2024 MLB season

[Oldspartan]

I am not a huge BB fan anymore. I lost a lot of interest when they went to mostly night games. The game became difficult to pass from father to son after that with the exception of LL. Plus it lost some character when the spitter and drilled bats went to the wayside.

 

[davros]

Apparently I'm not supposed to go to games. I went to 2 games last week and the Jays lost both- tho winning the 4 games in between. Dunedin is still a terrible place to get to tho the Yankee park is very nice and convenient (fans are brutal tho)

 

[jaylach]

Something that sort of gets me is the difference in ticket prices between cities. Believe it or not you can buy a package in Cleveland for $49.00 and go to every home game for a month. Same thing with football. When I left Ohio and went to Ft Worth TX in March of 1987 my previous year season tickets cost me under $100.00. In 1987 Cleveland was playing in Dallas and I intended to go until I found that the one game would cost me more than my season tickets the year before.

 

[davros]

They charge what the market will bear. Dallas has a lot of corporate money being thrown at tickets used for schmoozing.
Maple Leafs tickets are the same deal, either you get them for free as a corporate hand me down or you pay up the wazoo.When your kid asks for tickets for their birthday you end up eating mac n cheese for a while

 

[jaylach]

They charge what the market will bear. Dallas has a lot of corporate money being thrown at tickets used for schmoozing.
Maple Leafs tickets are the same deal, either you get them for free as a corporate hand me down or you pay up the wazoo.When your kid asks for tickets for their birthday you end up eating mac n cheese for a while

And this actually helps small market teams at least with the NFL and MLB. I can't comment on other sports on this but the NFL and MLB both have revenue sharing where profit from TV, thickets, etc. are shared between all teams. Don't know if it is current but let's take MLB. Last I saw all teams put 48% of all such revenue into a pool that is divided between all teams... High market teams lose some and small market teams gain. Let's make it simple and just use 2 teams. The revenue for one is 1 million and the other half a million. In this case the pool would be $720,000.00 with each team getting $360,000.00. LOL! Of course the actual numbers are MICH higher. Without this some teams would go bankrupt so it is a good thing as teams need other teams to play against.

But how about the average fan that supplies the money? Shoot, in Yankee Stadium, it will cost you $500 to $2,500 to sit behind home plate FOR ONE GAME! In a high priced market the average blue collar worker would find it difficult to afford going to a game yet he watches on TV so is still supplying the money. Many argue that the fan does not supply much of a percentage of a team's income as the most money comes from TV but I contend that, if the fan didn't watch, TV would not supply the money so it still comes down to the fan supplying the money yet, in many markets, it is financially impossible for a fan to go to a stadium to see a game.

OK, cost rant over. I just think that fans in high market areas get ripped off but have to admit that I don't have the answer as to how to resolve this while still keeping all teams solvent.

 

[davros]

$tienbrenner field in Tampa is a really nice facility with lots of close parking and a smart pre-pay setup. We were in and out faster than a subway/metro/transit ride in any big city.

 

[GaryE]

During the glory years when Montreal had a great hockey team that won Cup after Cup, I never attended a game they won. I decided it was me and that as a true fan, I should stay away and use my money to buy fish.

If I were in an MLB city during the season, I'd try to go. But I'll watch TV games in the evening if I am tired out from a busy day. Otherwise, I tend to forget they're on. As I get older, I am tired out more often, it seems, and that makes me more of a fan.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I played most sports in high school. I am not very tall so basketball was the one sport I did not play.

Over the years in the interest of getting richer most sports have changed their rules so that they encourage more scoring. I find women's basketball to be more fun to watch than what now passes for basketball in the NBA. I had a good friends whose family had season tickets for the Knicks. We were almost dead center court and on the rail in the first section above floor level. But when Latrell Sprewell choked his coach and was allowed to remain in the league and the Knicks then took him, I gave up watching basketball at all, I have not looked back.

I used to be an avid Football fan stating in about 1967. I even bet with a bookie in the 1980s. Now I cannot remember the last game I watched from start to finish. Rules changes makes it not much fun to watch any more. Soon it will become a penalty if one actually tackles a quarterback. NFL now means to me, Nobody Likes Football.

