseball stadium in years. What I experience is limited to what I get on a college campus. Today, last night I was at Taco Mac. I was watching a baseball game. Everyone else was more interesting in watching college basketball.

[Ridgerunner]

Originally Posted by green_mariner

That was because you were among people at the stadium. I haven't been to a baseball stadium in years. What I experience is limited to what I get on a college campus. Today, last night I was at Taco Mac. I was watching a baseball game. Everyone else was more interesting in watching college basketball.

Of course they were. It was a national championship game.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Ridgerunner

Of course they were. It was a national championship game.

I was busy watching a baseball game. I watch baseball, soccer, and hockey. I don't watch basketball. I was all too happy for baseball season to begin.

[John23]

I think you have to figure out why baseball was so popular from 1900 to 1950 or 1970.

-I think there was a lot of psychology involved. The country evolved/prospered from the 1800's. Got more industrialized. People had more money and disposable income. How many people had disposable income in 1840 or 1860 to see a baseball game (if it had been invented and organized). Not very many.

There were advanced in medicine. More leisure time. The world moved away from an agriculturally based society, and got more industrialized. You could sit around with a newspaper, radio. I don't know the history of refrigerators, but there were a lot of changes from 1900 to 1930, 1940.

I think baseball had such a jump on football and basketball, it was like the leader captured 90% of the market by 1940, 1950. Plus the lack of TV.

-Plus it was more of a heartland sport...i.e. Field of Dreams, Mickey Mantle, etc.

I think cable benefited other sports more than baseball. Esp football, basketball.

TV has made football so big because it has a young audience.

-I think football has out marketed them since 1970 or 1980. The superbowl use to be just a regular game. Now it's $2 million for an advertisement. Why didn't the World Series get that? And college has done well promoting things...i.e. march madness.

[green_mariner]

I was talking to some friends of mine last night. One of them told me that baseball requires a time commitment. Maybe it's the instant gratification culture, as someone else mentioned. I get the game. I've played it. For me, baseball is more than a game. It's an art. One has to want to sit and watch for a long time in order to get it.

[Ridgerunner]

Originally Posted by green_mariner

I was busy watching a baseball game. I watch baseball, soccer, and hockey. I don't watch basketball. I was all too happy for baseball season to begin.

Baseball is my favorite sport, but on the night you're referring to I chose the Kentucky-Kansas title game over a meaningless exhibition baseball game. I would have also chosen it over a regular season game unless the Yankees were involved.

[Georgiafrog]

Originally Posted by jtur88

Baseball transcends mere sport -- it is the essence of the universe. But baseball has been taken over by an administrative construct, which has dragged it back down beyond mere sport and into oligarchy economics.

Beginning right at the Little Leagues level. No longer do kids play ball spontaneously on any suitable space, adjusting the rules to suit the conditions of play. They now have to be driven there in Mommy's minivan, in uniforms supplied by an insurance agent, wearing batting helmets, with umpires paid out of municipal recreation funds.

Baseball is the most conspicuous casualty of an era in which parents are afraid to let kids play outdoors, so they've become addicted to their video games and texting socialization, so that now baseball intrudes in their lives, rather than enriching it.

This is one of the best posts I have ever read on CD.