MLB Off-Topic

[Speedy]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

The 30-for-30 about McGwire/Sosa is getting creamed on social media and various news outlets.

I do remember as a kid watching #62 on TV, it was such a big deal and so cool to watch the Cubs celebrate him around the bases and the stuff after he hit home plate.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Operation Sports mobile app

[stlducks]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

The 30-for-30 about McGwire/Sosa is getting creamed on social media and various news outlets.

I do remember as a kid watching #62 on TV, it was such a big deal and so cool to watch the Cubs celebrate him around the bases and the stuff after he hit home plate.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Operation Sports mobile app

People love to look back and talk negatively about the past. It is the latest trend of 2020.

[Blzer]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I think the popularity of baseball is going down but I do not think it is entirely MLB's fault. Some of the rule changes are terrible but the world is changing and people do not have the patience to sit around and watch a 3-4 hour game anymore. Especially in the summer when they would rather be outside.

In today's culture, people get mad when their favorite show is updated on streaming sites one episode at a time and they have to wait a week to watch the next episode. The younger generation is not going to have the patience to enjoy baseball for the sport it really is.

Baseball will always be around but I can easily see it dropping to being the 3rd or 4th most popular sport in America within the next 10 years. NFL/NBA would be top 2 and soccer/MLB would be 3 and 4.

That's all good and great, but I don't know of any single individual (not that they're not out there) who turned around and said that they watch baseball now when they didn't before because automatic walks, pitch clocks, and reduced mound visits are in. Hell, even the extended safety net turned me away from those seats (though it may have attracted thousands of others).

Outside of juiced baseballs (which I'm not a fan of), I just don't see the data where these changes to the game have brought in more customers. Selfishly, I'm not looking for this sport to gain new fans just because they have ADHD (ugh, that initialization has "DH" in it). If we have to change our game even more to appease converting fans, then those aren't fans I'd like to be a part of our core anyway. It's also not a league I'll be as interested in if they keep altering the league I once loved.

Keep in mind, I've been a fan of certain rule changes, and there are some rules I'd still like changing (many know I want restricted defensive shifts), so I'm not that stubborn. I just think Manfred is trying to cater to a crowd that still isn't interested in the inherent nature of the sport, and frankly I don't know if his changes are doing anything.

[Blzer]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Bonds was an insufferable pr!ck that deserved everything he got. He'll never get sympathy from me.

I wish that, for a day, I was in the shoes of a diehard Yankees fan living on the East Coast or something like that. I'm literally incapable of seeing what makes him insufferable. I understand it, but I can't feel it. I'm a Bay Area-living diehard Giants fan, and have been my whole life. He was the last thing from insufferable for me.

I've read Game of Shadows and Love Me, Hate Me. I know of all of his indiscretions and his clubhouse behavior. I have also watched the most talented batter in the world be a multifaceted great defender and baserunner, and change the landscape of San Francisco and west coast baseball as we know it (alongside Griffey and Ichiro).

My biases prevent me from resenting him, and I'm aware of that. I'm as far from 'insufferable' as you can imagine. And post-2004 (the greatest offensive season of all time), you also saw a different Barry start presenting himself. It's like hitting 40 years old matured him a lot. I hope people who found him insufferable before can turn around now and see a changed human being, or put that aside when it comes to Hall of Fame consideration.

[stlducks]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

That's all good and great, but I don't know of any single individual (not that they're not out there) who turned around and said that they watch baseball now when they didn't before because automatic walks, pitch clocks, and reduced mound visits are in. Hell, even the extended safety net turned me away from those seats (though it may have attracted thousands of others).

Outside of juiced baseballs (which I'm not a fan of), I just don't see the data where these changes to the game have brought in more customers. Selfishly, I'm not looking for this sport to gain new fans just because they have ADHD (ugh, that initialization has "DH" in it). If we have to change our game even more to appease converting fans, then those aren't fans I'd like to be a part of our core anyway. It's also not a league I'll be as interested in if they keep altering the league I once loved.

Keep in mind, I've been a fan of certain rule changes, and there are some rules I'd still like changing (many know I want restricted defensive shifts), so I'm not that stubborn. I just think Manfred is trying to cater to a crowd that still isn't interested in the inherent nature of the sport, and frankly I don't know if his changes are doing anything.

I completely agree with all of that and do not think any of the rule changes have brought in new fans. But I also think a large part of baseball losing fans is not because of anything baseball did or can do. Just a different culture we have now.

[Blzer]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I completely agree with all of that and do not think any of the rule changes have brought in new fans. But I also think a large part of baseball losing fans is not because of anything baseball did or can do. Just a different culture we have now.

I just think they're not getting new fans from our youth. They're into the NBA because they have an easy way of showcasing individuals, and the NFL still pumps their testosterone with physical contact and lots of offense (and the quarterbacks and prima donnas have a way of showcasing themselves).

Thanks to Smartphones and everything that has been introduced with them, our youth does have short attention spans. Baseball as a sport doesn't cater to them, which is the most unfortunate sentence I can utter.

