According to a Forbes’
Magazine story from last month, MLB attendance is down 6.6 percent from the
same time last year and is at its lowest average in fifteen years. As you might
expect, Commissioner Rob Manfred is concerned.
Maybe they need more homeruns.
I mean, that’s what
supposedly saved baseball after the 1994 strike, a PEDs-infused homerun barrage
courtesy of Bonds, McGwire, Sosa et al.
But wait, now we have ostensibly clean players bashing away, too, Judge,
Stanton, Trout et al. Have fans grown
bored by the long ball?
I have, but I’m just a
White Sox fan, who was brought up on good pitching, sound defense, and speed;
that formula had hardly any room in it for power. Needless to say, the whole launch-angle thing
leaves me cold. All it does is encourage
teams to seek bigger, stronger players who can hit 115-mph homeruns and
pitchers who can throw 100-mph fastballs to strike out said hitters. Loads of fun, that.
On Sunday, the Mariners
beat the Royals 1-0. For the season,
Seattle is 26-11 in one-run ballgames.
The contest took all of two hours to play. Somewhere, Mark Buehrle is smiling along with
this old White Sox fan. Of course, the
Mariners may be a little upset that they didn’t get to sell another hour’s
worth of overpriced concessions. But I’m
willing to bet the 38, 344 Mariners’ fans on hand couldn’t have cared
less.
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