What is the Point of Playing in the Rain?

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

You do not know much about college football. Many college programs were around a lot longer than any pro sport in this country.

Not correct. No college football programs were around a lot longer than professional baseball.

First college football game ever played (which more closely resembled rugby):

Rutgers College (which became Rutgers University) VS. The College of New Jersey (which became Princeton)

November 6, 1869

First established professional baseball category within the National Association of Base Ball Players:

1869

First complete Nine professional baseball club: The Cincinatti Red Stockings:

Formed March 15, 1869.

[UMP25]

Steve, you can continue this conversation. I'm done talking to a wall.

I never said other sports have absolutely no allure or charm; rather, I said no other sport has the allure, charm, and nostalgia that baseball has. This simply is fact based not on my personal opinion--Lord knows baseball has its problems--but is based on the totality of Baseball and its longtime place in American history. Movies, books, stories, trading cards, pickup games, father/son relationships, its lingo and insertion into everyday lexicon, etc., etc. Football, college or pro, doesn't have this. Basketball doesn't have this. And soccer, arguably the world's most "popular" sport, doesn't have it--at all.

Baseball was and is.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by UMP25

Steve, you can continue this conversation. I'm done talking to a wall.

I never said other sports have absolutely no allure or charm; rather, I said no other sport has the allure, charm, and nostalgia that baseball has. This simply is fact based not on my personal opinion

Well the fact is that MLB Playoffs did not get an audience to watch their sport over a regular season NFL game with both teams from small markets and one of the teams without a win. That is a fact, not a personal opinion. And the rating for the showcase of the sport has been abysmal over several years. Even when the Red Sox won the World Series, the ratings were terrible and that featured another "great baseball town" in that championship run. If all you can get is high ratings when one franchise in New York is playing, the sport has some serious marketing issues.

Originally Posted by UMP25

--Lord knows baseball has its problems--but is based on the totality of Baseball and its longtime place in American history. Movies, books, stories, trading cards, pickup games, father/son relationships, its lingo and insertion into everyday lexicon, etc., etc. Football, college or pro, doesn't have this. Basketball doesn't have this. And soccer, arguably the world's most "popular" sport, doesn't have it--at all.

Baseball was and is.

The facts are also that at the HS level, it is the 4th on the list of popularity. And I see more kids bouncing around a ball that is twice their size than I ever see a two kids throwing around a baseball with gloves in hands. There are more Michael Jordan fans with the man retired than there is of any retired baseball player. And the fact is that Jordan can show up to a HS game and they have to shut the place down to allow him to watch his son's play basketball. Billy Williams can do the very same thing with his Grandson and the man can watch the game in peace. Those are facts too.

Now I loved having this conversation because it is like talking around the bar about which team is better and why. These kinds of debates are what make sports fun and very enjoyable most of the time. Watching the actual games is only part of the fun.

But to act like facts are only based on "Well they wrote more books" is kind of silly to me. Hockey has a lot of history and passion but look where that sport is today. They played their games on a network that no one could find on most cable stations. Even the NFL Hall of Fame presentations are watched more than what MLB does during their presentation. So if they are so special, the general public is not watching and they are not as captivated as you are. Oh, did I mention that NFL Pre-season games that play on National TV also have higher ratings than anything MLB does during that same time. Of course people in those local areas might care, but I do not see Network TV trying to cover the great Sox and Yankees pre-season battle. Fox, CBS and NBC put the NFL on Primetime TV during the pre-season. I guess you have to have nostalgia to not make network TV during games that do not count.

Peace

[UMP25]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Well the fact is that MLB Playoffs did not get an audience to watch their sport over a regular season NFL game with both teams from small markets and one of the teams without a win.

It's pointless reiterating something for the umpteenth time when you lack the ability to understand numbers. The Super Bowl is one single event marketed to the hilt. It's shown on a Sunday night--the single biggest prime time of the week. The World Series is shown on from 4 to 7 nights, only one of which can possibly even be a Sunday.

When you go shopping, you really DO have a hard time distinguishing between apples and oranges, don't you?

The facts are also that at the HS level, it is the 4th on the list of popularity.

