As I was writing yesterday’s post about how the people who
run baseball have deteriorated the quality of the World Series – by making it take place almost a month too late, and
by requiring a “World Series-Only”
alteration of the rules – it came to my attention how many – and perhaps all – of the changes in the presentation
of the game are a direct and inevitable consequence of baseball’s unilateral
efforts to maximize its profits.
Immediate Disclaimer:
I am not a Communist. Or a
Socialist. To be honest, I do not even
know the difference between those two. And I believe that a real Communist or Socialist
would.
I often use – or imagine using – this analogy: If one person is six-foot-five and another
person is six-foot-three, does that make the six-foot-three person “short”?
The answer to that semi-rhetorical question is “No.” When somebody is more of something and somebody else is marginally less of it, that does not make the person
who is marginally less of it “the opposite.” (Cable news commentators take note.)
I am still a Capitalist.
Just not as single-minded a Capitalist as Major League Baseball.
Aside from what they did to the World Series – putting profit ahead of
personal integrity and the love of the game – let’s examine Major League
Baseball’s overall record, to determine, through its actions, if Major League
Baseball believes that, paraphrasing the words of iconic Packers coach Vince Lombardi,
“Money isn’t everything. It’s the only
thing.”
Years ago, Major League Baseball got
rid of “Doubleheaders.” “Doubleheaders”
offered two games for the price of one.
For Major League Baseball, financially, one game for the price of one was better. So, good-bye “Doubleheaders.”
Major League Baseball expanded the
number of teams from 16 to 30. All new team
owners are required to pay “Entry Fees” of millions of dollars, thus increasing
the earlier owners’ coffers, which is primarily why expansion occurred.
Baseball, of course, can claim that
they expanded to more cities to provide access to fans who were geographically
excluded from attending the games.
They did it for the fans.
Perhaps.
But should attendance in that
location be disappointing, baseball feels no compunction about uprooting that
team and relocating it somewhere else, claiming now to care deeply about those fans.
As mentioned yesterday, in 1973,
to increase the offense in the game and hopefully raise interest (and
attendance), the American League
instituted the “Designated Hitter Rule” (wherein a “Designated Hitter” bats for
the pitcher), but the National League did
not. (Maintaining the purity, integrity
and natural balance of the game.)
What happened?
I do not know overall what happened, but in 2014, the National League’s attendance was almost three thousand fans per game
higher than the American League’s.
Designate hit that, Purity of the Game Wreckers!
As Louie De Palma used to say, “Nyeh!”
(And then, as also mentioned
yesterday, the disastrous consequence of that decision – the flip-flopping of
the “DH Rule”, during the course of the World
Series. This is unadulterated
insanity.
What if the “Designated Hitter” is
the American League contender’s most
essential player? During World Series games played in National League venues, they cannot even
use him, the player who arguably propelled
them to “The Big Dance”, now relegated to talented “cheerleader”, while a
pitcher, who perhaps has never once batted in his professional career, is
forced to embarrass himself, whiffing helplessly at 98 mile-per-hour fastballs.)
For television purposes – baseball,
acceding to TV’s needs in exchange for lucrative contract money – all World Series games are played at night (further
coldening, as mentioned previously, the already chilly playing conditions of
late October/early November, created by, let’s see…
Increasing the number of games
played per season…
Abandoning “Doubleheaders”, thus
extending the season further…
And extending the season even more
by adding a three tiered post-season playoff format.
Financially induced “Night
Baseball” also increases the likelihood that young baseball enthusiasts who live in the Eastern Time Zone (and
possibly even the Central Time Zone) will be asleep during the entire playing
of the Series.
Business is supposed to try to
maximize its profits ostensibly by serving its customers. If, however, business maximizes its profits
while simultaneously dis-serving its
customers, there is, I submit, something askew in the system, a
counter-productive conflict of interest that inevitably serves nobody.
Do these ultimate dis-services
affect Major League Baseball? For an
answer to that question, I offer a comparison of recent modest World Series television ratings to the burgeoning
ratings of Yesteryear.
