I’m not sure how this came up, but I found it interesting that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred had to defend the number of home runs that are being hit. I’m not surprised at all that he said hat MLB had nothing to do with the baseballs being altered, but MLB Is looking into why their appears to be less drag on the baseball this season. Honestly what did you expect Manfred to say.
I can understand the questions about more home runs being hit, but this seems to be baseballs motus operandi when ratings start to drop. After the last strike; what brought fans back? It was the home run battle between Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa. Now to be fair that was more PED generated than baseball related, but MLB didn’t do much to try to stop it. Now the last couple of seasons ratings have been down and appears as though baseball has turn to it’s old friend the home run to help them out again.
Now there are people out their trying to sell you on the fact that players are paying more attention to things like swing plane, launch angle and exit velocity as the reason for the increase in home runs. While I’m sue that those reasons have added to the number of home runs being hit there’s no way that it’s accounted for the jump we’ve had this season.
At the current pace home runs are being hit the record for most home runs in a season will be broken by more than 600 home runs.
I’ve also heard some people say that since pitchers are throwing harder now than ever before in the game a batter doesn’t have to hit the baseball as well for it to go out of the ballpark. Does anybody believe that?
While I like to see players hit home runs as much as the next fan, but when a batter takes a pitch that was almost in the other batters box and hits it 450 feet to the opposite field there’s something going on.
I did find it interesting that when the International League started using the same baseball as MLB does their number of home runs jump exponentially. That seems like it’s a clear indication that it’s the baseball.
To be honest I’m not sure if the home run will solve all of baseballs problem. I’m not sure that more offensive was the problem with baseball and there’s something to be said about a well pitched game. It seems that baseballs biggest problem is still the length of games and I’m not sure if there’s a fix for that. It would also help the game if their where less strikeouts and more baseballs put into play. You can’t tell me you enjoy watching batter after batter strikeout unless the pitcher is either working on a no-hitter or is coming up on the strikeout record. More balls in play would provide more action on the field and that may make the game more attractive to watch.
It makes sense for MLB to want to attract younger viewers to their games, but that a very difficult thing for a game like baseball to do. You need to be patient to watch a baseball game and with the younger audiences today well they want a pay off right away. Of course that quick pay off would be a home run, but that’s not going to happen every time a player comes to bat.
If there’s a way MLB could figure out how to teach kids about the game it might help them stay interested in it as they get older. Of course they have a video game like every other sport, but I think they might have to start at even a younger age than that to try to hook fans in. I started learning about baseball at a very young age, but the only video game I had back then was pong.
There are just so many distractions in today’s society that’s it’s going to be difficult for MLB to find a way to get those younger fans to be interested and stay interested in baseball. Do you have any ideas to help MLB out? If so please leave them in the comments.
I’ve heard a lot of talk about how exciting the Home Run Derby was, but I don’t enjoy it; so I didn’t watch. Now I do enjoy the MLB All-Star game more than the All-Star games from any other sport, but I didn’t get to see much of that last night. From all of the reports I’ve heard it was a pretty good game.
I did find it interesting that Shane Bieber won the MVP award. I didn’t see enough of the game to know who might’ve been in contention for the award, but I’m guessing if they gave it to a pitcher who just threw one inning there must not of been a lot of other choices.
Bieber pitched the 5th inning and worked a clean inning striking out all three batters he faced. I’m sure since the game was played in Cleveland and with there being no clear cut MVP choice they went with the hometown player who had the best night.
Bieber is just 24 years old and was a late addition to the AL All-Star team and by winning the MVP he became only the third player in All-Star game history to be named MVP in his home ballpark. Oddly he is the second Cleveland Indians player to do this. Sandy Alomar Jr. was the All-Star game MVP back in 1997. The other player to win the MVP award in his home ballpark was Pedro Martinez in 1999.
Bieber wasn’t added to the All-Star team until Friday when he replaced Mike Minor of the Texas Rangers, but he became the first pitcher since Mariano Rivera in 2013 to win the MVP. Bieber is also just the 5th pitcher in the past 40 years to win the MVP award. He joins Pedro Martinez (1999), Roger Clemens (1986), LaMarr Hoyt (1985), Rivera of course and Juan Marichal (1965). Only Bieber, Marichal and Rivera earned MVP honors without getting a win in the game.
With al of the All-Star festivities in the books MLB returns to regular season action on Friday.
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