Commissioner Bud Selig defended the ludicrous cross-promotion deal on "Spider-Man 2" at his Oakland news conference by saying that baseball was trying to reach out to the youth market.
Pathetic.
If baseball really wants to reach out to the youth market, it should put some money into keeping playgrounds open for youngsters to play baseball.
In an earlier time, baseball was played on playgrounds across the country throughout the summer months, and those games produced players for the professional sport and fans for life.
When I was young, we played ball in summer almost from daybreak to sunset. We didn't have coaches telling us what to do, or fancy uniforms and equipment. Often, we didn't even have covers on the baseballs, because we'd knocked the covers off. We just taped them up and kept playing.
And, we developed a life-long passion for the game.
Now, the only baseball played is in the Little League program, and those games end in mid-July. If you walk through a city today, you see kids playing basketball, not baseball. In suburban areas, it's soccer.
As a result, you see a dwindling number of American players in Major League Baseball..
Ah, but we're going to cure that problem with a Spider-Man promotion.
In truth, it's become all about money for Major League Baseball, and the Spider-Man mess is just another example.
If MLB was really interested in reaching out to the "youth market," it would put postseason games, including the World Series, on early enough so youngsters could watch and still go to school the next day. But TV ratings, said Selig, go up the later the game is on. It's adults watching, of course, not youngsters.
The parallel with the movie industry is telling. The film industry is selling more and more tickets with movies that emphasize special effects, with the story line often a casualty.
Baseball will set an all-time attendance record, Selig predicted, but it's with a watered-down product that is treated like an entertainment vehicle, not a sport.
The first sign of greed was expansion beyond the original 16 teams. Then came the big television contracts and now, in the case of select teams like the Yankees and Red Sox, cable-TV companies that have greatly expanded revenues. To pay for those contracts, TV networks put in more commercials between innings, which slows the game to a snail's pace.
Baseball once was the contemplative sport. True fans came out early to watch batting practice, because a two-hour game wasn't enough to satisfy them. They would watch the game intently, anticipating situations and matching their own private decisions with those made by the manager. At appropriate times, they would cheer.
No longer. Now, fans are bombarded with constant noise, from rap (I will not call that music) to games on the giant screens behind center field. They are constantly exhorted to "Make Some Noise."
Why this change? Because baseball has expanded its marketing beyond the real fans, to casual watchers who know and care little about the rhythms of the game. These "fans" may only come to 2-3 games a year, but if you get enough of them, teams can expand their attendance.
So, the true fans, who might come to 20-25 games a year, have to endure the sideshow.
This expansion of the market has come at a price. Though attendance is at an all-time high, there are also dramatic fluctuations.
The new stadiums are no cure-all, either, as Selig admitted. The Milwaukee Brewers, whose chairman of the board is Selig's daughter, have dropped 1.1 million in attendance since their new park was opened. Pittsburgh's attendance is two-thirds what it was in its first year in PNC Park, Detroit's about half of its first year in Comerica Park. In each case, the teams playing in those stadiums are losing teams.
Detroit was once known as a great baseball city, whose fans supported their team through thick and thin. But those were the hard-core fans, who loved watching baseball, even losing baseball. The new fans demand a winner, and who can blame them at the ticket prices they're paying?
Baseball was once the game that symbolized America. Unfortunately, in its new mode of all-out greed, it still is.
http://sfgate.com
