Major League Baseball, unlike its football counterpart, is a marathon not a sprint. But that marathon is finishing well past the point where anyone can remember summer. People aren't tuning in, and aren't getting excited about the pennant races.
SI.com's Tom Verducci wrote at the beginning of the month "for the second straight September, baseball offers the resistance of a lack of pennant races and national narratives." Verducci thinks there are too few teams competing for a just couple playoff spots come September. Why his fix is interesting, adding a second wild card entrant, there's a problem with his premise.
Baseball is taking too long to play its season.
Yes, most of the pennant races get wrapped up in mid-September (or earlier). But when some of the most meaningful games are being played this weekend, most people will be tuned into a slate of giant college football games (Stanford-Oregon, Alabama-Florida, Texas-Oklahoma those are off the top of my head).
The final weekend of baseball in October isn't buzz worthy enough in to keep sports fans collective conscious off pigskin. But if the League Championship Series' were wrapping up or the World Series starting, that would be another story.
August is prime real estate for baseball's pennant races and they need to capitalize on it. Cutting games, say eight, and playing double-headers could achieve this without taking much away from the rest of the season.
A finale coming in the second week of September means baseball could hold more interest and momentum as they play on the field for title, and compete on the screens for fans.
3 comments:
Baseball needs to do a lot to make it more interesting, sadly. Shorter season, a more competitive salary structure to help field more competitive teams, and more reasonably priced games so people can actually afford to be interested and go. Take a clue from the NBA - games need to be entertaining and a show if your team isn't competitive. When you spend your playoffs competing with the NFL, NHL and NBA all of whom are more competitive than MLB, baseball ends up the loser.
I still think they need to make the strike zone smaller -- forces the batters to hit more and make the game move along a lot faster. Love the game, but every sport seems to have updated except baseball.
Post a Comment