Where are the baseball fans of 2034? Are they in the stands now, in 2014? Or will baseball have to recruit them?
I just had one of those damnable experiences in which about a half hour of thought and writing on this subject was deleted in some inexplicable way – and now I have neither the time nor second-wind energy to restate it all.
Maybe that’s for the best. The questions are the important part here.
(1) With the younger baseball fan generations being so wired into the digital age, and with baseball being only one of their many leisure time opportunities in childhood, should baseball simply do nothing but leave the game to play out its appeal as always?
(2) Should baseball take steps to shorten the games for the sake of holding onto the attention spans of a less patient fan population?
(3) What else can baseball do to help younger people bond with the game as fans?
(4) Are we asking the right questions on this subject here? (It rarely helps to get the right answers, if one is asking the wrong questions.)
Please post your opinions as comments on this column subject.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
March 3, 2014 at 4:28 pm |
Someone once said that it’s not the length, but the pace of a game that matters. Even for a baseball fan, watching a batter step out of the box after each pitch to adjust his batting gloves is maddening; not to mention the pitchers who step off the mound or take forever between pitches. Jon Miller, the current play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants, related a story about watching an old kinescope recording of a baseball game from the late 1950s and being struck by the fact that no one stepped out of the box during his time at bat. Houston opened its inaugural season in the National League with a three-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs. I attended the third game on April 12, 1962: the time in the box score is listed as 2:02. Another problem for many casual fans is a short attention span. Next time you’re watching a television commercial, count how long a single image stays on the screen. You’re lucky if you can get out “thousand and one.” It’s more like .4 of a second–about the same time a batter has to recognize a 90-mile-an-hour fastball. I love baseball and don’t care how long I’m at the park, but even I get frustrated with all the unnecessary delays.
March 3, 2014 at 5:09 pm |
I love the game. I have been a fan for 62 years, following my beloved Tigers. Here are some random thoughts about the pace and time of the game.
I think The game needs to be played fewer delays. The stepping out of the box or stepping off the mound needs to be curtailed. That is surely a consequence of the high stakes involved with the players of today. When players weren’t making $15 million a year, they were less careful about what they did on the field. I read recently in Bill Bryson’s “One Summer: America 1927” that games in those days often lasted less than two hours and some were played in under one hour.
Today I find at times the pace of the game is maddening, but at others baseball can be the baseball cricket that chirps in the background. I have spent many an evening listening to a game and all but ignoring the routine ground out, but taking notice when the situation gets exciting. Still I wonder how much the new expended replay will further slow the game’s pace.
That said, I have no fear the game will continue to draw fans to the park. Look at a crowd scene at any TV game or watch the crowd i n the park and you will see people of all ages. It isn’t just we old folk. I like to think those fans will still be there in 20 or 40 or 60 years. It will be different from what we know now, but I don’t know how it will change. It will be there.
March 4, 2014 at 2:22 pm |
I think earlier contributors have hit is right on the head. It is not the length of games, but pace. Football games are getting longer and longer thanks to more passing. In many cases that has co-incided with more “hurry up” offenses. More plays per minute. A series of incomplete passes can be just as draggy as a series of two yard runs, but if the plays are coming quickly fans are satisfied.
In baseball we have added some delays this year with the innovation of replay. Football COULD hide the time lost by getting rid of commercials that need to be run anyway. They don’t always do it. Baseball would have the same option, but co-ordination between the game producers and affiliates is not really possible. More likely there will be :30 extra drop in spots scheduled for those cases.
Make no mistake about it though, if you happen to attend an NFL game there are many long dead spots where the players are stopped only because of NFL’s TV commercial committment. At least baseball’s breaks (though elongated) come at natural breaks between half innings.
I would also suggest the extra scouting and statistical information available contributes to the lack of pace in some cases. Relaying that info to the players on the field takes time. The days of Bob Gibson taking the sign (or giving it) to Tim McCarver and letting go with the ball every ten seconds is long gone. It is too bad.
March 5, 2014 at 2:18 pm |
Baseball needs to speed up and here are some suggestions to accomplish this task
1. Intention walk and the batter automatically goes to first base
2. Batters do not need to step out on every pitch. Let pitchers quick pitch in order to keep the batters in the box
3. I think this was a Charles Finley idea. Instead of 4 balls and three strikes make it 3balls and two strikes.
4. Don’t throw the ball around the infield after each out.