How very sad...

[Modern Relic]

This semester, I'm taking a class entitled "History of American Sport." Today we watched a half hour of the Ken Burns "Baseball" film. Afterwards, the professor asked how many in the room had seen it before. Amazingly, I was the only one to raise my hand. This in a room of 40-some people who, presumably, are sports fans.

I asked the professor after class, and he was as shocked as I. Is baseball really dying off that much? Sigh...

[Draft Dodger]

Have you SEEN a baseball game lately?

Baseball's been going downhill for about 15 years.

[Draft Dodger]

or,

you were the only one in the class trying to suck up to the teacher...

[Modern Relic]

Nah, no sucking up is required.

I guess I'm just used to being around all the baseball fans here.

[GForce22]

Originally posted by Modern Relic
This semester, I'm taking a class entitled "History of American Sport." Today we watched a half hour of the Ken Burns "Baseball" film. Afterwards, the professor asked how many in the room had seen it before. Amazingly, I was the only one to raise my hand. This in a room of 40-some people who, presumably, are sports fans.

I asked the professor after class, and he was as shocked as I. Is baseball really dying off that much? Sigh...

Don't know if it's that or that most college aged kids won't sit down and watch a documentary, no matter what the subject.

GH

[Total Nirvana]

I had taken a similar class in my Senior Year of High School. We did happend to watch the same flim. I ended up borrowing it from my teacher (Mr Gittenburg) and never brought it back until graduation

[AngelinOF]

If it wasn't for netflix.com I wouldn't of never had watched it either. Back in 1994/95 when it originally aired on PBS I was 17 and it was my senior year of high school so sitting at home watching TV was the last thing on my mind.

[sixto]

I haven't watched it. I don't like Ken Burns's style. That said, I think maybe I should watch it anyway.

[Rizon]

Baseball is still around??

Itz all abowt da NBA ddddoooooggggg

[Modern Relic]

Me no got no basketball jones, diggity-dawg.

Seriously though, for any fan of the game, of any age, I recommend the Baseball film. Even you, 6.

In the half hour we saw, they had a short clip of Buck O'Neill. Someone on this board called him one of the classiest men to ever play the game. I couldn't agree more.

[CBL-Commish]

It's a good series, but I remember it being way too focused on race. I tuned into the one of the parts dealing with 19th century baseball and saw a lot of things about how blacks were excluded from major league baseball, long segments on Fleetwood Walker, but hardly a passing mention of most of the great major leaguers of the time. I was looking forward to his take on the great Orioles teams of the time, maybe the great 1897 pennant race, tidbits from the career of Amos Rusie or John Clarkson, but instead I get a diatribe on Jim Crow. I agree that minorities got the very short end of the stick in a lot of areas back then, but Burns sold this as a history of baseball, not race relations as viewed through baseball.

Maybe I'm overstating the point, but that's what I remember.

[The Professor]

Man, Relic, if I could teach one class at college...choose my own books, outline the course, and just enjoy being able to discuss things, it would be a class on baseball. *dreams away*

...actually, I'm trying to keep things in order to perhaps pursue the field of Sports History as sort of a subfield in my own field (that being 20th Century American History; esp. Post World War II Era/Cold War)...we'll see.

Also, along with people who haven't seen it, aren't baseball fans, won't watch any documentaries...there are also people who just don't pay attention or don't feel like raising their hand. I see it all the time.

[Modern Relic]

The class is actually about all American sports, but since it starts at the revolutionary period, it appears that the bulk of the class is going to HAVE to be about baseball, which is nice.

We just reached the pre-Civil War era, Alexander Joy Cartwright and Henry Chadwick were part of the focus of todays lecture. Too cool!

[VT Os fan]

Originally posted by CBL-Commish
It's a good series, but I remember it being way too focused on race.

This seems to be a theme through all of Burns' epic documentaries. The Jazz documentary had alot the same undercurrents throughout. And how can you tell the story of the Civil War without discussing race relations?

To be fair, race relations are a big part of America and American history, of baseball history, and of jazz music history.

That said, Burns' Baseball is a tremendous piece of work, amazingly entertaining for a documentary, and a must-see for any baseball fan. It's a great way to spend 20 hours of your life.

[jmaness84]

Wow, I need to take a class like that!! Back to baseball being dead.. A lot of people say that baseball is too boring and a slow game, in all honesty since i was 5 i have been able to set through a whole baseball game and pay attention to every detail. Although when i watch basketball and football i seem to lose focus and dont pay nearly as much attention as i do to baseball. I wonder why? I love playing basketball (probably more than baseball) and football, and occasionally enjoy watching it, but baseball is the best game to watch if you know what you are looking for.

[fantom1979]

I havent seen the documentry, but I probably should. The sad truth is, alot of people my age (23) are not in to baseball at all and fewer then that actually play the game. Where as, my dad and his friends all played and watched baseball. Things have changed.

