Friday Fire: Do You Watch Major League Baseball?
In my opinion, the game has lost its appeal since Barry Bonds has been grounded
Are you interested in Major League Baseball? Why or why not?
Sphere: Related Content
In my opinion, the game has lost its appeal since Barry Bonds has been grounded
Are you interested in Major League Baseball? Why or why not?
Sphere: Related Content
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I still watch because I love the game that much, I’ve still got guys whose stats I run to the paper to read every morning (Ichiro, Maglio Ordonez, and Jeter). Regardless of what happens or who comes or goes when you get down to it baseball is always going to be baseball.
As for Bonds right now it’s like trying to avoid the elephant in the room; you know he’s there and before long he’s going to let you know he’s there.
As a side note: In 1980, baseball was 23% Black, today we’re hovering around 8.9%.
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:33 pm
My sons have stop playing the game–which is ridiculous in my opinion because they were so good–so the game doesn’t have that it used to have. Ken Griffey Jr. is the only player with whom I feel a strong connection and as he approaches 600 homeruns, it will be good to have his name in the news again.
Dontrelle Willis, Pedro, C.C. Sabathia and Roy Oswalt are favorite pitchers.
I’m a Yankee fan (I respect Manny and Big Papi but they are Red Sox so…) and follow Jeter, Cano, Posada, Matsui and of course ARod (his stats mean nothing to me until the playoffs)…to a smaller degree Rollins, Utley, Howard, Fielder, Weeks and Granderson but outside of those players…I don’t feel anything.
I don’t follow players like I used to. I used to know the stats of almost every player in the league growing up, but I’m far from that now.
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I will say that I’m more focused on players now whereas before I was locked in on the entire team.
I like D-Train, when Barry Zito was in Oakland, he had the best curve I’d seen in a long time. My guys now are Carlos Zambrano and C.C. Sabathia. I used to be into the power pitchers, Big Unit, etc. Now I like to watch guys like Jamie Moyer who go in, out, offspeed stuff whatever.
I must be getting old man. Everything is slowing down for me.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Don’t say that brotha the ladies might hear…
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
To tell you all the truth, I didn’t know black people (at least the folks younger than my dad, who is 57) still watched baseball. I mean I know who the stars are, but baseball as a sport is the most boring non-athletic sport I’ve ever seen in my life.
OT: Hey mizzzo, whats up with you Philly guys booing your team last night. That aint right.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I was there. I’ll have a piece up on SLAM a little after noon.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
LMAO! Thankfully, I’m still in the passing lane in that category.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:03 pm
In one word, “Hell to the naw!”……
Ok, that’s 4.
But baseball has sucked for many years now. I haven’t really watched a full season (meaning reg. season, playoffs & WS) since i was in high school.
Yo, we talking 20 yrs.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Interesting way to phrase your question…do you really want ME to answer that? Cuz I’m ’bout to go buck wild here….
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
I don’t watch it if I can help it. I can usually help it - so it’s rare that I watch a game.
Baseball, perhaps more rapidly than football and basketball (the trends are coming though), has become a mirage. The game of baseball is predicated on two things: fear and deception. The game is about pitching and defense. Pitching must be about the ability to pitch inside - and the ability to hit spots. Today’s pitchers no longer pitch inside. Batters have no fear of getting hit. Teams no longer handle their “business” on the field. Umpires and league officials have injected themselves into a dialogue in which they have no place. In addition to all the rules changes which favor hitters, the league expressly forbids power pitchers from maximizing the impact of their power.
It seems as if there is a larger cultural effort to take the physicality out of professional sports. Baseball has succumbed. The same pattern is evident in the Europeanization of the NBA. (While clearly not all European players play this style, the majority do. The league favors less physicality across the board.) The pattern is taking shape in the NFL where today’s wide receivers can run around the field largely unimpeded with nary a concern for a forearm shiver or elbow to the gut. All around the professional sports world, leagues have pushed “SAFETY FIRST” and “MORE OFFENSE” while undermining the very essence of every single game.
Baseball sucks. Basketball and football, if they cannot be saved from the bureaucrats, will soon follow the same course. All that will be left is hockey, rugby and the UCF.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I don’t think its less physicality, its more scoring that is the push across all the leagues.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:32 pm
The end result is the same. Defense requires force in most games. Evasion is not the foundation of defense. When leagues strike rules that allow force OR begin to regulate informal practices that allow force, they decrease the physicality of the game and increase the chances that offenses will score. Leagues have worked diligently over the past few decades to increase scoring and appeal to casual fans (as they compete for finite entertainment dollars). The games of today, by all accounts, are far less physical than in the past. This is attested to by baseball, football and basketball players, coaches and media.
In baseball, this level of drama has even intruded into the dynamic of sliding into second base. When I came up, 2B was the spike zone. Today, it’s a sanctified area of non-threatening attempts to beat the throw before the ball. There are exceptions, but the standard is not what it was. Catchers don’t get bowled over at home plate with any regularity. Hell, the most frightening sights at baseball games are umpires getting hit in the throat; fans attacking umpires at first base; and Roger Clemens shaking his thang thang at 15 year old country singers.
The King is Dead - Long live Bob Gibson.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Illove to watch Josh Beckett pitch. He is lights out good.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Yeah, I still watch baseball, even go to games as often as I can, but then I’m well outside your normal demographic, I suspect, as an older white guy who was attracted to the site by your excellent Bonds coverage in the first place. I come back regularly and frequently for the refeshing experience of reading sports commentary that’s willing to speak to the social and poltical aspects of sports, and to call out the bogus garbage we’re inundated with most everywhere else.