I know. There are more channels today. But there are the same number of “more
channels” when the Super Bowl is
on. And the Super Bowl is gigantic!
You know why? (At least partly.)
Because they do not play the Super Bowl in August. As I was writing yesterday’s post about how the people who
run baseball have deteriorated the quality of the World Series – by making it take place almost a month too late, and
by requiring a “World Series-Only”
alteration of the rules – it came to my attention how many – and perhaps all – of the changes in the presentation
of the game are a direct and inevitable consequence of baseball’s unilateral
efforts to maximize its profits.
Immediate Disclaimer:
I am not a Communist. Or a
Socialist. To be honest, I do not even
know the difference between those two. And I believe that a real Communist or Socialist
would.
I often use – or imagine using – this analogy: If one person is six-foot-five and another
person is six-foot-three, does that make the six-foot-three person “short”?
The answer to that semi-rhetorical question is “No.” When somebody is more of something and somebody else is marginally less of it, that does not make the person
who is marginally less of it “the opposite.” (Cable news commentators take note.)
I am still a Capitalist.
Just not as single-minded a Capitalist as Major League Baseball.
Aside from what they did to the World Series – putting profit ahead of
personal integrity and the love of the game – let’s examine Major League
Baseball’s overall record, to determine, through its actions, if Major League
Baseball believes that, paraphrasing the words of iconic Packers coach Vince Lombardi,
“Money isn’t everything. It’s the only
thing.”
Years ago, Major League Baseball got
rid of “Doubleheaders.” “Doubleheaders”
offered two games for the price of one.
For Major League Baseball, financially, one game for the price of one was better. So, good-bye “Doubleheaders.”
Major League Baseball expanded the
number of teams from 16 to 30. All new team
owners are required to pay “Entry Fees” of millions of dollars, thus increasing
the earlier owners’ coffers, which is primarily why expansion occurred.
Baseball, of course, can claim that
they expanded to more cities to provide access to fans who were geographically
excluded from attending the games.
They did it for the fans.
Perhaps.
But should attendance in that
location be disappointing, baseball feels no compunction about uprooting that
team and relocating it somewhere else, claiming now to care deeply about those fans.
As mentioned yesterday, in 1973,
to increase the offense in the game and hopefully raise interest (and
attendance), the American League
instituted the “Designated Hitter Rule” (wherein a “Designated Hitter” bats for
the pitcher), but the National League did
not. (Maintaining the purity, integrity
and natural balance of the game.)
What happened?
I do not know overall what happened, but in 2014, the National League’s attendance was almost three thousand fans per game
higher than the American League’s.
Designate hit that, Purity of the Game Wreckers!
As Louie De Palma used to say, “Nyeh!”
(And then, as also mentioned
yesterday, the disastrous consequence of that decision – the flip-flopping of
the “DH Rule”, during the course of the World
Series. This is unadulterated
insanity.
What if the “Designated Hitter” is
the American League contender’s most
essential player? During World Series games played in National League venues, they cannot even
use him, the player who arguably propelled
them to “The Big Dance”, now relegated to talented “cheerleader”, while a
pitcher, who perhaps has never once batted in his professional career, is
forced to embarrass himself, whiffing helplessly at 98 mile-per-hour fastballs.)
For television purposes – baseball,
acceding to TV’s needs in exchange for lucrative contract money – all World Series games are played at night (further
coldening, as mentioned previously, the already chilly playing conditions of
late October/early November, created by, let’s see…
Increasing the number of games
played per season…
Abandoning “Doubleheaders”, thus
extending the season further…
And extending the season even more
by adding a three tiered post-season playoff format.
Financially induced “Night
Baseball” also increases the likelihood that young baseball enthusiasts who live in the Eastern Time Zone (and
possibly even the Central Time Zone) will be asleep during the entire playing
of the Series.
Business is supposed to try to
maximize its profits ostensibly by serving its customers. If, however, business maximizes its profits
while simultaneously dis-serving its
customers, there is, I submit, something askew in the system, a
counter-productive conflict of interest that inevitably serves nobody.
