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Talk Sports Discuss everything that is sports-related, like MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, MLS, NASCAR, NCAA sports and teams, trades, coaches, bad calls etc. |
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03-26-2020, 07:53 AM | #1 |
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Happy Would-Be Opening Day everyone!
Baseball was supposed to start roughly four hours from now.
Thankfully we have OOTP21 to fill the void. I'm considering doing a day-by-day simulation until the season resumes. Injuries and trades to be on because, well, who knows Anyone else doing anything to mark this auspicious occasion?
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03-26-2020, 09:24 AM | #2 |
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Movies, mostly. No sports talk shows whatsoever. They normally turn me off but now I wonder, what the heck to they have to talk about?
And the minimum of news talk shows. By that, I mean CNN and the like. On and on and on about this virus, my God. Every blowhard in the country is on TV, bloviating about this virus. The doomsayers are the worst. Report on what is happening and that it could get worse if precautions are not taken but don't take this situation to its extremity for the sake of selling air time. All that does is panic people which is why you cannot find toilet paper anywhere, among many other things. People are expecting something out of Michael Crichton or Stephen King. Frankly, I read the NYT online. That is all the news I need. But I do miss sports. They will be all the sweeter to me when they return. Stupid commercials and all.
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03-26-2020, 09:27 AM | #3 |
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MLB is doing an "Opening Day at home" promotion. You can watch one of your team's historical wins like no-no's, playoff wins etc.
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03-26-2020, 09:38 AM | #4 |
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I will add a controversial hot take here.
The seriousness and people dying and economic destruction of this pandemic aside. I think this delay is the best thing for baseball. They had a truly awful offseason in terms of PR. Several player arrests. Often times for very embarrassing reasons. One of their players died from opioid overdose during the season and the investigation seems to be that a team employee was getting him prescription meds for his own use and the use of the dead player. And it seemed that the organization knew about it or at least part of them did. And what is worse is that this may be a wide spread epidemic in baseball maybe as bad as the NFL where players abuse opioids either given to them by team trainers/doctors or they use them recreationally. Maybe it’s just me, but I am shocked that this story was not far bigger than what the Astro’s did. I mean, many other sports including my beloved NBA have had drug scandals. Hell, the NBA in the 70s and first few years of the 80s suffered blows to its QUALITY OF PLAY because of cocaine use. But this feels a bit different to me and more sinister since it may be team employees with various levels of medical licensing getting these players powerful and addictive opiates without oversight and then keep getting them for the players. That to me is a a scandal that goes beyond cheating to win and into the realm of the ethically and morally wrong and even criminal. Then of course the usual ongoing talk about how to make the game actually watchable again by people under 40. Baseball has tried some half and quarter measures but the games are still too damn long and baseball has turned from a national pastime into a local sport where you follow your team and not the sport as a whole. And finally the big one. The ongoing sign stealing scandal that had more legs than I thought it would. Maybe it’s because baseball has fallen to fifth or sixth on the list of sports I care about. But I thought this story would go for a few weeks and then die down. But it has lasted for months. People were furious with the Astros and then with MLB on their response. It was a festering wound that threatened the entire season. It would have at the very least been talked about on almost every AL broadcast in some form and even on many NL broadcasts because of player movement and inter league play. They say there is no such thing as bad publicity but that is false. Baseballs image took a beating over the winter. Say what you want about the ‘millennial’ generation. They have their faults (and I say this being one of the earliest models, I was born in 84) But they are socially conscious and I believe for the most part have a strong sense of right and wrong. And them and then Generation Z is the demo baseball needs if it wants to stay as one of the big 3 sports. Cheating scandals, player arrests for child rape or being caught masturbating in a Florida parking lot, players dying from drug overdoses and team employees getting them the drugs and in 2019 GMs it’s okay to tell a female reporter ‘thank god we decided to employee a domestic abuser” and then lie about the exchange. All of this is not going to make people under 40 think “hey, that is a sport I want to follow!” So I am of the opinion that this delay is good for baseball. It allows some time for scandal to die down and when baseball comes back, people are just happy that baseball is back and hopefully talking less about the above. Feel free to disagree with the above Last edited by rudel.dietrich; 03-26-2020 at 10:24 AM. |
03-26-2020, 09:45 AM | #5 |
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Can't. MLB needed a breather. Won't make a damned bit of difference, though, if they don't clean up their act and keep it clean.
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03-26-2020, 09:52 AM | #6 |
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Do they have any impetus to "get clean"? MLB isn't sweating on most of the issues rudel brings up because the media pressure isn't strong enough. Business men continue to make moral decisions based on PR. I think baseball does better when the focus is on the field. When the talk is based on anything outside of 9 innings, MLB usually ends up in the negative. MLB needed games to start if we are talking about the image scale.
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If a man is guilty 4 what goes on inside of his mind, then let me get the electric chair 4 all my future crimes. - Prince Batdance June 7, 1958 - Apr 21, 2016 |
03-26-2020, 09:53 AM | #7 | |
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Quote:
And yet, I disagree with the opening premise. The best thing for baseball would be BASEBALL. Somebody hitting for the cycle. Some weirdo team starting 9-0. The annual rookie with 10 homers in 12 games. Baseball needs BASEBALL reasons to talk about. Without Baseball reasons, all that remains are the festering wounds of the winter. And the goddamn stupid ****ing plague.
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03-26-2020, 11:53 AM | #8 |
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Time will tell, my friend. Rome did not fall in a fortnight.
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03-26-2020, 11:59 PM | #9 | |
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Instead of something new, maybe baseball should try the stuff that made baseball watchable by old folks like me when we were young. |
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03-27-2020, 08:24 AM | #10 |
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Which was?
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03-27-2020, 09:39 AM | #11 |
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Baseball itself. Not the promotions and marketing gimmicks. Not the tweaking of rules to suit the issue of the day. Not the alterations to dumb the game down to appeal to the masses. Not the slow creep of technology and automation replacing the human element in the game. And above all, not the artificial enhancement of performances brought about by cheating in various ways.
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03-27-2020, 09:48 AM | #12 | |
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Quote:
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03-27-2020, 12:19 PM | #13 |
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Baseball needs a radical makeover
The XBL if you will I've said elsewhere the changes I'd like to see: Do away with the idea of a lineup. Let the manager decide who to bat when. Offense and defense specific players. No more watching poor fielders just because they can hit Do something to increase the value of making contact. Make fields bigger. Gloves smaller. Move the mound down or back. Yes, the old people will hate it Too bad, it's not for them anyway, Baseball is too boring as it is. When baseball was in its heyday, it didn't have to compete with streaming TV, internet cell phones, etc The world is different, baseball needs to be different. |
03-27-2020, 12:20 PM | #14 | |
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How to save baseball? Colored bats! I'm surprised its back. I thought the final episode, indeed the final scene, of season 3 was a perfect baseball way to end this series.
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03-27-2020, 03:24 PM | #15 |
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You know, all of this is healthy (assuming you are healthy) in one regard: Without sports taking up so much time and cluttering attention spans, one's mind is likely to expand and consider alternative forms of enjoyment. Such as this TV series, which looks interesting.
Ordinarily, if Leo says something about sports, I pay attention. If Leo says something about non-sports, I say "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. The game is about to start. Where's the darned remote? Why is it always falling between the sofa cushions?"
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