phatj wrote:Would the last include the catcher, or just coaches?

hopefully everyone

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2 ... robo-umps/

More information here.

Just seems like it’s gonna be tough to both reduce game time while also increasing offense.

MoBettle wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/03/08/mlbs-experimental-rules-minor-league-include-longer-pitching-distance-no-mound-visits-robo-umps/

More information here.

Just seems like it’s gonna be tough to both reduce game time while also increasing offense.

I still don't get this game time thing. They fiddle with a pitch clock and mound visits and the game time gets reduced by an average of 3 minutes or something. Does anyone ever really think, "Wow, at least that game wasn't 3 minutes longer."

The only way to reduce it significantly is to drastically reduce pitching changes and then you basically change the game and risk injuries. I hate what the NFL does with major rule changes that really change the way the game is played. An average baseball game is about 3 hours long. Just deal with that reality and go from there.

They need to start appealing to young fans or the sport will continue to lose fans.

The reality isn't working for the young fans at this point.

Is the sport really losing fans? Saw that youth participation is way up. Record TV deals. The whole appealing to kids thing seems like a crock to me.

heyeaglefn wrote:They need to start appealing to young fans or the sport will continue to lose fans.

The reality isn't working for the young fans at this point.

But what can they do about it? They would have to completely change the game. Instead of talking about it all the time and making everyone think/talk about it, I would prefer they find a way to better market the players and the game. If they need to shorten games, I would focus on the playoff games that last forever. But they won't do that because it's advertising dollars. Instead they want to change the game instead of changing the way they make money off of it.

Almost all the proposed rule changes are aimed at younger fans so that's what they want to do about it.

kruker wrote:Is the sport really losing fans? Saw that youth participation is way up. Record TV deals. The whole appealing to kids thing seems like a crock to me.

The average fan is like 53 years old so they aren't replacing older fans with new ones.

Babe Ruth's last surviving child passed away overnight. 102 years old

heyeaglefn wrote:Almost all the proposed rule changes are aimed at younger fans so that's what they want to do about it.

Yeh, I once saw a mob of angry children clamoring for larger bases and moving the pitching mound back.

Anyway, I was talking about the game length thing. I don't have a problem with some of the rule changes because they won't really change the game and may improve officiating. I just don't get the obsession with trying things that shorten the average game by 3 or 4 minutes. It's stupid. They aren't trying to appeal to young people saving that 3-4 minutes, they are trying to appease TV networks.

The TV networks are trying to appeal to younger fans. They have to try something, maybe there isn't a good solution but doing nothing isn't going to get younger fans to watch..
The problem with marketing players is even a guy like Mike Trout may not have an impact on a game for a 30 minute + stretch. So if you are watching a game for Mike Trout he might not even get a catch or at bat for over 30 minutes.

I don't believe the tv networks are trying to appeal to fans by shortening the game 3 minutes. They want the game shortened by 3 minutes to get it under 3 hours so they can have other programing and sell more advertising.

Monkeyboy wrote:I don't believe the tv networks are trying to appeal to fans by shortening the game 3 minutes. They want the game shortened by 3 minutes to get it under 3 hours so they can have other programing and sell more advertising.

They probably want both, but many articles I read cited lower prime time ratings as a big reason to speed up game.

heyeaglefn wrote:

kruker wrote:Is the sport really losing fans? Saw that youth participation is way up. Record TV deals. The whole appealing to kids thing seems like a crock to me.

The average fan is like 53 years old so they aren't replacing older fans with new ones.

Average age for football is 47. I don't hear the same things about them. I doubt 6 years is that big of a deal, but I could be wrong. I just don't see a problem when revenues from TV are way up and participation is on the upswing. The "we have to appeal to everyone" ethos isn't the way to go.

kruker wrote:

heyeaglefn wrote:

kruker wrote:Is the sport really losing fans? Saw that youth participation is way up. Record TV deals. The whole appealing to kids thing seems like a crock to me.

The average fan is like 53 years old so they aren't replacing older fans with new ones.

Average age for football is 47. I don't hear the same things about them. I doubt 6 years is that big of a deal, but I could be wrong. I just don't see a problem when revenues from TV are way up and participation is on the upswing. The "we have to appeal to everyone" ethos isn't the way to go.

google "nfl millennials"

kruker wrote:

heyeaglefn wrote:

kruker wrote:Is the sport really losing fans? Saw that youth participation is way up. Record TV deals. The whole appealing to kids thing seems like a crock to me.

The average fan is like 53 years old so they aren't replacing older fans with new ones.

Average age for football is 47. I don't hear the same things about them. I doubt 6 years is that big of a deal, but I could be wrong. I just don't see a problem when revenues from TV are way up and participation is on the upswing. The "we have to appeal to everyone" ethos isn't the way to go.

I hear about how NFL is losing fans all the time and see all the time how people have stopped watching for one reason or another. Many people on this board have stopped watching or at least claimed they have.

NFL also only has 256 games in the regular season total. Baseball has almost ten times that.

The fact is both are struggling to attract young fans but for different reasons.

Fair enough. I just don't see a huge problem. And I feel like this is one of those arguments that we've been having for 20 years. TV money is up, youth participation is up.

Funny video: https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/stat ... 0041030656

I've almost completely stopped watching pro football. The biggest reason is the ridiculous celebrating after every play. Maybe they have reigned that in a little bit but that was originally the reason. Now I just don't miss it. I did tune on last year to watch the Birds run, but that was unusual. I now pretty much just watch baseball and college football with a little college basketball thrown in there.

Act like you've been there before! Sports are serious!