The Metrosexualization of Baseball

[Freedom]

I was reading Lewrockwell archives and I came across an old article from Karen De Coster.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster96.html

It's a good article. I've noticed that as the game becomes more and more specialized, players become softer and softer.

One thing to point out is that despite popular belief, pitching velocities at the maximum probably haven't increased since the early 1920s when the league changed the composition of the baseball. Velocity's limited by tendons and not muscles so it'll be hard to build on it. But pitcher's win totals have dropped a lot since then and they have so many specialized relievers. It is slowly alienating fans from the game as games take longer and longer to finish, especially in the American league.

 

[Skipperron]

Interesting but I have a comment slightly off topic. You mention how the time of ball games are alienating fans but why only baseball.

The average time of football and basketball is right at or over 3 hours. So is baseball. Auto racing is way over that. Why then should baseball be the one that is "too slow". I think since baseball still has more whites than blacks that is why the media is constantly harping on the time of games. If you tell me constantly how long and boring baseball is, and how fans don't like it, then it eventually starts to take hold. I really believe they would love to see baseball go away if they cannot make it as black as the other sports.

I used to tape football and cut out everything but the action. No replays, only when the ball was snapped. It only takes about 18 to 25 minutes for a game to be over, leaving quite a bit of time for nothing. Baseball takes about 30 minutes or more of real action. So to me it is all a perception of the media and fans that baseball drags and yet football is constant action.

I am from a different era however, and love the ebb and flow of baseball. And todays young people need things to happen in bursts of energy and constant change due to a lack of a real attention span. We live in a different society than when I grew up as a kid.

A society, I might add, when men were men and ladies were ladies. Hence the metrolization of our sports figures and ultimately most of our men today.

I have rambled a bit, sorry if I got off the subject.

 

[PhillyBirds]

I am from a different era however, and love the ebb and flow of baseball. And todays young people need things to happen in bursts of energy and constant change due to a lack of a real attention span. We live in a different society than when I grew up as a kid.

I can see what you mean. I for one absolutely love watching baseball, probably more than any other sport. Every second gives you something to dissect, analyze, or talk about. Watching baseball with someone else is great, and some of my best memories have come from watching baseball and talking about it with my dad. No other sport is as thought-provoking, in my opinion, as baseball.

 

[GWTJ]

The problem is, baseball gets played every night. Fans who watch a football game once a week probably don't care if it takes two and a half hours or three and a half hours. Same for car racing.

But take it from someone who has the Yankees as their local team. The games are agonizingly long. Most Yankee games start at 7:10p.m. and don't finish until 11:00p.m.

I can watch two movies on other channels during the game. I will often go back to the game on commercials. It is not uncommon to watch a movie from commercial to commercial and then go back to the Yankee game to find that I hardly missed any action at all. Especially late in the game when there may be two or three pitching changes in the same half inning.

My son went to a Yankee game. It was the game where A-Rod hit his 500th home run. My son is a collegiate baseball player but left the game after watching for four hours. He left in the 7th inning. The game took 4 hours and 45 minutes to finish. It was a 9 inning game too.

The exagerated length of baseball games is one of many reasons that other sports are more popular than baseball.

 

[PhillyBirds]

I'll say that length also can depend on a number of things. AL pitchers tend to take a lot longer between pitches. I've been watching Phillies games with Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer pitching that last only two hours and some change.

From my viewing experience, AL games last longer than NL games. Whatever the reason, a lot of things factor in to the length of a game. Edited by: PhillyBirds

 

[Freedom]

Skipperon, you write a good rant. The length of football games has increased because the NFL has changed the rules to favor more passing--they get more commercials this way.In baseball, it's gone up for reasons I can't understand. The only thing I can think of is the pitcher substitutions. PhillyBirds, I've noticed that too. Could the DH make that much difference?

It's a bigger issue in baseball because the games are just about every day like GWTJ said.

 

[Don Wassall]

The commercial break between half innings was lengthened by a minute or two some years back. Doesn't sound like much, but a one minute increase lengthens a game by 17 or 18 minutes right there.


There should be a time limit on how long a pitcher has to throw a pitch. If he goes over it should be an automatic ball. That would shorten the game considerably right there. I can't sit and watch more than a few innings of a game because the pace is so slow.