Is Baseball Dying?
There’s this one set of quotes from a baseball game long ago that I just love. I recently tweeted it…
Shared this before. It’s relevant due to current circumstances… 😢 pic.twitter.com/gDVgEScoKV
— Zach Shafron (@ShafUnlimited) March 2, 2022
I was obviously not around when this occurred in a 1941 ballgame. However, it’s more so the symbolism that I like so much about it. The fact that this legend in Ted Williams really just had a love for playing the game of baseball over the feat of hitting .400 for the season.
Here in 2022, 81 years later, the game that players such as Ted Williams loved so much is facing a crisis. The league is already locked out for the first two series of the season and it could face more stoppage if the players and owners don’t reach an agreement.
The problem with baseball is that it’s not basketball or football…or even hockey. It lacks that type of pace and constant action that those sports have. What’s different about current times versus say 1941 is the way our people are so used to the constants. Whether that be from the internet, phones, applications, Facebook/Twitter. It doesn’t gear towards a game like a baseball that takes patience to watch.
For our Guardians, two series at Progressive Field against the Royals and Twins are canceled due to this lockout. Do people care about this or is it more of a matter-of-fact type of deal? Like could you imagine if a Browns game was canceled and what an uproar that would cause? The fans would go absolutely crazy!
This is what commissioner Rob Manfred said about this entire ordeal:
“We’re prepared to continue negotiations. We’ve been informed that the MLBPA is heading back to New York, meaning that no agreement is possible until at least Thursday,” Manfred said Tuesday. “… The clubs and our owners fully understand just how important it is to our millions of fans that we get the game on the field as soon as possible. To that end, we want to bargain and agree with the Players’ Association as soon as possible.”
Manfred better be careful and I say this in the examples I have already given with the way our society runs here in 2022. Taking away baseball from the fans is just not a good idea. It’s already a sport that fans who are in my generation (25 and younger) don’t carry the same love for baseball as their grandfathers once did those years when Ted Williams took to the plate.
I personally like the stability of knowing there is going to be baseball played each and every day. To not have that moving forward is sad to see with these failed negotiations.
Do you care that there may not be baseball this summer?
I know some do, some don’t. It’s all changing…
