I just turned on my computer this morning to find out that the Giants won the World Series.
And…
I don't care.
Unfortunately for Major League Baseball, neither does anyone else outside of San Francisco and Arlington/Dallas.
For me, baseball season has been over since July because I'm a Mets fan. But I would have watched the World Series if the Yankees or Phillies were playing. Shoot, even the Rays.
As a sport, baseball has been struggling to maintain a solid fan base in recent years. The game is slow; it's not as exciting as basketball, nor is it as violent as football. Where's the draw?
There isn't one. So when the only teams that bring in viewership, like the Red Sox or Cubs, aren't playing, nobody is interested.
For the most part, baseball franchises have regional fan bases. You can count on a single hand how many teams have fans outside of their home city. So when you have two teams with small fan bases - like the Rangers and Giants - playing on the game's biggest stage, the game is only hurting itself.
Personally, I can watch any NBA playoff game regardless of the teams. I will watch any NFL game, even if the Bills are playing. But baseball just doesn't do enough for me if it's not a relevant team playing.
Baseball needs to fix this problem immediately, or the game I grew up with will be gone forever.
I don't care if you break all morals to do it, get it done. Fix games, allow steroids, or let players fight. I don't know, anything to fix this problem.
Baseball was at its peak when Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds were chasing home run records. Sure, a lot of people hated Bonds, but he was interesting enough to pay attention to.
When you take steroids out of the game and make pitching more relevant, you end up with a boring team from somewhere in California winning the World Series.
Matter of fact, why not make steroids mandatory? I'd like to see a powerhouse Yankee lineup rip through a mediocre pitching staff.
There are people that believe in an NBA conspiracy. They think the league is trying to make the game more appealing to the fans through various methods. The NBA draft lottery has been suspected of favoring certain teams. Also there has been talk of the NBA giving their referees agendas to get more favorable playoff match-ups. What's up, Tim Donaghy?
I don't believe it. But even if it's true, I don't really care. The NBA did what they had to do to make the league more appealing to the target audience.
People have to remember, sports are a business. It's entertainment; these leagues are competing with everything else on TV to get ratings.
Not only is baseball struggling to get fans to watch on TV, they are having trouble getting fans to come to the ballpark. You've got to love paying $70 for upper-deck seats at Citi Field to watch the miserable Mets.
Don't get me wrong, I love baseball. Maybe saying they need to make steroids mandatory is a little ridiculous.
But baseball needs to stop living in the past. Nobody cares about what happened in the 1930s.
