Oh Baseball Where Art Thou?

 

Baseball has been dead to me for a while. 

I couldn't get through an entire 9 inning game even if you paid me lol. And it's a crying shame, because for the greater part of my childhood it was my favorite sport. And the 2004 World Series will forever be one of my favorite memories. Sitting on the couch, watching with my Dad - the only two up in the house when they won. Then we went to his father's grave the next day and put The Boston Globe next to his gravestone. Unforgettable stuff.

I think one of the big reasons it's dead and dying is the lack of star power. They just don't have the personalities like they used to. Back in the day Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds...these were larger than life figures that permeated American culture. Nowadays I'd be willing to bet most average Americans couldn't name a handful of the best players in the game. Hell I'd even have a hard time.

And I think ultimately this lack of cultural impact is due to the type of entertainment that it is. Think about where the pulse of America is these days - on apps where the videos are 30 seconds long, or on streaming services where you can watch on your own time. Baseball is the exact opposite. It literally takes 4 hours to play a game, and it's scheduled viewing that comes at you almost every single night. 

I guess going to the ballpark will always be a unique and timeless experience. But in the same way that other types of entertainment have faded away in America (vaudeville, VHS, newspapers) baseball seems to be on that same trajectory. I doubt it will ever "die" in the same way video stores did. But it will continue to fall farther and farther off of people's minds. You can still buy a newspaper, still catch a vaudeville show if you really look. And you'll always be able to go watch a ballgame. But as an in-house living-room centerpiece, it's old news. It's the fireplace of sports at this point lol.

I'm trying to think of how I could "watch" the Red Sox in 2023... I guess the most feasible way would be to consume the YouTube highlight reels in the morning? It's a weird thing to consider, because all my instincts tell me that isn't actually "watching" the team. Traditionalists will tell you that that's no better than box score watching. But to hell with tradition, especially when it comes to baseball. Tradition will be the death of the sport. They need a 20 second pitch clock yesterday.

Maybe I'll give the YouTube highlight reels a run. We'll see.

- ZB James