In a recent Harris Poll, 33% of the adult sports fans said they like football the best. Only 14% said baseball was their favorite sport. It's not surprising, football is the king of sports in this country. But baseball is always going to be America's pastime.
With the Collective Bargaining Agreement up in December this year, maybe baseball should look at going back in time to make a few slight changes that could get more adults to pick baseball over football.
It's easy to say from my point of view that the season is way too long. I do a daily show on XM with Kevin Kennedy 12 months a year Monday through Friday ... 3 hours of baseball. Now Kevin and I love the show and so do our listeners, but I'm talking about the passive fan, the family man, who when his teams in baseball are out of the playoff picture September 1st and has to choose where to spend his or her hard-earned money, he will go to football games, college and/or pro.
I don't blame him. What, after 140 games and 30+ spring training games, they are supposed to keep watching meaningless games? No way ... it's time to be proactive.
Lets go back to 1961, when baseball went from a 154-game schedule to 162. Let's keep interleague play and wild-card teams, but let's shorten the season and add another round of the playoffs and two more wild-card teams. That way we don't lose fans to football because more teams and their fans will have hope after September 1st. Nothing beats playoff baseball, not even the NFL in the beginning of the season.
Great idea about shortening the season. However, instead of an additional round of playoffs being added, I would actually like more of####ays during the season to reduce the grind on the players. This would also accomodate rain-outs. We already have teams around .500 hovering for a playoff spot now, let's not be like the NBA and let teams below .500 into the post-season.
stay at 162, get rid of the play offs, do the world series the way it is supposed to be, yes football is popular bit so is American Idol and G Bush got elected, why is everything done for the dumb.
Spring training is too long, season is way too long, mediocre players are paid way too much, records are set while players are using steroids. What is there to like about baseball?
In terms of the season being long the only thing I find long about it is your XM show. The only show I skip! Why bother when I can read your blog and get your pointless points? Football is popular thanks to the following: Office Pools, The Bookie, Fantasy Football, and a reason for over weight people to invite their over weight friends over for beer and chips. Baseball is fine. Want to talk about fixing the game? Next time Yankee fan calls in tell him the 15:1 payroll advantage is wrong. The only thing better about Football is they don't allow Yankees or Royals. Feel free to steal my idea since you have none of your own or worthless garbage such as you stated in your blog.
I agree that MLB should go back to the 154 game season. But adding two more "wild card" teams"? No way. The regular season has been cheapened enough already.
I agree with shortening the season. I would start with spring training. Go back to 154 games, maybe less, and yes, add another round of playoffs. You did, however, fail to mention the financial advantage some teams have over others. How are fans of teams such as the Royals supposed to stay interested? I understand there are a few teams that compete with a low payroll, but the majority are not going to be able to keep up with the Yankees, Red Sox, etc. PS: I am a Red Sox fan so it is not sour grapes.
I think that the baseball season should be shortened to 140 games and add 4 more teams to the playoffs in each league that would make 8 teams that could get a playoff berth.It would add more fans attendance to those teams that are always close and more oppotunities to low market teams and the season would end at the same date. So when football starts many fans would be more consentrated in a new MLB championship race.
I'm probably in the minority here, but I believe the problem with baseball is that there are way too many teams. I believe this is the fundamental problem with all pro sports, but baseball especially. If we could shave off at least six to eight teams then baseball would have a better on-field product. There is way to much mediocrity for the casual fan. That is what we are talking about, hardcore fans like myself are suckers, we watch anyway. I realize this would never happen though, the unions would cry and throw around words like discrimination and ideas like we are taking away "X" amount of jobs from hardworking ballplayers. Well I'm sorry, maybe it's time for those ballplayers to wake up and realize they simply aren't good enough, and enter the workforce like the rest of America. Then again, it doesn't matter, pro-sports have always been about money, and the suits wreck everything when given enough time. It's really only a matter of time before some league comes up with the bone-haed idea to let the whole league in for the playoffs. Then won't that be exciting!
Stay at 162 games.Baseball needs to go back to 26 teams,there's to many.Get rid of inter-league play,I don't care about seeing the Reds and Twins play in regular season or Pirates and Royals.Go back to having only 4 teams in post season.Go back to having the LCS the best of 5 instead of 7.Play the LCS and world series in the following format.Tue,wed off thurs Fri,Sat,Sun,off mon,Tues,wed.Thaats how they used to have the LCS and WS.Season was over with before the end of Oct.