Again, a statement skewn by numbers. Math wasn't your best subject was it? Jeesh!

Oh, did I mention that NFL Pre-season games that play on National TV also have higher ratings than anything MLB does during that same time.

That is really a stupid comment that is borne of a lack of knowledge and logic. Seriously. It's been explained multiple times here. You exhibit poor logic in reaching a false conclusion. Think about that and you might realize why. You don't get it; you just don't get it.

My 8-year-old niece could better understand things.

As would a wall.

[JRutledge]

The bottom line is the public does not care about baseball as much as they do with other sports in this country. And some pie in the sky fantasy about some movie and what some player there is no film on is not going to change that. That is why there is more successful programming with the NFL and the NBA than there is currently with MLB. Maybe that will change one day, but not today. For the record, the NBA plays fewer games and their season is much longer from start to finish in months, and they get decent ratings for summer league ball. Let it go, baseball is not as relevant as it once was. I can accept it, you can too.

Peace

[jimpiano]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

The bottom line is the public does not care about baseball as much as they do with other sports in this country. And some pie in the sky fantasy about some movie and what some player there is no film on is not going to change that. That is why there is more successful programming with the NFL and the NBA than there is currently with MLB. Maybe that will change one day, but not today. For the record, the NBA plays fewer games and their season is much longer from start to finish in months, and they get decent ratings for summer league ball. Let it go, baseball is not as relevant as it once was. I can accept it, you can too.

Peace

Excuse me but your facts are wrong.


Baseball beats the NBA in regular season ratings.
And Baseball KILLED the NBA in post season last year.
BASEBALL 11 rating for the World Series
NBA 6.5 for the Finals.

You can, as they say, look it up.

[Publius]

Randy:

I laugh to myself in amusement, or shake my head in bewilderment at the irony every time somebody demands the channel be changed to football or basketball because “baseball is boring”. All three have allure, but the former two are gaining more. The trend mirrors the general dumbing down of American society. Baseball will continue to lose popularity because the masses have too short an attention span to pay sufficient attention to the subtlety of baseball to ever gain an understanding sufficient to develop an appreciation of it

Basketball and football are hip-hop, slam dancing and graffiti, the dime novel. They are power and speed, the awe what is possible by the physically extraordinary among us.

Baseball is the symphony, ballet and sculpture, poetry. It is finesse, the awe of what is possible by the physically ordinary among us.

In football, two-way play is unusual. In basketball, it’s optional. In baseball, it’s (generally) required. It takes two extraordinarily different skill sets to play offense and defense. You can spend ten years in the minors developing and still get a crack at the bigs. The others write you off if you haven’t made it by age 25. Make that 21 in basketball. Baseball doesn’t require stamina for a game, but it does for a season.

Football and basketball allow you to redeem your failures on the next snap, or the next trip down the court. In baseball, you have to wait two or three innings for your shot at atonement. In baseball, a 35% success rate gets you to Cooperstown; in the others, a 40% success rate gets you an unemployment check.

Baseball doesn’t allow a clock to run out your chance to come back. There is no taking a knee in baseball. There is no partial credit. There are no field goal attempts if you are stranded at third, no free throws if a hard knock keeps you from crossing the plate. It’s one run at a time, and that’s the only way to win.

Rut is right—appreciation of baseball is dying. A pity, but given a “culture” that demands instant gratification and eschews lifetime achievement for fifteen minutes of fame, what else would you expect?

Baseball is Augustus; football and basketball are Nero.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by jimpiano

Excuse me but your facts are wrong.


Baseball beats the NBA in regular season ratings.
And Baseball KILLED the NBA in post season last year.
BASEBALL 11 rating for the World Series
NBA 6.5 for the Finals.

You can, as they say, look it up.

I was referring to head to head comparisons. And unless you have some facts that showed that any national broadcast the NBA was outdone by some national broadcast, I stand by everything I said.

But for some reason if you reference participation numbers, those cannot be accepted even thought I bet most schools that offer a basketball program, offer a baseball program. I bet someone will claim that is not accurate either without any numbers to back that up.

Peace