I do not mind the DH in baseball. Watching 99/100 automatic outs by the pitchers was not exactly exciting baseball. But the most recent changes have also degraded the game. A lot of the strategy has been removed from the game. But the TV folks wanted shorter games. Baseball is not a sport with a game clock, or it used to be.

But it is all about viewership. The older fans do not like most of the current rules in many sports. The younger fans, who know nothing of the history of the game, want action which, to them, means scoring.

Sportsmanship has died ans been replaced by greed. I think football started to lose me when they started the stupidity of an end zone celebration after a score. Yep, makes sense to me that when your team is losing 42 - 3 and somebody scores in the final 5 minutes to make the score 40-10, this deserves an end zone dance?

When will there be a 4 point shot in basketball? When will hockey just be all fighting - no net, no puck no goalie, just 12 guys with sticks, or better yet clubs, on skates trying the beat heck out of each other?

The future of baseball?

 

[GaryE]

To be fair, hockey has radically reduced fighting. When I played, you fought, even in kids games. It was an awful sports culture, even if it was kind of fun. Now, the league is expanding exponentially, and the problem is a radical watering down of talent. The players are generally dull. More athletic, highly trained and mostly all the same skills-wise. Uncreative.
I was very tall, so I was pushed to basketball, but I hated the game. Too much scoring. In every sport, I liked playing defence first. I love a 1-0 game. That's why I've gravitated to football/soccer.
American and Canadian football don't work for me. Too hiccupy, too many commercial breaks. No flow. I know, the NFL says a game is 14-7, and it's logically 2 to 1. That's a neat trick to make things sound more exciting.

Baseball is slow. I don't mind the rule changes. I don't like the DH, but I can live with it. When I'm at a game, I watch the infield, especially the corners. That's where I played, and I love to see the game within the game TV doesn't show you.

I think we all prefer games we played and enjoyed. I don't like scorers. They can be nice people, I guess, but they choose evil. I was a goalie. They all scored on me.
I'll take a good play at third over a home run any day. My interests represent nothing in the sports world!

 

[jaylach]

With it being opening day for the MLB I'm a bit surprised to see this much of a lack of games being broadcast.

For me opening day is still 1.5 hours away as I'll stream the first Cleveland game. LOL! Dinner tonight will be hotdogs with onions, sweet relish and stadium mustard... Ya I actually have the brown mustard used in Cleveland stadium shipped to me. Oddly, with buying by the case, it is no more expensive than buying brown mustard in a local store and last next to forever.

 

[jaylach]

YAY!!! Baseball is here again!

Gotta love Cleveland's pitcher, Shane Bieber. Two inning into the game and he has six strikeouts. He just has the ability to make a batter think the ball is where it isn't. Shoot, with half his strikeouts the ball is in the dirt.... OK... update. After three innings Shane has seven strikeouts and two infield ground outs. He has given up two singles but they accounted for nothing. I just LOVE this guy!

 

[GaryE]

Half the fanbases in baseball now know their team can win it all. The other half may be certain tomorrow.

 

[Ceez]

I have a Brooklyn Dodgers hat - one made in the 1990s.

This makes me both cool and very out of date.

The kids call that a "throw-back", youre actually very cool now and relatable


Go Doyers!!

 

[jaylach]

All I know is that, even though only one game, it was nice to see Cleveland's ace pitcher, Shane Bieber, look like Shane Bieber. Last year he was hurt a lot of the season and just didn't look right when he was in. Yesterday he pitched 6 shutout innings with 4 hits, 11 strikeouts and 1 walk. He was the 2020 AL Cy Young winner.

 

[Ceez]

All I know is that, even though only one game, it was nice to see Cleveland's ace pitcher, Shane Bieber, look like Shane Bieber. Last year he was hurt a lot of the season and just didn't look right when he was in. Yesterday he pitched 6 shutout innings with 4 hits, 11 strikeouts and 1 walk. He was the 2020 AL Cy Young winner.

I watched Corbin Burnes pitch yesterday he looked phenomenal too. Nearly same stat line 11ks, 1 hit 6 innings pitched. 1.50 era. Baltimore did great picking him up