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I played baseball more years than any other sport growing up. Now I don't watch at all. The only exception is for a couple of batters the other night because my wife, a Ft. Worth native, returned from a visit home and noted the Rangers were in the Series.

http://outkickthecoverage.com/the-nfls-assault-on-baseball-via-nashville.php (http://outkickthecoverage.com/the-nfls-assault-on-baseball-via-nashville.php)

The baseball season is too long. They need to go back at least to 156 games, maybe 152. End the regular season 1-2 weeks earlier.

I don't neccessarily agree with his conclusion of baseball going the way of hockey, but I do think baseball suffers from poor marketing and recent bad publicity (see steroids).  I think baseball's popularity can change with a new, refreshing marketing campaign, but it will be a struggle.  Football (college, NFL, Lingerie League  :naughty:) caters to the newer generations' short attention span and fast pace.  It also kicks butt with their marketing (NFL especially).  Baseball needs to get back to a focus on family-friendly entertainment for a much lower cost than football (who really cares about the NBA).  And it needs more national exposure.  One thing my Dad and I always did was watch Monday night Baseball throughout the summer.  He would let me stay up and watch it with him, which was really cool.  Maybe they need that again; assuming they can get enough people to care about watching it.

I agree with Droner on cutting the season, and with MIA on Monday Night Baseball. If the season ended in September instead of the latter half of football season people might care. As it is many game just don't matter.

We lived in the sticks and didn't have cable so Monday Night Baseball was my game of the week. I realize most people have cable, but I still think over-the-air coverage is huge.

Another thing I wonder is if travel ball has hurt the game. Local youth leagues have almost ceased to exist. I'd say baseball will become more like tennis; a country club sport. That's fine, but if the masses don't play it they probably won't watch. It's very rare to see kids playing catch.

I love baseball but baseball still suffers from the steriod years IMO. I always loved the ideal of inter league play, but now it has taken some of mystery away from the game. Football begin a 4 or 5 night week thing now has hurt baseball with ESPN and other networks basically ending baseball for me  with the start college football season. I have not watch one pitch of WS a fact 20 years ago I would have never believed. :dunno:

There are just too many other things to compete with baseball now. It is no longer America's game. Football is.

Add the rising popularity of soccer in America and baseball is only going to continue to decline.

I do think that if baseball were more affordable, it would help. Not sure how you achieve that and continue to pay the salaries that the players demand. But even though I'm not a huge baseball fan, I enjoy an evening at our minor league ballpark here in East TN as much as anything. If I lived a little closer (it's a 2-hr. drive for me) I might consider season tickets if the players actually were on the roster long enough to become familiar with them. How many fathers can afford to treat their sons to an afternoon at the ballpark these days? Not very many, I'd guess.