Baseball is a tremendous sport to go and see live with your wife and kids or a few buddies.
Actually being at a game lets you reminisce about when we were young playing the same game. Those of us with kids tell them of the heroic performances of Daddy’s past.
The game is slow enough that you have time to go to the restroom, wait in line and take care of your business and still likely miss less than a half inning. You appreciate that fact because you have enough time to consume enough beer that a designated driver or a taxi is needed to get home.
It reminds those of us old enough to remember of a time when not everyone in the world had cell phones and Blackberries. We can enjoy a day at the ballpark spending time with family and friends.
As a sports fan, that is where my fascination with baseball ends. The season is too long and there are no players that aren’t cheating.
The season starts in April and ends in November. Last year the World Series was delayed because of rain, sleet, snow and cold weather. This is the time of year we appreciate those who strap on a helmet and get ready to battle on the gridiron, not see someone shatter every bone in their hands trying to get around on a 90 mph fastball.
Seriously, 162 games in a season, then another month or so in playoffs. Who in MLB doesn’t get that America is an instant gratification nation? Shorten your season. Clip off a little from the beginning and a little from the end. At least get your whole season and the playoffs in and done with while we still have warm weather.
Next, get a salary cap. It is not much fun to cheer for a small market team when the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox spend enough to run eight or nine smaller market teams.
It is not so much about players staying on the same team, but at least balancing the league out. The Pittsburgh Pirates have been terrible since the late ‘80s and they stand no chance of improving any time soon.
If your team stinks consistently, that eventually affects attendance and merchandise sales. That, in turn, leads to even less money the organization can spend on talent, continuing the cycle of your team sucking so bad that you have to jump ship and pick another team to pull for.
MLB is going to have to get serious about steroid and Human Growth Hormone testing. Show me one guy who isn’t cheating or hasn’t cheated. Now prove it to me. MLB has been held hostage by collective bargaining when it comes to testing. They let the players become bigger than the game, and now all the players are guilty by association.
Baseball used to be great because you could make comparisons of teams and athletes from different generations. Great stats that stood the test of time used to be the benchmark to measure the good from the great.
Now we have asterisks in the record books. Now we compare great athletes of the past to the best of the cheaters today. And the great part is that with all the advances in science and medicine they are continually making drugs to make athletes stronger and faster that do not show up on any current testing method.
MLB is a long way off from fixing this problem. Because this steroid era has gone on so long and because someone is right now trying to create the next untraceable steroid, this taints the game forever. At the very least, the perception will always be there.
Football is America’s favorite pastime because it is and does everything well where baseball does not.
The season is not so long we get bored with it. The teams play 16 regular-season games, 19 total games, or 20 if a team doesn’t get a first-round bye, if a team goes on to win the Super Bowl. There is one game a week for your team. This leaves you chomping at the bit for the next weekend.
Even on your team’s bye week, football is exciting enough that you will watch any two teams at three different times on Sunday and again on Monday night, not to mention the Thursday night games.
Americans are so passionate about football we carry that enthusiasm to the college level. If you don’t know someone playing college baseball, you don’t care about college baseball.
People who attend football games do not go for the company or the atmosphere like in baseball. They go because they care about the game and their team.
Unless you go to an early-season game, you are going in cold weather and consuming as much alcohol as you can to stay warm. You socialize, eat and get the drinking started while tailgating two to three hours before the game.
You throw the old pigskin around and lie to your kids and buddies about how great of a player you were in high school.
Half-time is the entire stadium’s restroom break. You can’t miss one play because there is a big hit on almost every play. You are cheering and booing until you have no voice left at the end of the game. You could care less about the stats your team or favorite player put up, as long as your team wins.
The process is roughly the same if you stay home for the games. Instead of tailgating at the stadium, it is in your backyard. Instead of being cold, you are warm on your couch.
Restroom breaks are the big advantage of staying home. But you are still yelling at the top of your lungs. You have no voice after the game is over, but while you would shuffle out to your car and leave at the stadium, you simply wait for the next game to start at home.
The NFL has taken great steps to ensure the league, and ultimately the game, was always bigger than the players. Stars come and go, but the NFL will continue to be great.
Most of that is due to the salary cap. You can be an Arizona Cardinals fan and know that with the right moves in free agency any given year might be the year that your team goes to the Super Bowl.
A lot more of what makes the NFL great are its testing policies for drugs. Are there football players cheating? I can’t say for sure. I do know players aren’t called out every two to three weeks like it seems is the case in baseball.
The NFL did have a steroid problem, but it didn’t wait for the U.S. Congress to step in and tell them to straighten out their act.
The NFL’s testing policy is perceived to be as good as the testing of Olympic athletes. That may be good, or even just adequate, but the perception is that the league took action to protect the integrity of the game.
The testing policy for MLB is perceived to be as stringent as a McDonald’s testing policy, but with less consequences.
By GREG DASSELL
Editor
gdassell@ius.edu