[Old Man]

Baseball in the modern age went for the money and forgot it future: the kids. It is just a short sighted business decision. I remember so long ago it was cheap and easy to get plenty of adults and the kids together for a sports banquet. Family style meals and price. The stars would tell great baseball stories. Then at the end the players would give autographs with quite a smile for all the kids for free.
I remember the World Series games being on so kids could watch the games after school. Nothing like a weekend afternoon game. I still remember those doubleheader games, great family special games they were. If you had a family, you might as well make it a day and see two games for the price of one.
I remember the great games before the dreaded DH and 4 hour games. I remember great pitched games in which you did not have to go to the bullpen and warm up a new pitcher every 15 minutes in the game. The high scoring was good for a while but the novelty and long winded games in the long term are bad.
The land for those pickup baseball games are almost gone. The time as 2 parents work for their kids cramps free time for baseball. More and more you don't see parents involved in Little League as it is used more as a baby sitting exercise.
All of Ken Burns films are great, even in subjects I could care less about. His films are not just about baseball but people. Which in my opinion make them great. Two thumbs up, go see them!

[sixto]

One of the things that has been slowly killing baseball is the suburbs. Kids live so far from parks that they can't walk to one to play baseball.

Another thing that's been killing baseball slowly is the advancement of toys. More than any other game, baseball requires imagination - to see how a street could be a stickball "field," to listen to the game on the radio crawl along at baseball's pace...I swear it must be true that kids these days have less imagination and are less able to entertain themselves. Why, when I was a boy I remember entertaining myself for weeks with an empty cardboard box!

Also killing baseball is home runs. Home runs are damn hard to hit. But with baseball so focused on it, when 10 year old kids can't hit the ball over the Little League fence, they turn their attention to a soccer goal or a basketball hoop, much more attainable goals. This is something I haven't ever heard anyone mention, but it's definitely a big factor.

[The Professor]

Baseball's future lies in its past...or so a wise man once said.

A short list of baseball's failings of recent memory, in no particular order, and of my own opinion:

1. Home Runs, I agree...too many. Guys always campaigning to move the fences in. Shoot, scrap the rules and lets just have a 9-inning HR derby

2. Financial Irresponsibility: Yeah, yeah. A-Rod [a better foil might be Rangers ownership] comes to mind. In any event, salaries have ballooned at an amazing clip. Ticket prices go up, up, up and teams threaten moving if they can't obtain that desired cash-cow stadium. A day at the park is no longer something many American families can afford, and that is a shame.

3. Bart Giamatti died.

4. Baseball was still pretty special, at least to me, before 1994. They want to say that 1998 healed a lot of wounds from that, but I don't think so. 1994 was the iceberg for the MLB Titanic.

5. As if 1994 wasn't catastrophe enough, strike talk of 2002 alienated even more people.

6. Baseball tries too hard to keep up with the Jones's [see: NBA Jones, NFL Jones]. Talking about realignment, going to interleague play, new formats for expanded playoffs. All this has its ups and downs. I have my opinions, but in any event, MLB needs to quit trying to staple neon lights onto its once proud frame. It may never be the National Pastime again...but it surely doesn't need to continue on its epic descent.

7. Marvin Miller's victory has been distorted and bastardized.

8. Did baseball really need the D-Rays? A case of reach exceeding grasp?

9. Put the game back into the pitchers hands. Not everyone wants to see a 16-14 slugfest. [see: Home Runs]

10. The game would be well served to take pride in and to insure its integrity....in a number of matters.

The one thing baseball can never change is that we've changed. America marches on. Americans have moved from the cities and into the suburbs. Gone are the days when the stadium was a local shrine and a visit to the ballpark was an easy thing.

Part of the allure of the game, its timeless beauty lies in its simple qualities. Baseball has lost its hold on the literary epicenter of our sporting minds because it wants to be something bigger, bolder, and more in touch with the fast paced society we live in. Baseball has always mirrored the times, and for the nostalgic at heart, one might say that the times mirrored the game.

Part of the game some of us will never see - or never see again - and that is a great loss. Still, there is much that baseball has to offer...the Lords of the Game just need to figure that out.

[fantom1979]

Originally posted by sixto
One of the things that has been slowly killing baseball is the suburbs. Kids live so far from parks that they can't walk to one to play baseball.

When I was growing up (born in 79) there were four baseball diamonds within a 1/2 mile walk of my house. When I was really little, my dad, brother and about 10 of his friends used to go to the park and play a pick up game. You guys know what I am talking about, where if you are a righty you have to hit it to left and vice versa. Well anyways, sometime in the mid 90's the freaking city I live in decided to make it so that those parks could only be used by the city's offical little league teams. They said that people were tearing up the field by playing pickup games on the fields. The funny thing is that the offical teams only played from April to July, but you still werent allowed to play on the field during the off season.

What killed baseball for me was the 94 strike. I was 15 years old and the strike made me realize that the game that I loved so dear was not really a game but a business. The hard facts of that crashed down on me and ended my love of professional baseball. 1998 sucked me right back in. For 6 months in 98 I started to stupidly think that maybe the game I love was back. My Dad (who stopped following baseball in 94 as well) promised me that baseball would screw the fans again, just give it time. I told him, oh no Dad, they have learned their lesson. Well, obviously they have not. I am sure that a couple of times this year I will drive up to Lansing and watch the Lugnuts minor league team play for $5, but I seriously doubt I will be opening my wallet at Comerica (with its closer fences) this year.