OT MLB to PDX: We're talking baseball to PDX

Damn big bro what would he do?

 

Buy the book when it comes out.

 

Not once did I say the sport is doing great and there is nothing wrong with it, even the NFL that is far and away the most popular sport in this country has its issues that it needs to address. But you claim to have 'FACTS' that it's on it's deathbed but then come with some anecdotal tales about not seeing kids playing the sport in inner city Portland and think you've proven anything. I'm still waiting on these facts. You claim there are 'empty stadiums' when the average attendance this season is at 29k a game, about even with last year and the best the sport has had since 2017. That's even with the messed up situation for the Athletics and Rays. The revenue for MLB continues to go up, TV ratings on pretty much every stream (ESPN +22%, Fox +10%, MLB Network +13%, MLBtv +27%) are up this season and some by a lot. Yes kids might not be playing it in the street, but youth baseball participation is at it's highest level since 2008 and I'll say a big part of that is probably the Savannah Bananas. I'm not a huge fan but like them or not, they make the game new and different for the kids and that is opening their eyes to maybe the sport in general being more fun to play. Yes the RSN's was a big blow to the game as it's still mainly a regional sport, but in 3 of the last 5 years, the World Series has better ratings than the NBA Finals. They are finishing up a new media deal that will hopefully take care of the local broadcasts and bring them under some sort of the same umbrella. Again, I don't think the sport is in the greatest spot ever, but the changes seem to have worked, it's sped up the game and made it more appealing on TV. Sorry but to say it's on it's #deathbed is just moronic, it's not dying, it's not going anywhere.

 

I agree on this. Kids don't play in the streets because of the nature of the game. Getting 18 kids all together to play a game takes coordination and playing 4 or 5 on 5 would even have it's challenges in the current neighborhood atmosphere. People simply don't let their kids at 8 years old go down the street to the park alone any longer but they do allow them to play in front of their house at a hoop set up on the street. Certainly not inner city and If they do they usually aren't looking to play an organized game of baseball.
However there are a bunch of new fields being built and I-9 youth sports programs are jam packed for both baseball and soccer as well as basketball. Don't fool yourself into thinking because 8 or 10 kids don't go play baseball on the old sand lot (which no longer exists) that baseball and softball are dead. That simply isn't the case.

 

The cost of equipment too. You need a ball and shoes. That's it. That's one of the main reasons why soccer has been so successful all over the world.

Baseball is very expensive.

Football is very expensive.

Hockey is very expensive.

And, as you mentioned, you can't really play the game alone.

 

Yea the general nature of basketball will always be more popular especially for the inner cities where only need a ball and a hoop ... but there are ways you can play baseball where it's not 9v9, me and friends would play whiffle ball all the time in the street (where one house we spray painted a full diamond with bases on the asphalt), or a game we called Over The Line that could be any number of guys and all required was a ball, bat and a couple gloves, plus we luckily lived in the burbs so fields were easy to come by.

 

Does Fox know something we don't know?

 

Looking at the map, it's crazy how there's huge swaths of land with nothing.

 

It’s crazy how west of Denver there’s barely any teams. I think I count 8 including the Rockies..

In reality they need to add 2 teams for the western region. Portland and SLC honestly

 

Don't understand why in all of these they take the Giants and Dodgers out of the same division ... seems simple enough to just keep the 4 California teams together and put the Diamondbacks in with Seattle, Vegas and (hopefully) Portland or (God forbid) SLC.

 

We just gonna pretend like the Aaron Gordon/Zach Levine Dunk Contest didn't happen after? That's a top 5 dunk contest.

 

This is why Portland will never get MLB:

 

My niece (she was 7 at the time) asked "why black folks played basketball a lot". This was the answer I gave her. You just need a ball and a park and you can play by yourself.
It's probably the least expensive sport to play. Lots of sports have a huge paywall.

 

That's why I played it. Only thing cheaper was wrestling.

Those were my sports.

 

Didn't see it.

 

Coach wanted me to wrestle because I'm wiry. I couldn't get past the singlet plus there's no top rope and chairs lol.