Also Fox and ESPN needs to remember there're more than 3 teams.I'am fed up with only seeing the Yankees,RedSox,and Mets on ALL THE TIME.That is all we ever see on TV them 3 teams and who ever they are playing.Shows games that are in your region.
Last edited by Reds14 on September 20th at 11:00 AM.
I mean this in all sincerity: Rob Dibble has no idea what he is talking about. He never has and never will. He should just go hang out with Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver and all the other ex-jocks who think they know more about baseball than more intelligent, more objective fans. His grammar and grasp of the English language are almost as atrocious as his opinions. He is the American Karl Pilkington, but he doesn't know it.
I like the idea of going back to 154 games. But the playoffs are good like it is. If you keep adding playoff spots to the format there will be losing teams in the playoffs. Look at the National league now most of the teams are below 500. I would like to see interleague done away with. Let there be more divisional play were the games mean more to the teams and build up the rivalrys more.
154 games sure. Inter-League is a joke, they can play those games during spring training. A strong salary cap and revenue sharing, with a reduction in teams - that would improve the quality of play and competitiveness. Stiffer penalties & enforcement for steriods. Lower ticket prices & packages for families (you almost have to be in the millionares club to take your family to a game).
I'll add this in too while I have the chance - THEY SHOULD GIVE TWO BASES FOR A HITS BATSMAN!
154 games sure. Inter-League is a joke, they can play those games during spring training. A strong salary cap and revenue sharing, with a reduction in teams - that would improve the quality of play and competitiveness. Stiffer penalties & enforcement for steriods. Lower ticket prices & packages for families (you almost have to be in the millionares club to take your family to a game).
I'll add this in too while I have the chance - THEY SHOULD GIVE TWO BASES FOR A HITS BATSMAN!
How about not only shortening the number of games to 140 but also shortening the amount of time between every inning. Real fans lose interest when an average game lasts 3+ hours.
Drop interleague play. The thrill is gone due to trades and free agency.
Make the July 31 trade deadline a hard line. None of this nonsense of team placing star players on waviers in August & September just have a contending team "rent" them for 6 weeks.
Not every team teams needs to be represented on the All-Star squad.
Get rid of 2 teams in each league. Talent pool, especially pitching is weak. Reducing the number of teams & thus the number of players will improve the on field product.
Go back to the division playoff format. Dump the wildcard.
Reduce the influence of the networks on starting times. There should be at least one post season game (even during the week) that starts at 3 PM EST. Night games should start at 7 PM EST. That means first pitch not all the inane nonsense that the networks show for 20 minutes prior to the first pitch.
Replace Bud Selig.
Last edited by skolmann on September 20th at 3:12 PM.
This idea of shortening the season is genius. Duh!!!! I have heard and read the same arguments every year for God knows how long. Mr Dibble has managed to capsulize it all in one blog pretending these are in some way new & novel ways to bring baseball back to it's glory days. A shortened season or any other idea to bring back fan interest will not be accomplished unless there is a way to stop the owners from paying such outlandished saleries to players who are nothing short of spoiled rotten and not appreciative of those that are stupid enough to cheer them on.
I think the season should be shortened significantly. At the end of the season you can make the argument that for some teams every game matters, but it's tough to care much about game #45 when you know there are another 4 months of baseball and 117 games to be played.
The bigger problem is that before any given season you already know the 10 teams who will be in the running and the 10 teams who will bottom of the barrel 6 months down the road and 162 games later. The far too rare, occasional surprise like the 1990 Reds and 2006 Tigers is about the only thing that keeps me interested.
Excellent ideas! Much better than Bud Selig thinking of ways to ensure that the team with the best record goes to the World Series. Also, I wish you would invite Nate Newton or one of those other meatheads on Best Damn that think baseball is a sissy sport to get a batting helmet and stand in against you. Having to face Rob Dibble's 100 mph fast ball with that intimidating delivery for 3 pitches, 8 if you were in a bad mood, is by far scarier than putting on pads and a helmet and taking one shot from Ray Lewis.
Rob Dibble was named a full-time co-host of BEST DAMN SPORTS SHOW PERIOD in April 2005. The outspoken, all-star reliever is a perfect fit for the most irreverent sports show on television.
Dibble, who is best known as one of the Reds' hard throwing "Nasty Boys," along with Norm Charlton and Randy Myers, won a World Series with the Reds in 1990.
