If you go strictly by the numbers it would seem that baseball is booming.
In 2014 Major League Baseball saw nearly 74 million fans in attendance at stadiums all across the country — the seventh-highest total of all-time. And then there’s the dizzying amount of baseball coverage on television by ESPN, MLB Network, and local channels.
But when it comes to favorite U.S. sports, the Great American Pastime might only rank third.
Football, of course, is still by far the most popular as evidenced by the record-setting numbers of this year’s thrilling Super Bowl.
Basketball is fast-paced, exciting and high-scoring and continues to gain in overall appeal.
While Major League Baseball might appear to be doing well, there are plenty of problems facing new commissioner Rob Manfred. Changes should be made to make sure baseball can keep up with the other top sports. So just like with the Academy Awards, here’s my list of suggestions to make baseball a more appealing game to all sports fans:
- Shorten the regular season. Let’s face it, 162 games is far too many. Manfred has talked about cutting the games down to 154, like it was in the past. But it could be cut down even more to perhaps an even 100. How? Start the regular season later and expand the number of playoff teams and length of post-season series to best-of-seven.
Yes, I know this will upset all those baseball purists out there. To be honest, the usually sacred baseball records like home run leaders haven’t meant as much since the PED era. And the baseball season doesn’t get interesting until September anyway. Decreasing the number of regular-season games is one way to reach the playoffs faster
- Speed up the pace of games. The average length of a MLB game took more than three hours last year, with some games going well over the four-hour mark. This needs to change. Although I’m not in favor of a 30-second clock for pitchers or anything like that, umpires need to encourage pitchers and players to speed things up. And enough of pitchers constantly throwing to first base. Let’s keep the game moving.
- Keep instant replay to a minimum, especially during the regular season. Instant replay can be expanded once the playoffs start.
While I’m on the discussion of the playoffs, once again there are high expectations for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers have made post-season play the past two years only to be eliminated by their hated rivals from St. Louis.
Will this finally be the year the Dodgers make it back to World Series? They certainly have a chance with a strong pitching staff led by three-time Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw. But the Dodgers’ left-handed ace needs to prove himself in the playoffs when it really counts.
Other top L.A. pitchers include Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu.
The Dodgers also boast an emerging superstar in slugger Yasiel Puig.
No doubt, the pressure will be on manager Don Mattingly to take L.A. to the next level and perhaps its first World Series title since 1988.
The San Francisco Giants have won three of the past five World Series, but somehow they still seem to be striving for respect. In some ways the Giants mirror the rest of Major League Baseball: Nothing fancy, just getting the job done.
