Well said (and great quote at the top of the post). MLB as a whole lost me following the 1994 strike, and has done nothing since then to draw me back to that level (don't get me started on the Home Run Farce of 1998), with what you outlined being yet another brick in the wall). I will pay attention selectively, primarily when my team (Phillies) is doing well, but other than that and the postseason, MLB has largely been an afterthought for over 3 decades. Which is a shame since I had been a big fan for many years prior to that.
A lot of people hit the exits with you in ‘94, and it took years to get some of them back. Owners seem to have forgotten that. Worse, they seem to not realize how much more fragmented the world is today. A fan walking away from the game in 2026 has a LOT more options to occupy their time/spend money on than they did 30ish years ago.
That's a very good point. With the plethora of options now available it will likely be more difficult to bring fans back.
Among my friends, the longtime diehard fans have stuck with MLB, but the more casual fans have largely left aside from occasionally following in the manner that I do.
While I like the pitch clock, the difficulty of watching every game is very frustrating. We have a publicly funded stadium but for some reason you need to pay for two or three streaming services to watch them in the playoffs. The proposition always boils down to, "did you enjoy the playoffs this year? Would you pay a little more if we kept expanding them?"
Well said (and great quote at the top of the post). MLB as a whole lost me following the 1994 strike, and has done nothing since then to draw me back to that level (don't get me started on the Home Run Farce of 1998), with what you outlined being yet another brick in the wall). I will pay attention selectively, primarily when my team (Phillies) is doing well, but other than that and the postseason, MLB has largely been an afterthought for over 3 decades. Which is a shame since I had been a big fan for many years prior to that.
A lot of people hit the exits with you in ‘94, and it took years to get some of them back. Owners seem to have forgotten that. Worse, they seem to not realize how much more fragmented the world is today. A fan walking away from the game in 2026 has a LOT more options to occupy their time/spend money on than they did 30ish years ago.
That's a very good point. With the plethora of options now available it will likely be more difficult to bring fans back.
Among my friends, the longtime diehard fans have stuck with MLB, but the more casual fans have largely left aside from occasionally following in the manner that I do.
Hear, hear!
Love this article. I have many of the very same feelings having grown up with baseball in the 1960s and 70s. I've posted a proposal that if adopted would bring some of the strategy of baseball from that era back into the game. https://baseballrocks.substack.com/p/the-workhorse-initiative-a-5-year?r=93na4r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
While I like the pitch clock, the difficulty of watching every game is very frustrating. We have a publicly funded stadium but for some reason you need to pay for two or three streaming services to watch them in the playoffs. The proposition always boils down to, "did you enjoy the playoffs this year? Would you pay a little more if we kept expanding them?"