The original fans are still here, though many are getting older and some have even passed. I'll always be a fan of baseball, and my love for the sport is unconditional. If the MLB keeps evolving like it is though, they actually can lose me, because my affection for it is conditional. Everybody should have a tipping point, and mine is still far away. Putting the DH in the NL will be the biggest jump of disinterest for me, though. It matters that much.

[stlducks]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I used to be a die-hard fan watching every game I could. Now I only watch the Cardinals and playoffs but if DH is added to the NL, that might be enough to lose me.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Bonds may have been a dick often times, but I would never describe him as "insufferable" because on the field he never really did **** that insufferable pricks did. At least how I qualify them. Nothing too memorable for me anyway.

He always put forth the effort (he was so good he made things appear effortless), never really got caught up in fights and too much dumb dramas and bull**** like, say, Yadier Molina or Carlos Gomez or AJ Pierzynski or something. None of that bitchmade stuff.

Even the biggest offense of him obviously being involved with roids or HGH or whatever now pales in comparison to the integrity-killing **** the Astros and Red Sox perpetrated.

[Madden08PCgmr]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I wish that, for a day, I was in the shoes of a diehard Yankees fan living on the East Coast or something like that. I'm literally incapable of seeing what makes him insufferable. I understand it, but I can't feel it. I'm a Bay Area-living diehard Giants fan, and have been my whole life. He was the last thing from insufferable for me.

I've read Game of Shadows and Love Me, Hate Me. I know of all of his indiscretions and his clubhouse behavior. I have also watched the most talented batter in the world be a multifaceted great defender and baserunner, and change the landscape of San Francisco and west coast baseball as we know it (alongside Griffey and Ichiro).

My biases prevent me from resenting him, and I'm aware of that. I'm as far from 'insufferable' as you can imagine. And post-2004 (the greatest offensive season of all time), you also saw a different Barry start presenting himself. It's like hitting 40 years old matured him a lot. I hope people who found him insufferable before can turn around now and see a changed human being, or put that aside when it comes to Hall of Fame consideration.

I just can't stand the guy. Never could. The Balco stuff cemented it for me. He should never live that down.

It looks like he'll get into the Hall. I'm indifferent about that, really. He deserves it. But I also understand why voters would try to block him. I'd prefer to live in a world where he paid that price for cheating the game, but I've accepted that simply isn't going to happen.

He didn't steroids to be the best in the game. That makes him worse than all the users. Except for maybe A-Rod and Clemens, who were equally dominant without any competitive advantage.

[Madden08PCgmr]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Even the biggest offense of him obviously being involved with roids or HGH or whatever now pales in comparison to the integrity-killing **** the Astros and Red Sox perpetrated.

Sign stealing is as old as time.

Bonds owns, perhaps the most famous record in sports, that may never be broken, that arguably should be stricken from the record.

[Madden08PCgmr]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Ken Rosenthal reports as many as 8 owners are against playing this season.

Sounds like its time to contract...

[Blzer]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I just can't stand the guy. Never could. The Balco stuff cemented it for me. He should never live that down.

It looks like he'll get into the Hall. I'm indifferent about that, really. He deserves it. But I also understand why voters would try to block him. I'd prefer to live in a world where he paid that price for cheating the game, but I've accepted that simply isn't going to happen.

He didn't steroids to be the best in the game. That makes him worse than all the users. Except for maybe A-Rod and Clemens, who were equally dominant without any competitive advantage.

If Bonds took them knowingly, it was out of jealousy over McGwire and Sosa getting all of the acclaim that still should have gone Bonds' way. You said it yourself: he was the best in the game. He just wasn't treated like it. Desperation seems to be the lurking variable in all incidents involved, just from a different angle.

Rodriguez cheated again even after once confessing during the Biogenesis thing, and denied those reports as well.

Sign stealing is as old as time.

Bonds owns, perhaps the most famous record in sports, that may never be broken, that arguably should be stricken from the record.

It's not the sign-stealing. Hell, I love sign-stealing. It's the manner in which it was done, which was by and large unnatural.

I didn't mind the algorithm thing (mostly because that can't be avoided, like card-counting), so long as it was used as a scouting tool from past games only. It's the same to me as using StatCast and sabermetrics to analyze your opponents, after all.

But as I've said before, given the electronic basis for which the sign-stealing occurred, I'd rather face nine roided up players than nine players who knew which pitch I was throwing them, and it's not even close.

Bonds also would have gotten to 800 home runs if teams kept signing him instead of colluding against him. He served his punishment that way.

[TripleCrown9]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Sign stealing is as old as time.

Bonds owns, perhaps the most famous record in sports, that may never be broken, that arguably should be stricken from the record.

I've got some bad news. So is enhancing one's performance. Just like sign-stealing, the methods evolved over time.

You think Hank Aaron broke Babe's record with absolutely zero assistance whatsoever?

[countryboy]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

What assistance did Hank Aaron use?

[Master Live 013]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Amphetamines I have heard before.