Are Changes Needed For Baseball

Last night was a classic Game 7 of the World Series with the San Francisco Giants winning 3-2 over the Kansas City Royals. It's unfortunate that many fans, like myself, weren't awake to see it. In Thursday's NY Daily News, Mike Lupica wrote an article about the beauty of baseball and how those saying that changes need to be made are off base. Well Mike, I disagree.

In Lupica's column, he talks about various World Series Game 7s. My first Yankee memory is Bobby Richardson snaring a line drive by Willie McCovey that sealed a 1-0 New York win in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series. By the way, that game was during the day. Sometime in the 80s and definitely in the 90s, few if any World Series games were played during the day. I wonder how many Giants and Royals fans at the age of 10 and under were able to stay up and watch that game? For a sport that's fan base is getting older and older, why wouldn't you at least have the weekend games during the day? There was a time when the World Series would pre-empt football coverage on NBC.

On TSN Drive on TSN 1050 out of Toronto, Dave Naylor reported that Game 7 of the 1985 World Series ended 45 minutes sooner than Game 7 this year and the score and number of hits are the same. Hitters constantly stepping out of the batters box to adjust their batting gloves or their batting helmet is a minutes eater and totally unnecessary. Three and a half to four hour 9 inning baseball games are a joke.  

While Bud Selig has made a ton of money for the owners, the long-term growth of the game simply is not there. There are fewer kids playing baseball. Fewer people under the age of forty are watching baseball. Incredibly long games and night playoff/World Series games is a recipe for not getting kids interested in baseball. The NFL gets it. The Super Bowl starts at 6:30. By 9:30 it's over and most youngsters are able to watch it as are 50-somethings like me. 

I love baseball. As a kid, I played every day whether in Little League or in pick up games. My brother and I would play catch, pretending we were star pitchers like Don Drysdale, Juan Marichal or Luis Tiant. As I got older I played softball 3-4 games a week. This was my game. But most people under 40 don't have that same type of passion. 

If baseball wants to get younger people interested in the game they need to do the following:

- Play at least weekend World Series and playoff games during the day. These are your signature games where memories are made so play them when the majority of people can watch them.

- Have nationally televised Sunday baseball games on ESPN start at 7pm. Once again an hour earlier start ensures that young kids will be able to watch. It will also allow younger families to come to the ball park and come home before 11:30 or 12 midnight.

- Have umpires direct both batters and pitchers to keep the game moving by restricting the amount of time between pitches due to the adjustment of equipment.

- With respect to replay, eliminate the need for a manager to come out and stall while someone reviews the instant replay to see if there should be a challenge. The only way to do that is give the manager more challenges or restrict challenges only to the latter innings. 

Unless baseball acknowledges that it has a problem, they will continue to lose fans. Maybe with a new Commissioner there is a chance for meaningful change. Absent that, baseball may go the way of the Studebaker. For anyone under 50, that was a car back in the early 60s.