“Old-Fashioned” Fans Are Ruining American Sports, Especially Baseball
It was the bottom of the seventh inning. Game 5. 2015 ALDS. Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista at the plate. The bottom half of the inning alone has gone on for twenty minutes. In the top half, the Rangers took a 3-2 lead on a controversial play when Russell Martin tried throwing the ball back to pitcher Aaron Sanchez. Instead, it hit the bat of Shin-Shoo Choo, and Rougned Odor came in to score.
The reason: Choo was just following the rules, keeping one foot in the batter's box--you know, for pace of play. But we'll keep that under wraps for now.
Anyway, game is tied after Elvis Andrus shows his best NBA All-Star Game Defense impression, botching two/three plays that Francisco Lindor makes in his sleep. Bautista comes up, runners at the corners, two outs. He works it to a 1-1 count against Sam Dyson. And then...
"Bautista with a drive, deep left field, no doubt about it!" Was the call by Kenny Albert, heard by fans everywhere. And in the midst of all of that, Bautista launches probably the greatest bat flip/toss you'll ever see.
Long story short, Blue Jays win the series. But we're not here to talk about the series. We're here to talk about the bat flip and other traditions in today’s sports that are frowned upon by our past generations for almost no reason.
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Soccer is currently the most popular sport in the world. The total viewership for the 2014 FIFA World Cup worldwide was 3.2 BILLION fans, and more than one BILLION for the Germany vs. Argentina finale.
But what puts so much interest in a sport where:
[if !supportLists]1) [endif]You basically see someone kicking a ball over and over for at least 95 minutes until someone finally scores a goal (the final score for that finale was 1-0 on an extra time goal by Germany),
[if !supportLists]2) [endif]Only have your team play twice a month in some leagues, and
[if !supportLists]3) [endif]See an average of only 2.6 goals scored per game in the sport’s most popular league La Liga.
To put it simply, our sports are boring. Baseball has a rep for being “boring,” whether because it’s too slow or too long or there's no offense (though soccer and hockey fans shouldn't be talking if that's the case).
So what makes soccer so much interesting, even in the United States, where an average of 21,692 fans across Major League Soccer attended games last year.
Well, a simple reason is that soccer players make things FUN.
When it comes to sports in other countries, the emotions run high. Jose Bautista’s bat flip? Please! If that home run happened in South Korea, that bat probably would’ve been flipped all the way to North Korea (which, in retrospect, is farther than any missile Kim Jong-Un plans on launching).
But since soccer is NOT typically a U.S sport (again, only an average of 21,692 fans attended MLS games last year), and is mainly played by the youth, no one cares too much about Cristiano Ronaldo stripping off his shirt for a huge goal in the big game. And if they do, then they're embracing his celebration, not knocking it. As Nationals’ star Bryce Harper said last year, “It’s a tired sport, because you can’t express yourself. You can’t do what people in other sports do.”
To be totally honest, it’s just a cultural thing. Take this year's World Baseball Classic. The Puerto Rican team went through the whole competition with blond hair and bat flips and other celebrations for the world to see.
Carlos Correa over here completely went off.
And when it wasn’t Puerto Rico, it was Netherland’s Wladimir Balentien going nuts.
Notice something? No one said a word about Balentien’s bat flip on the Puerto Rican team. Ian Kinsler on the other hand had plenty of words for the Puerto Rican (and Domincian) team:
"I hope kids watching the WBC can watch the way we play the game and appreciate the way we play the game as opposed to the way Puerto Rico plays or the Dominican plays…That just wasn't the way we were raised. They were raised differently and to show emotion and passion when you play. We do show emotion; we do show passion. But we just do it in a different way.”
To put this into simpler terms, make baseball boring again.
Now this competition is 16 teams fighting for their country’s glory in baseball, since they can’t do it in the Olympics. Why would you not want to celebrate with emotion?
Granted, celebrating with a parade in your home country even though you got blown out in the World Baseball Classic championship and was no-hit for the first six innings does sound like a bit too much. But let’s look at the celebration from the USA.
Nothing. You just won the only competition that really counts towards your sport and team, and the players simply go back to spring training with their respective teams as if nothing happened. Quite boring.
The main point here is that the principle of unwritten rules in baseball in the 21st century is not helping the game.
Even Manfred, who has spent most of his tenure as MLB commissioner appealing to the young, spoke after the championship game, stating “Those unwritten rules are going to change with the diversity of the league, and we should celebrate that.”
