3 NBA playoff questions

Winner winner chicken dinner.

Chuck, the weakest part of your argument is saying the steroid scandal is going to drive fans away. Most fans DO NOT care. They boo Barry Bonds because he's a piece of shit, and Boston fans boo Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield because they're wearing Yankee uniforms (or were, in Sheffield's case). Fans love home runs.

Baseball is like everything else: A sausage factory (hey-o!!!). Fans don't want to know how it's made, they just want to be entertained. Has the concept of players dying for their craft driven people away from the NFL? Fuck no it's more popular than ever.

And as Bubbler said, the "no one's playing the game" argument is full of holes. I guess I missed the cancellation of the Little League World Series, or imagined all those extra youth leagues popping up in my hometown a decade ago, or imagined my former college roommate coaching a new senior league team for 16-to-18 year olds who didn't make any of the travel teams. I somehow missed that kids keep getting selected in the MLB draft and that all those independent leagues folded because nobody was playing the game.

 

1. The steriod problem is not a minor thing. It's a major problem. You can't just brush it off like that. When you have all these guys hitting 500+ during the steriod era, you got problems.
2. How could you say that the common fan has lost interest in the game because of the price of tickets when the league is having these records? And please, if you're gonna tell me that all these records are "fake", then what makes baseball's records right?
3. I'm not only talking about tarps buddy. Just look at the stands. Hell, you're own Brewers had some bad attendance days this year.
4. Kids do play baseball outside of the US in Latin America. But you have to be concerned about the number of kids playing here. It dosn't matter about color or skin or anything like that. You need to be popular here too. NBA(and basketball in general) definitely dosn't have that problem. And it's really growing outside of the US as well.


P.S. My "kids aren't playing" argument is not full of holes. Go around look in your neighborhood. Do you see the kids flocking to the baseball fields? No. They're out there playing pickup basketball and backyard football. Kids don't play baseball. It's not cool. It's not hip.
God I wish we had a time machine or something. I would looove to see how baseball would be doing in 20 years.

 

Chuck, we get it. You don't like baseball. We're not forcing it on you. But quit it with these strawman arguments.

Steroids are such a problem that fans are showing up at the park in record numbers. That's right: Your NBA isn't the only major league setting attendance records.

And the concept that baseball is dying among kids is asinine.

 

1. You can brush it off, and most fans do. And most teams do. And the commissioner does. The Black Sox scandal rocked baseball about 100x worse than this "scandal" ever has. We're nearly a decade past the Great Home Run Race and still not much has changed.

2) What records did he mention? I must've missed that ...

3) The Brewers' smallest home attendance this year was 15K for the Pirates on May 3. They've drawn 17K twice, against WAS and PIT, two of the worst teams in the league. ... Still, that's a sellout in a basketball arena. Your "small crowds" argument is relative.

4) Baseball is popular here. And there are kids playing here, millions of them. There's not really much to be concerned about. If fewer American-born minorities want to play, there's not much anyone can do to stop them. Baseball's not dying, and it never was.

 

I'm not saying you're forcing it on me. What I'm saying is that all this "baseball is perfect, and it will never die" idea is just wrong. Take it from me. I'm a kid. I've been to many places. When me and my friends(and cousins) went out to play, we never thought about baseball as an option. It was always football/basketball. Hell, I used to live in Chi-town(hooooooome of the Cubbies) when Sammy Sosa was big. Yeah sure, we all loved Sammy. But we never watched or played a game. Everyday after school, we played football and basketball until we collapsed in exhaustion. Baseball never crossed our minds. It's too hard to play baseball nowadays.

 

Baseball's not supposed to be easy. The hard ... the hard is what makes it great.

 

I'm talking about getting equipment to play.

 

Tom Hanks, Jimmy Dugan?

 

As for equipment, baseball ain't golf. If lack of access to good equipment was that much of a factor, you wouldn't have seen the explosion in Dominicans playing in MLB over the last decade or so.

 

Chuck, where did I ever say baseball was perfect?

For a guy who jumps my stuff for supposedly putting words in your mouth, you sure do put words in my mouth. Or on my screen.

So you and your friends don't like baseball means the sport is dead. OK then. I guess hockey is dead since my pals and I didn't play it growing up. (Oh wait it is!) Just because YOUR friends don't play it doesn't mean the sport is dead.

So you play pickup hoops or football more than baseball. Guess what? So did I. Just as it's easier to fill seats in an arena than a stadium, it's easier to find a handful of guys to play hoops or football than it is to find the 12 or so you'd need just to get a reasonable fascimilie of a baseball game. That's timeless. It doesn't mean baseball is dead. It's the same as it ever was.

 

1. So you don't think baseball is perfect? Alright, tell me what's wrong with baseball.

2. Did you hear what I said? I said baseball never crossed our minds. Not only did we not play it, we never watched or cared for it. And, like I said, I've been to many places. I have cousins scattered around the country. Now that I'm in college, I'm having more friends from different parts in the country.

 

Isn't it past your bedtime?