Doomed to irrelevance like Tower Records or Blockbuster Vide

[wlu_lax6]

Revenue is up but everything else is just not going in baseball's favor.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/na ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mister d]

Pop Warner has declining numbers too.

[Shirley]

Random observations at the beach yesterday in North Carolina:

3-4 different groups playing with a soccer ball (including my sons)
2 different groups throwing lacrosse
1 group tossing a football
1 pair tossing a baseball
2-3 playing some sort of beach paddle hitting thing

[wlu_lax6]

Pop Warner has declining numbers too.

Yeah but the not playing football can almost be directly pointed to protective parents.

[rass]

Random observations at the beach yesterday in North Carolina:

3-4 different groups playing with a soccer ball (including my sons)
2 different groups throwing lacrosse
1 group tossing a football
1 pair tossing a baseball
2-3 playing some sort of beach paddle hitting thing

Add Wham-O to wlu_lax's list.

[Ryan]

63 days until my Pro Kadima fantasy draft

[wlu_lax6]

Random observations at the beach yesterday in North Carolina:

3-4 different groups playing with a soccer ball (including my sons)
2 different groups throwing lacrosse
1 group tossing a football
1 pair tossing a baseball
2-3 playing some sort of beach paddle hitting thing

Add Wham-O to wlu_lax's list.

KanJam beats Bags any day of the week

[Gunpowder]

2 people throwing lacrosse balls? Where the fuck do you beach at?

[Rex]

when I was young you would sometimes see entire beach baseball games, with full 9 man teams, umpires, and bullpens.

Pretty bad idea putting the ocean in fair territory.

[mister d]

Pop Warner has declining numbers too.

Yeah but the not playing football can almost be directly pointed to protective parents.

Doesn't change the effect of "not enough numbers", right?

[mister d]

Random observations at the beach yesterday in North Carolina:

3-4 different groups playing with a soccer ball (including my sons)
2 different groups throwing lacrosse
1 group tossing a football
1 pair tossing a baseball
2-3 playing some sort of beach paddle hitting thing

"Also, pretty sure swimming is the next big thing. Blew all of those other sports combined out of the water, pun intended!"

[wlu_lax6]

Pop Warner has declining numbers too.

Yeah but the not playing football can almost be directly pointed to protective parents.

Doesn't change the effect of "not enough numbers", right?

No because they are also pointing to age of fans watching. Basically they are saying Baseball is an old man sport, where NBA and NFL trend younger. Impact of not playing is not as big on "fans". The article pointed to perception of baseball having "no action" while Football has similar "ball in play" time and overall length of game but not seen as boring.

[Gunpowder]

Baseball is seen as boring to people that don't like baseball. Has this really changed all that much in the past 30 years?

[Ryan]

I never had to pee in my own shitty beer cup because the lines at Blockbuster were too long.

[mister d]

Sounds like someone who never showed up on New Release Fridays.

[sancarlos]

I never had to pee in my own shitty beer cup because the lines at Blockbuster were too long.

Come and set a spell, young feller, and hear tell about the Friday night back in ought '01 when the first Fast and Furious moving picture hit our Block and Buster. Young fella, you WISH you brought your own cup to pee in, the lines were so long... And some folks didn't even rewind the VCR tapes you were a rentin'...

[Ryan]

Sorry, all I meant was that the beer at Blockbuster was actually pretty decent

[Shirley]

2 people throwing lacrosse balls? Where the fuck do you beach at?

5 people in two separate groups. Am I missing a joke here?

I should note that this is a fairly redneck section of beach too - right across from a trailer park. Big, nice condos too, but generally the rednecks greatly outnumber the non-rednecks.

[sancarlos]

Sorry, all I meant was that the beer at Blockbuster was actually pretty decent

Ahh I guess I missed the mark. I thought your comment was funny and was only trying to extend it further...

[A_B]

Random observations at the beach yesterday in North Carolina:

3-4 different groups playing with a soccer ball (including my sons)
2 different groups throwing lacrosse
1 group tossing a football
1 pair tossing a baseball
2-3 playing some sort of beach paddle hitting thing

"Also, pretty sure swimming is the next big thing. Blew all of those other sports combined out of the water, pun intended!"

No one swims in the ocean.

[The Sybian]

Baseball is seen as boring to people that don't like baseball. Has this really changed all that much in the past 30 years?

No, but the number of people who liked baseball was probably a lot higher 30 years ago. My town is very much a baseball town as far as kids playing the sport, but from what I have seen, more kids watch EPL soccer than watch baseball. The town is relatively small, but the high school baseball team does very well, even won a couple of State Championships under the current coach. I would think sports viewing in general among kids has declined a lot since our youth. With so many additional distractions like the internet, 2 parents working meaning after school care and full day summer camps and more structured schedules, kids have less time to watch, especially day games. Kids, and adults too, have shorter attention spans and want everything instantly, the slow pace of baseball is going to turn more people off.

[sancarlos]

MLB remains super popular in my area. Most adolescent boys sport a Giants' cap. The Giants sell out just about every game. I see lots of A's caps around, too, but it's hard to get a read on the Athletics' popularity via attendance, since they play in a cesspool of a stadium, located in a third world country.

[A_B]

MLB remains super popular in my area. Most adolescent boys sport a Giants' cap. The Giants sell out just about every game. I see lots of A's caps around, too, but it's hard to get a read on the Athletics' popularity via attendance, since they play in a cesspool of a stadium, located in a third world country.

That probably happens when the local team wins three titles in five years.

[L-Jam3]

The Latino population in America is going to be increasing, in both total numbers and percentages. Has anyone looked at that as a counterfactor? Anecdotally, baseball seems to be one of the more popular sports among Hispanics. With more kids of Hispanic descent, I would think that their parents might trickle down to their kids, counteracting the alleged moving away from other segments of the population.

[wlu_lax6]

The Latino population in America is going to be increasing, in both total numbers and percentages. Has anyone looked at that as a counterfactor? Anecdotally, baseball seems to be one of the more popular sports among Hispanics. With more kids of Hispanic descent, I would think that their parents might trickle down to their kids, counteracting the alleged moving away from other segments of the population.

This is why I think as an investor, soccer is a great buy in the U.S...but it should also build in baseball. I guess the difference is people are okay viewing the MLS/NASL/etc as a growth industry and baseball is IBM