Why baseball is dying and football is winning

If anyone needs a reason why baseball is no longer Americas favorite sport, look no further than last night. The Chicago Cubs, who finished the regular season tied for the best record in the national league lost a one game wild card playoff.

Yep, they played a tie breaker game Monday and lost so then they played another game last night.
They lost.
One of the sports most beloved teams with one of the best records for the season is out of the playoffs... brilliant strategy by MLB.

I'm not here because it's the Cubs either, this has been happening for a while now.

The NFL on the other hand has new rules this year to protect their most prized possessions.
Quarterbacks.
They understand that a good quarterback is good for the game and a backup qb makes viewers switch the channel.

Baseball does stupid #.
Their career hits leader is banned for life.
Their homerun leaders are not in the hall of fame because they ignored the steroid issue.
Their useless allstar game actually determined the world series home field team....wtf?
They refuse to change rules to make the game better.

Rest In peace baseball.
It was fun till it wasnt.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Ehh, both baseball and football are getting real boring, I've moved over to basketball instead.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Meh,
Remember when Seattle Seahawks made the playoffs with a 7-9 record because they "won" their division?

All the penalties are making watching the games painful.

Just playing devil's advocate here.
Unless I'm going to a baseball game I have no interest in watching it.
I haven't watched a whole game since the Phillies won the world series.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I gave up basketball years ago.
Wasnt really a favorite to begin with.

a reply to: watchitburn

Yeah, I remember Seattle getting in with a losing record.
But football still rewards the teams with the best records. Baseball just punished theirs.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Why didn't they win more games and avoid a winner takes all wildcard game? the cubs are in that position because they had better teams ahead of them.

Overtime in football is dumb and a coin flip can basically win you the game.

My drug of choice is FBS college football where the "playoff system" is a perfect microcosm of everything that is wrong in the world.

a reply to: JDmOKI

They had tied for the best record in their league.
So no, there were no better teams ahead of them.
That's the whole point of the post.

a reply to: Bluntone22

I'm a bit of a rarity, a non-American who likes American sports - well, most of them. I really don't like Basketball, it bores the tits off me.

I freely admit I don't understand a lot of the intricacies and more complicated tactics but I still enjoy watching both American Football - a misnomer if ever there was one - and Baseball.

I'm a big sport fan in general and one of my favourite sports is cricket.
I can watch every ball bowled in all five days of any Test match, between any sides not just England.
But I know I am very much in the minority and cricket has suffered in the past with a downturn in interest and support.
en.wikipedia.org...

A shortened one day version was introduced with the first One Day International, ODI, taking place between Australia and England in 1971.
One day cricket has developed over the years with coloured balls and uniforms being introduced and day / night matches becoming increasingly regular.
en.wikipedia.org...

Despite the relative success of the shortened form of the game Cricket still struggled financially in an ever increasingly competitive market and fewer and fewer people were getting involved at grass root levels.
And so T20 cricket was introduced.
An even shorter form of the game, with fewer restrictions which in turn generated greater inventiveness and innovation.
en.wikipedia.org...
The game was presented and marketed in a completely different, dare I say it more modern, manner and it appealed to the public and sponsors.
It has attracted a whole new generation of players and supporters who are starting to take more of an interest in the older, more traditional formats of the game.
Some of the innovations from T20 have crept into the other formats too making them more attractive to supporters etc.
The whole game has been revitalised.

Now to my point; Do you think that perhaps a similar approach could be applied to baseball?

a reply to: Bluntone22

I get it and I understand the frustration but we can't wait a week for wildcard games. 1 game is a little funny for baseball but can't hold up the other team waiting for the winner.

a reply to: JDmOKI

They could have four teams in the playoffs instead of five. The other team shouldn't have been in.

a reply to: Freeborn

I've watched a bit of cricket and thought to myself "what the heck is happening"

I just haven't taken the time to research

This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read.

Football isn’t thriving; it’s the opposite. Revenue may be healthy but that’s not going to last much longer. Ticket sales and ratings are dropping. People are tuning out. Young athletes are choosing different sports where CTE isn’t a factor, parents are preventing their kids from playing football. The league is way to authoritarian while the players act like juvenile dogs with no boundaries. Defense is a part of the game that’s been sacrificed for the short attention fans. The traditional, hard core fans love defense. They don’t love this game. And the short attention span fans will leave once they see a new shiny squirrel. In 2020-2021, the current collective bargaining agreement comes to a halt. When that happens, I will guarantee there is no NFL for an entire season.

Meanwhile baseball maintains its purity and hardcore fans. The base of the sport remains which will allow it to weather the storm. They pushed a lot of people away with their previous strike, but they worked hard to bring them back by ridding the game of steroids and keeping the game it’s always been. Baseball isn’t perfect, but it will be around a lot longer than football.

Soccer is the fastest growing sport in the country. It’s beginning to get the top athletes that used to play football. Many MLS cities are creating a grass roots, cult like following for their teams. Attendance is growing every year, new stadiums are being built, and more games are being broadcast on national television. Hockey is growing, NBA is growing.

The NFL is following the same path NASCAR did. Changing rules to fit what new fans want, fans that won’t stick around. They watered down the product and butchered the goose that laid the golden egg. The NFL is doing the same.

a reply to: Bluntone22

The real reason is salary cap.

Ah, „eggball“, not soccer/football.
I was wondering about a sudden increase in interest in the worlds most important sport in the Usa.

a reply to: Assassin82

Baseball would kill for footballs ratings.
Football is going to be around for a long time.
Baseball will survive but they need to get younger fans.

a reply to: Bluntone22


I haven't watched a full football game in two years, football is become too mamby pamby for me and the games are far too long. If Lawrence Taylor were playing today he'd be flagged on almost every rush where he touches the QB.

Baseball's problem isn't the playoff format, it's that they don't appeal to as broad a base as they need to. The Cubs had two chances to move forward, they blew it, that's not MLB's fault, it's the Cubs going back to being the Cubs.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Football figured out that star quarterbacks equal ratings. Nobody watches football for defense.

And the Cubs got shafted..

a reply to: Bluntone22

Baseball. Rounders for men.

Baseball died for me after 93.