Will this guy help baseball with its popularity problem?

[sekker]

And Ohtani is a once-in-a-generation talent. Watch him when you can!

[vision63]

sekker wrote:
[quote=vision63]
No. There's lots of him. He is very very exciting though. The Reds are winning this season. That's how you haul in the fans.

I would not say there are a lot of this kind of talent - the last one that was this much of a game-changer was probably Vince Coleman of the Cardinals where he regularly stole >100 bases / year. And he had other players like Willie McGee and Ozzie Smith, meaning opposing pitchers never got a break from dealing with runners constantly pressing the bases.
Those were great Cardinals team (my brother played little league and high school ball with Ozzie) I think he has 5 tool potential. Especially from the left side of the plate. Being a switch-hitter is pretty dynamic. He has power, but it's not been demonstrated fully.

The Reds have wisely decided to attack the basepaths. But you can't just ignore better players just because he's so exciting. It was shocking to me when they beat the Dodgers in an early series this season. So used to them being doormats. I was like "who the heck is this guy?"

They play the Reds again in a few weeks and I'm looking for my team to beat them down.

[vision63]

sekker wrote:
And Ohtani is a once-in-a-generation talent. Watch him when you can!

just watched the Dodgers beat them yesterday. Ohtani slugged a homer. Next season, he'll be a Dodger. With Trout out, the Angels are toast.

[vision63]

kj wrote:
[quote=Will Collier]
[quote=$tevie]
Baseball has a popularity problem because it has put all its egg in paid platforms. I can see at least some if not all NFL, NBA, NHL, and college sports on broadcast tv. I can see more Premier League football than MLB on broadcast tv. A friend with a small local bar says MASN wants $60 a month to let her show the games, which she can't budget for, although she always has some game or race or competition on the set it's never baseball.

People aren't going to care about a sport that isn't readily available. Not everyone has or even wants cable. MLB has shot itself in the foot and they are so stupid they can't figure out that even one game a week would mean maybe children would grow up caring about baseball. Instead, young adults have no reason to spend hundreds of dollars on tickets and food for their family just to watch a game they aren't very familiar with.

This is a really good point. The Braves went from being on basic cable (and broadcast, locally) every day literally everywhere to a regional network you can only get with particular cable or streaming packages. Even in a monster season like this one, that has a big impact.
I agree. I just watch highlights on Youtube anymore because I can't even figure out how to see the sports I want to see. Yeah, I used to turn on OTA tv and have a game on in the living room, but it isn't like that anymore. Tennis is even worse, and look at how much it struggles, at least in the US. How would you even watch every grand slam?

I'm not a real baseball fan, but Otani is the one that has me tuning back in. But any excitement can't hurt. Jomboy has made a difference too, for people like me. But rules have to change over time, or a game gets out of whack. People learn to exploit the rules in ways that aren't good for the game, so it has to change to keep things moving as intended. Baseball is full of traditionalism, so people resist change.
The old baseball axiom. If you ain't cheating you ain't trying.

Ohtani is a free agent after the season. He might get between half a billion to a billion. This is why we can't just watch the games. He deserves his market value. But still. I just use a VPN with the MLB app (which T-Mobile offered for free).

[mrbigstuff]

While I fully agree that baseball suffers from lack of ota t.v. coverage, that is also true for basketball and hockey. Is it really market dependent? There are one or two games of basketball on per week, so maybe that's enough? Hockey has exactly zero in my market.

[vision63]

mrbigstuff wrote:
While I fully agree that baseball suffers from lack of ota t.v. coverage, that is also true for basketball and hockey. Is it really market dependent? There are one or two games of basketball on per week, so maybe that's enough? Hockey has exactly zero in my market.

To me, that's what's keeping Cable alive. Access to local sports teams.

[chopper]

I remember when Ted Turner had the Atlanta team on basic cable TV seemingly all the time. "America's team".

I'm sure that would not fly today.

[sekker]

vision63 wrote:
[quote=mrbigstuff]
While I fully agree that baseball suffers from lack of ota t.v. coverage, that is also true for basketball and hockey. Is it really market dependent? There are one or two games of basketball on per week, so maybe that's enough? Hockey has exactly zero in my market.

To me, that's what's keeping Cable alive. Access to local sports teams.
If the choice is pay the cable mafia or not watch our local baseball team? Well, the financials answer that for you.

[vision63]

sekker wrote:
[quote=vision63]
[quote=mrbigstuff]
While I fully agree that baseball suffers from lack of ota t.v. coverage, that is also true for basketball and hockey. Is it really market dependent? There are one or two games of basketball on per week, so maybe that's enough? Hockey has exactly zero in my market.

To me, that's what's keeping Cable alive. Access to local sports teams.
If the choice is pay the cable mafia or not watch our local baseball team? Well, the financials answer that for you.
I can't miss any Lakers games. I'll go to a sports bar if I have to. In Atlanta, I was a regular at Jocks & Jills.

[kj]

vision63 wrote:
[quote=sekker]
[quote=vision63]
[quote=mrbigstuff]
While I fully agree that baseball suffers from lack of ota t.v. coverage, that is also true for basketball and hockey. Is it really market dependent? There are one or two games of basketball on per week, so maybe that's enough? Hockey has exactly zero in my market.

To me, that's what's keeping Cable alive. Access to local sports teams.
If the choice is pay the cable mafia or not watch our local baseball team? Well, the financials answer that for you.
I can't miss any Lakers games. I'll go to a sports bar if I have to. In Atlanta, I was a regular at Jocks & Jills.
I also hit the sports bar for the games I want to see. You can buy a fair number of beers for what it costs to get the games at home. And it's funner.