Did Major League Baseball Cause Irreparable Damage? -

Embed from Getty Images

The first two series of the Major League Baseball season are canceled. Nobody is shocked. The have-nots, bottom-dwelling, luxury tax-sucking teams are winning this battle. The battle is to keep payroll low and collect from the top-tier teams who spend money. There is no winner or loser here. The fans lose. They always lose. And now there is no opening day to look forward to when the winter has lost its grip on much of the country.

When Rob Manfred called the World Series Trophy a “piece of metal”, that was a glimpse into the mind of a man who likes running baseball but doesn’t seem like a fan of the game. It’s important that a commissioner does that, otherwise, they are looked at as just a transactional businessman, so the owners don’t have to deal with the messy stuff, and so far, that hasn’t and now will never change.

Ep 100: Divisional Round Preview: Who Is Headed To Championship Sunday?
by Full Press Coverage on January 21, 2023 at 12:19 pm

The Universal DH Is another strike against Manfred taking away the last bit of identity that National League baseball fans had to hold on to. If you don’t think it matters, you are mistaken. More may be ok with it, but they’re fans already and weren’t leaving. Others talked about leaving over that and the recent labor negotiations.

After every prolonged disagreement baseball loses fans and mindshare. It used to be the “National Pastime” and they handed that over to the NFL. Now they’re rapidly falling down the charts in the United States as far as popularity goes. The sport is still worth billions, but boxing once thought its sport was on top of the world, and it was, and now it isn’t.

Around FPC

NFL: NFL Rumors: Brady/Arians Rift, Robby Anderson, Combine Boycott

NFL: Quarterback Carousel: Who Plays Where In 2022?

NFL DRAFT: NFL Draft Profile: Linebacker Nakobe Dean

NFL DRAFT: 2022 NFL Draft Profile: DE Aidan Hutchinson

NHL: NHL Insights: Tyler Toffoli Trade, Jack Eichel’s Return and Wild West

PODCAST: Full Press NFL Podcast Ep 33: Super Bowl LVI Reaction; Rams Clinch Second Title

The sport isn’t going to pick up new, young viewers in its current state and the man in charge hasn’t instituted pitch clocks, which will shave 20 minutes off a game or just get batters to stay in the batter’s box. Instead, they’re doing other silly, gimmicky things that just get laughs on social media.

Very few people are sitting through three-hour games. People flip away and come back to games now. Advertisers will eventually catch on and then where will baseball be? It will be a corporate sport that will continue to raise ticket prices to the point that people go to one or two games a season instead of many more. That’s where the sport is headed unless major changes come down the pike or there is a change at the MLBPA or the commissioner’s post.

Will MLB cancel more than the first 2 series this season? - Powered By PickUp