Manfred has tried to make baseball games faster with new pace of play rules. Personally, I have no opinion on most of these decisions and proposals. A 20-second clock between each pitch? Fine. Batter’s have to keep one foot in the batter’s box? Okay. No pitch intentional walks. Fine, though we will miss out on rare moments like this:
Automatic runners in extra innings of ballgames. Okay, that’s a bit too far Mr. Manfred.
At the same time, there are guys that will argue against these rule changes, saying they’ll “ruin the game of baseball” and that they’ll never attend another baseball game if this rule change goes through. As if you complaining about simple bat flips makes things any better.
Then you have the people that complain about Joe Maddon and his “unorthadox” managing techniques. I have seen countless articles berating Maddon and his practices in the clubhouse. Some have included themed road trips, like the upcoming Anchorman themed road trip ending in San Diego:
These unorthodox practices (and, of course, a great young team) led the Cubs to a World Series Championship. Maybe more managers should be like Maddon. But of course, you have your “old-fashioned” fans complaining.
There are some people that say the game has been “pussified” by the additions of the Buster Posey and Chase Utley rules. Meanwhile, both rules are supposed to protect catchers from being turned into tackling dummies and sec[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"></v:stroke> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></v:f> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"></v:path> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"></o:lock> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_s1029" type="#_x0000_t75" style='position:absolute; margin-left:1in;margin-top:552.25pt;width:468pt;height:217.95pt;z-index:251661312; visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square;mso-wrap-distance-left:12pt; mso-wrap-distance-top:12pt;mso-wrap-distance-right:12pt; mso-wrap-distance-bottom:12pt;mso-position-horizontal:absolute; mso-position-horizontal-relative:page;mso-position-vertical:absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative:page' wrapcoords="0 0 21600 0 21600 21595 0 21595 0 0" strokeweight="1pt"> <v:stroke miterlimit="4"></v:stroke> <v:imagedata src="file://localhost/private/var/folders/c3/srm1pbf56dl1z6kpmmct46bw0000gn/T/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image001.png" o:title=""></v:imagedata> <w:wrap type="through" anchorx="page" anchory="page"></w:wrap> </v:shape><![endif][if !vml][endif][if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_s1028" type="#_x0000_t75" style='position:absolute;margin-left:1in; margin-top:300.55pt;width:468pt;height:268.7pt;z-index:251662336;visibility:visible; mso-wrap-style:square;mso-wrap-distance-left:12pt;mso-wrap-distance-top:12pt; mso-wrap-distance-right:12pt;mso-wrap-distance-bottom:12pt; mso-position-horizontal:absolute;mso-position-horizontal-relative:page; mso-position-vertical:absolute;mso-position-vertical-relative:page' wrapcoords="0 0 21600 0 21600 21600 0 21600 0 0" strokeweight="1pt"> <v:stroke miterlimit="4"></v:stroke> <v:imagedata src="file://localhost/private/var/folders/c3/srm1pbf56dl1z6kpmmct46bw0000gn/T/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image003.png" o:title=""></v:imagedata> <w:wrap type="through" anchorx="page" anchory="page"></w:wrap> </v:shape><![endif][if !vml][endif]ond basemen and shortstops from being turned into gymnastic trainees.
Like I said before, it’s not just baseball. It’s basketball and football as well.
I can name a handful of players in the NBA and NFL that are hated because of their emotions on the field. Odell Beckham Jr., Antonio Brown--who has been fined numerous times by the NFL for excessive celebrations--and literally the entire Golden State Warriors team are just examples.
You want to know how far this has gotten? 36 year old Richard Jefferson was given a technical after posterizing Kevin Durant and giving a simple finger wag--which Durant seemed to enjoy.
The point is, this is a problem across all sports, but it's mainly frowned upon in baseball.
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To end, this is a topic of discussion that will continue on for a while. Old fashioned fans are always present in baseball, while the next generation appeals to soccer and basketball.
To put these numbers in prospective, let me pull up a few graphs.
The age rate is alarming between MLB and MLS and the NBA. Young kids would rather play and watch basketball and soccer, sports that are more appealing to the American culture, than baseball, simply because our baseball culture still follows the old system of "act like you've been there before."
To end, we the younger generation need our entertainment. We're a generation that turn ourself and each other into dogs on a regular basis. We share these things called memes everyday. We dye our hair, our hair sometimes makes us look like Jimmy Neutron.
It's no different with sports. It’s a change of how we, the younger generation, accept sports. And our past generations [here in America] must realize that.