As a long-time Giants fan and huge fan of Bonds, I have to agree with you that the game’s not the same without Barry. I went to the Giants’ home opening night, and his absence was conspicuous - not becuase the park’s been stripped of his presence - that wasn’t really the case as many reported - but because EVERYTHING is different without his presence. I wonder if there’s ever been another athlete who changed an entire sport, on every level, by his sheer presence as Bonds did (and will again, I hope). Just knowing he was in the stadium, in or out of the lineup, altered the way the game was played, and there was always an electricity in the stands, just knowing he could make an appearance and do something astonishing.
I ended up having a great time at the ballpark. Tim Lincecum was pitching - he brings his own excitement - and the Giants won a tight game in dramatic fashion. The team was expected to be unwatchable without Bonds, but they’ve been pretty decent after all. Nonetheless, it was a completely different experience than when Barry was around.
One of the most amazing things about Bonds, which somehow gets missed, is that he accomplished all of his feats in the face of overwhelming pressure and ongoing character assassination. No matter what distractions and stresses came at him off the field or on - his father’s death, steroid accusations, taking a divorce case to the state supreme court - he was able to persever and deliver at a level no one else came close to. Over and over he went into hostile territory, was met with boos and boorsih insults, and turned them to cheers with a titanic blast. Has anyone else done that?
If any team has the guts to sign him, he’ll do it again.
As for T3’s wanting more contact or intimidation in the game, I think if there’s been any systematic trend away from that, it’s because high-paid players and their employers want to decrease the risk of injury. Bonds often replied to critics who thought he should dive for balls, climb or run into fences, slide harder, that he couldn’t help the team if he was hurt. Injuries eventually caught up with him, but Griffey lost his chance at setting records by being on the DL all the time, and his teams haven’t managed to contend without him (or with him, for that matter).
Anyway, if you love baseball, it’s a beautiful game, no matter who’s playing. If not, it probably doesn’t matter much either way.
The one thing I don’t miss about Bonds is the endless intentional walks. Who knows what kind of numbers he’d have put up if teams had pitched to him. Now THAT’s intimidation.
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:51 am
I don’t watch as much baseball as much as I used to because I’m a Braves fan who live in Jersey now so I’m not as locked in as I used especially since Turner doesn’t carry their games exclusively anymore. I’m still a big fan of Smoltzie and Glavine and try to follow Furcal and Andruw with the Dodgers but this season with a great NBA playoffs going on and no Barry Lamar Bonds as yet I’m not feeling it as much this early. If the Cubs can keep their strong play going into the Fall then I know I’ll be there to watch and the Yanks vs the Sox is always must see viewing.
Baseball is still a subtly beautiful game to me and since my time in ATL coincided with the Braves winning their division all those years that was when I really learned about its nuances listening to Skip Caray, Don Sutton, and Pete Van Wieren during the summer months. I’ll be an avid fan again I’m sure but the media and legal persecution of Bonds has left a sour taste in my mouth for the sport right now.
Play Ball!!
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Hal - that’s a great point about injuries and salaries.
May 4th, 2008 at 5:54 am
I miss Barry no doubt, but I love baseball. I’m going to New York for a game in Yankee Stadium before the end of this season come hell or high water!
May 4th, 2008 at 5:55 am
Or hail
May 4th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I loved Baseball as a kid but it was always hard to get a “pickup” game of baseball. It was so easier to grab a basketball and shoot hoops.
I only watched baseball in my 20s and really embraced the game when the Florida got the Marlins. Those guys were so accesible; it was noting to see a Marlin in the movie theatre during spring training.
I watched it recently only because of Barry Bonds. Now that he is gone, I dont bother. The whole Barry B saga just totally turned me off to baseball. How is it that one of…The greatest hitter of all time is not on a team.
Baseball does not do a good job trying to marketing to kids in the inner city. All of the kids I work with now hate baseball. “Baseball sucks, Mr. R, it’s for rich people”. Those are the things I hear from them and right now it seems baseball is for the rich because Baseball does not market it to them…sorry just went on a different tangent ..
May 4th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
I’m going to concur with Hal. I miss Barry. No one, repeat NO ONE in the game (even Manny and A-Rod) generates the kind of electricity that Bonds did. It is too bad he is–apparently–done. And as Hal said, to do what Barry did with the level of scrutiny he was subject to is astonishing, and points out what a great athlete and performer he was. But the game survives. Sure, MLB , FOX, ESPN and the rest of those clowns will suck the life out of it with commercials, close-ups, celebs in the stands, ad nauseum, but the GAME is still beautiful and vibrant. It evolves. They don’t spike guys like Cobb did or hit guys like Gibson did, but it is still a riveting test of athleticism and psychology. The influx of players from places like Venezuela and Taiwan will bring new styles of play, new schools of thought, but you’ll still have to put the round wood on the round leather. The impact of sabermetrics and, yes, blogging will shape new audiences and influence a new generation of fans. I’m angry about the sad Bonds debacle–he should be in uniform. But I’ve no doubt the game will survive and flourish.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:45 am
Baseball is my favorite sports despite its self-destructive tendencies. It’s interesting that baseball is considered a rich man’s sport in the USA when there are so many dirt poor kids playing it the Dominican Republic.