OC Register: Alexander: MLB moves ever closer to irrelevance

[Stradling]

10 minutes ago, floplag said:

Do they though?  i mean there are like 5 plans of varying lengths that all seem mostly acceptable but the pay.  Seems to me the real issues is the money, not the schedule.

Yes the real issue is money, which isn’t an issue with the other leagues.  

[Inside Pitch]

Some astrophysics person recently broke down each of the owners recent offers and basically mathed it all out....  Basically, ownership's offers are the bargaining equivalent of Nickleback songs....   The words are all rearranged and the numbers moved around but the results are basically identical.  It's really quite humorous.

The CBA fight is gonna be entertaining.

[Duren, Duren]

Video games have shaped how the last few generations of young fans see the sport. Exciting graphics and sounds, exaggerated swings, throws, fielding plays and even facial expressions. 

There starts to be a disconnect between the reality and the simulation. And the reality of baseball is so much deeper and more subtle than represented in pixels. Real intelligence that can only be weakly represented by the limited algorithms of the AI engines found in graphic intensive games. 

Certainly not the only reason, but one of the factors why real live baseball is considered boring by successive generations. 

And don't discount the way the homerun contest at the all star game is intended to emulate the video game model. Fine for what it is, but also a false front to attract younger demographics.

The current philosophy of home run versus strikeout also seems to be a way of trying to bring artificial excitement to the game. In essence, each at bat is reduced to two players trying to outpower each other. Homer or strikeout. Fielding and baserunning become secondary parts of the play when neither hitter or pitcher dominates each other. 

Probably one day human players will be irrelevant. Simulations with state of the art AI and graphics will replace real players. And be broadcast/streamed. We're already getting a glimpse of it in road and horse racing. 

 

[Lou]

2 minutes ago, Duren, Duren said:

Video games have shaped how the last few generations of young fans see the sport

Huh?

[Inside Pitch]

55 minutes ago, Lou said:

Huh?

Allow me....

[yk9001]

Owners and players have squabbled over their money as long as I can remember.  Who gives a fuck any more.

Don't tell me about the labor pains.  Just show me the baby.  Or fuck off as a sport.

[Inside Pitch]

Jokes aside I agree MLB has been hurt by trying to appeal to the style over substance crowd.

[yk9001]

"vigorous wanking motion"

From late March

[Claude]

2 minutes ago, Randy Gradishar said:

I don't think there's much you can do within the game that would affect popularity. Roundball, soccer, and football have all gotten worse over time and yet more popular. It's interesting that every sport is getting worse, actually (maybe not darts).

If you want to make baseball popular again, play once a week, put 22 guys out there, and have them run towards one side of the field while everyone tries to tackle the guy with the ball. Limiting pitching changes isn't going to make little Billy reexamine his life.

Says the Steelers fan. 

[Lou]

8 minutes ago, yk9001 said:

"vigorous wanking motion"

From late March

Yay! 

[Tank]

7 hours ago, Randy Gradishar said:

Why are they waiting until August, though? Just do Lakers-Clippers next week, then Bucks, and get out of 2020.

the nba is trying to play all games in Orlando, Florida as they have the facilities at Disney's wide world of sports plus plenty of hotel rooms. I think the plan is four games for each team involved (kind of like practice games) and then go straight to the playoffs. the playoffs would end by October 31 and the new season would begin in December.

if they do this, I hope it'll get the NHL and NBA off the same time cycle, which I think helps the NHL quite a bit.

[Lou]

11 minutes ago, Tank said:

I think the plan is four games for each team involved 

I believe it's 8 games 

[Tank]

28 minutes ago, Lou said:

I believe it's 8 games 

well I believe it's 4!

looks like we're at loggerheads.

[Lou]

4 minutes ago, Tank said:

well I believe it's 4!

looks like we're at loggerheads.

It's 8.

 

 

Dummy. 

[Tank]

45 minutes ago, Lou said:

It's 8.

 

 

Dummy. 

when Lebron and I had lunch together last week, it was still 4.

 

peasant.

[Lou]

4 minutes ago, Tank said:

when Lebron and I had lunch together last week, it was still 4.

 

peasant.

Last week?

Keep up, Pujols. 

[Tank]

6 minutes ago, Lou said:

Last week?

Keep up, Pujols. 

wait, did you just call me a first-ballot hall of famer? 

I'll take it.

[Lou]

14 minutes ago, Tank said:

wait, did you just call me a first-ballot hall of famer? 

I'll take it.

Carlos Pujols 

[T.G.]

42 minutes ago, Tank said:

when Lebron and I had lunch together last week, it was still 4.4.l

I haven't seen tank play the lunch card in weeks...months...

Maybe things are finally getting back to normal after all. 

[yk9001]

20 hours ago, Stradling said:

Yea, personally, I don’t think I care about whether other people find baseball to be irrelevant.

I understand that line of thinking and in many ways agree with it.  

But as baseball continues to slide their way down the pecking order, there are negatives to it.  They don't attract most of the best athletes any more.  For every Mike Trout and Aaron Judge, football and basketball has those by the score.

And when you are further down the pecking order, your tv product isn't as valuable.  Passan says the owners know the regular season has to be done by September 27.  Because playoffs have to be done in October in their current windows.  Why? - because the networks don't want the baseball playoff product anywhere else.  

The NBA finals are switching from June to October - ABC said bring it on.  The NFL could put the super bowl on literally any time and any date on the calendar, and the networks would fight for it.

[yk9001]

Another league has their shit together

 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/major-league-soccer/story/4108957/mls-is-back-tournament-to-kick-off-on-july-8-in-orlando

[Lou]

I bet tv ratings are up this year.

[yk9001]

1 hour ago, Lou said:

I bet tv ratings are up this year.

You know when they would be up?  Fucking right now.

You know when they aren't going to be up?  Later, when they are competing for eyeballs with every goddamn sport under the sun.

[Stradling]

They’ll still be up. 

[Lou]

6 minutes ago, yk9001 said:

You know when they would be up?  Fucking right now.

You know when they aren't going to be up?  Later, when they are competing for eyeballs with every goddamn sport under the sun.

They'll still be up this year.