Do these ultimate dis-services
affect Major League Baseball? For an
answer to that question, I offer a comparison of recent modest World Series television ratings to the burgeoning
ratings of Yesteryear.
I know. There are more channels today. But there are the same number of “more
channels” when the Super Bowl is
on. And the Super Bowl is gigantic!
You know why? (At least partly.)
Because they do not play the Super Bowl in August.
2 comments:
The National League almost had the Designated Hitter. It was reported that the owner of the Phillies wanted it, but couldn't make the meeting where it was voted on (it failed 6-4), and it was expected that the Pirates owner would follow in his footsteps.
While the National League loves to tout its purity, who introduced artificial turf (not real grass) to baseball? The NL. Indoor stadiums? NL had the first. Who refused to play in the 2nd World Series in history, because they lost the first one? The NL.
The NL might as well have a Designated Hitter, because of how often they use the "double switch", where they switch the pitcher out of his normal batting order through substitutions.
"Strategy", the other word NL fans use, to indicate how much more of it they use than the AL, is also overblown. With no one out, when the 8th hitter gets on base, in the NL the pitcher ALWAYS bunts him over. In the AL, you're never sure what the 9th place hitter will do.
The NL loves to tout how they integrated baseball, with Jackie Robinson. But baseball had black players in the 1890s, but the NL's Cap Anson said he would never take the field if an opposing team had a black player. So, that ended integration.
As for the attendance differences, most NL teams are older, and thus were the first teams in their markets, before the AL was able to put a team in the same market. They have always have had that
loyalty as the older team. Think of the Cubs versus the White Sox. That also put them in a better position to place their teams in better spots. Thus the Dodgers are IN LA, but the Angels are in Orange County. The Giants are IN San Francisco, but the AL team is in Oakland.
As for Bud Selig, an NL owner, who was made Commissioner, he is the one who has expanded the playoffs, made them almost like hockey playoffs, not what the World Series used to be. He also expanded inter-league play, which has taken most of the wind out of a Series at the end of the year between the Champions of the AL and NL. Selig has also soaked the taxpayers in most Major League cities by demanding they build new stadiums for baseball, and then threatening to remove their teams if they didn't (which he tried in Minneapolis).
So, where is all that purity?
Nevertheless, the Giants and Royals played the best game of the '14 Series tonight.
A real interesting read for baseball fans: The Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball.
"Baseball must be a great game, because the owners haven't been able to kill it." - Bill Veeck
The reason they don't schedule double-headers anymore: The Major League Baseball Players Association. Likely the strongest union left in the country.
The DH has been existence since 1973, meaning both leagues have had more than 40 years to change their minds. In all likelihood the MLBPA will never allow the DH to go away as it creates jobs for more players.
In the post-season, the DH rule only hurts the AL when they're the visiting team. For the NL, it's a gift when they play in the AL park. E.g., tonight, the Giants' DH Michael Morse drove in 2 of the 3 Giants' runs. For the games in SF, Morse was a pinch-hitter thus used only once per game.
Astro Turf was invented because real grass would not grow inside the Astro Dome. I don't believe the NL really had any position on the purity of grass. Well, they might in Denver, now.
The NL refused to play the 1904 World Series because the rules for a post-season match-up were not well defined, but a matter of whatever the participants could agree upon. The Giants had announced in July that they would not play in the post-season "exhibition" series. That prompted the 2 leagues to formulate rules for the World Series such as when, where, pricing and who gets what $.
Only the NBA approaches the NHL with the ridiculousness of number of teams that qualify for the playoffs. Baseball, in its quest for more interest throughout the long season, as well as more money, added one additional playoff game in each league.
Finally, I don't mind the differing rules. I would reverse the implementation, however: Play NL rules when the NL team visits the AL park. AL rules in the NL park. I would like to see the Series played in Oct. instead of November. Maybe start the season earlier and schedule those games in the warm weather cities. Worth a try, isn't it?
In spite of itself, baseball is still the best game.
Post a Comment