Bored with Baseball
Listen, I know I should be fired up about the baseball playoff races.
The Rays and the Cubs are in. The Yankees are out. The Dodgers and the Diamondbacks are duking it out in the National League West while the Phillies and the Mets are battling in the National League East.
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There’s all sorts of drama and all sorts of unknowns. There’s plenty of reasons to be excited.
But I’m not. I just don’t find baseball any fun any more.
Truth is, I was a baseball fan before I was a fan of any other sport. My dad coached baseball, and so I spent many summer afternoons at the park.
And I loved it. Keeping score. Eating sunflower seeds. Hollering at the pitchers to “rock and fire.” Yelling at the batters to “wait for your pitch.” Summer evenings at the baseball park were the best.
But now, I can’t get fired up about baseball to save my life. At a time when even the most fringe fan should be ga-ga about the playoff chases, I’m as uninterested as can be.
Here’s the thing — baseball needs to do one little thing that would amp up the excitement again. And I’m not just talking about my excitement because let’s face it, baseball isn’t the American passion that it used to be.
The fix: shorten the season.
American sports fans used to be content with sitting back and enjoying the slow burn of the 162-game regular season. Now, no one has time. Everyone is in a hurry. Everyone is in a time crunch. The baseball season feels like it stretches on forever.
If baseball cut out even 10 percent of its games, it would make the season better. Games would mean more, and two-plus weeks would be shaved off the schedule.
Baseball remains a great game with its gamesmanship and its strategy, but this is truly a case where less would mean more. So much more.
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No one has time for a 162-game season, but they have time for an NFL season going from July to February, or an NBA season going from October to June?
Bring on the MLB postseason, and go Cubs!!
D. Mikels