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Analytics and the decline of Baseball's popularity?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by qtlaw, Mar 12, 2019.

  1. Regan MacNeil

    Regan MacNeil Well-Known Member

    So are the Cardinals' numbers. Just look at pictures of "Bush" Stadium during games.
     
  2. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    But I see five million fans lost over the last six years. Again, people can make the numbers work for whatever their needs are. But I think if the overall number drops by more than 1 million again this season, MLB should be concerned. At some point they have to stop micro-analyzing the numbers (it snowed in Minnesota for the opening series again!) and recognize there's an issue.
     
  3. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    I’m not sure looking at that Forbes list, but it’s distinction without a difference.
     
  4. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    If they get normal weather this season and drop further, then, yeah, there’s reason for concern. But as of right now, we’re looking at a single season drop that can likely be largely blamed on record bad weather. It’s an outlier in a 20-year run of stability.
     
  5. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    I think the biggest problem is the drop of balls in play.

    You could take my 10-item list and just institute No. 1, 2-foot longer pitch distance, and my guess is that would significantly increase balls in play.

    All the other stuff is just micro tweaking.
     
  6. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    What if you go back to roster limits on pitchers - go back to the 15-day DL, make it harder for teams to rotate pitchers on or off their rosters. I think that is one of the bigger changes - teams using a lot more pitchers per game and per season.
     
  7. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Well, the proliferation of mid-inning pitching changes and 1-2 batter platoon specialists has probably knocked balls in play down a bit, as well as dragging out games time-wise.
     
  8. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    I was listening to a A's-Rangers game last summer and Eric Nadel made the comment that a full hour had passed before a ball was put in play.
    Not good for business.
     
  9. cyclingwriter2

    cyclingwriter2 Well-Known Member

    Dog8Cats likes this.
  10. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    It’s the lack of kids playing little league. Young kids and their parents/family don’t care about balls in play when deciding whether to go to a game and follow the sport. Kids want to watch what they play. Spring sports as a kid in the 60-70s was little league baseball. In the 80s and 90s more soccer, but still little league. Now there is lots of soccer and lacrosse. Travel Basketball is all year.
    Kids don’t play baseball as much anymore.
     
  11. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Kids don't play basketball that much anymore, either.

    Yeah sure, travel basketball has exploded the last several decades, but that's still a tiny minority of kids overall. Basically if kids aren't on a travel team, they don't play a sport at all anymore.
     
  12. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    That’s sad. In elementary school and jr high we would play football, tackle and no equipment. 5 or 6 to a side. 3 on 3 basketball outside at the outdoor basketball courts at schools. Sometime we had enough to play full court. Street hockey too. There was some rec basketball but the only real organized sport was little league and most of the boys in town would play.
    Middle class New Jersey, it was the same all over. Every kid had a glove a baseball. A basketball. And a basketball. A street hockey stick, plastic blade that you curved.

    I have a 15 year old nephew that does crew. No other sport. And his 11 year old is travel soccer. Nothing else.

    I guess that’s the demise of childhood in America
     
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