You don’t have to be a sociologist to wonder if baseball is long for the front of the national attention span. It seems like every few minutes arrives a statistical analysis in which the sport’s TV rating compare unfavorably to … well, to everything: football, basketball, soccer, “Seinfeld” reruns, C-Span, a “World War II in Color” marathon on the American Heroes Channel …
You get the idea.
And you have eyes, so you can see that ballparks from sea to shining sea have an empty-seat problem. We tend to obsess about that here, of course, partly because our two ballparks are shiny and new, partly because it was just six years ago — in allegedly outmoded yards — when more than 8 million people attended games in New York City. And partly because New York is still a city that doesn’t mind being called a “baseball town.”
But it’s everywhere: wide swatches of colorful, unoccupied chairs, unless the evening’s program includes fireworks, bobbleheads, free food or Huey Lewis and the News.
And as always, there remains the threat baseball will lose, en masse, its younger generation to late starts, to long games, to the democratic appeal of soccer, to just about anything contained in an iPhone app. All of these are legitimate concerns, and I do fret the nominal national pastime is quickly becoming little more than a national peripheral amusement.
But there is one thing that keeps me from completely believing the end is at hand, and it is a simple thing, a basic piece of the human condition.
Anger.
Baseball, more than any other sport, seems to have the ability to infuriate. Other sports aggravate, frustrate, obfuscate. Baseball agitates. Baseball causes voices to rise and opinions to explode, it draws out everybody’s inner Joe Pesci, inspires everyone to replicate the “Falling Down” guy.
All sports have replay now in some form, and all sports have issues with replay; only baseball has the ability to provoke profane Lincoln-Douglas debating from its fans, who absolutely believe there is too much replay (or maybe too little), that it is a stain on the game that will anger karmic forces for generations.
And that’s if a call is overturned in your team’s favor.
All sports have All-Star Games that fall somewhere between ridiculous (the Pro Bowl) and comical (the NHL, the NBA), but only baseball harbors simmering resentment that the games count either too much (Game 7 is at stake!) or too little (he grooved it!), where the selection of participants is discussed and disseminated with such rancor and such resentment.
And, of course, other sports have commissioners who are lightning rods, who make way, way too much in salary, whose ownership-mandated rulings always irk (at best) or infuriate (more often) rank-and-file players and rank-and-file fans. But only baseball has Bud Selig, in whom the sport’s fans can find fault for everything from the ’94 strike (fairly) to the sport’s steroid woes (less fairly) to the fact the game is ruled by the almighty dollar (unfairly; you think that’s new behavior, look at old pictures of Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park and find me one inch of unused advertising space).
And, man, can Selig bring out the wrath of a fan, same as his sport, and maybe that would be cause for concern but for one thing:
Would anyone ever get this angry over a sport nobody allegedly cares about?
Whack Back at Vac
Michael Joggerst: This week the Yankees announced the Derek Jeter ceremony will be Sept. 7, after every rational fan (like myself) was under the impression it would naturally be held on the last Sunday game of the year (as was Mariano Rivera’s). So the Sept. 21 game sells out and the secondary market for this ticket has been absurd all year. The new date guarantees another sellout in what looks like another down year. To me, this seems like a story that Yankees ownership should have to explain.
Vac: Seems that way to me, too. And a lot of your angry emailing brethren.
Joe Amato: I can help Jon Niese from wondering where the Mets fans are. I just spent over $600 to take my family of four to Citi Field last week. That’s one game. In my 10 games this year I will put more money into the team (on a percentage basis) than the Wilpons do — and WAY more than Niese will. He needs to take an economics course. How about he buys tickets for the kids and their working-stiff parents who were priced out of Citi Field? That would fill the stands.
Vac: My No. 1 rule as a sportswriter always has been this: Never tell fans what to do with their money. Ballplayers can borrow that if they like.
@mweiner29: MLB blew it with no Tony Gywnn and Ralph Kiner tributes. However, Game 1 of World Series has its chance to make up for it.
@MikeVacc: How hard would it have been to etch “19” in the
5 ½ hole on the infield dirt, and incorporate the Kiner patches the Mets have been wearing?
Bob Scotti: Just wondering how much Alex Rodriguez enjoyed watching the All-Star Game, Derek Jeter soaking up the adulation of fans and peers, while Alex is being sued by his own attorney.
Vac: You know something? I bet he watched every pitch.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com
Vac’s Whacks
Looks to me as if Rory McIlroy has bounced back from the old breakup.
I hope the Mets keep Murph, as much as anything because of what the great @BobSaietta says on Twitter: “Daniel Murphy’s a pretty good player save for those moments when he forgets how to play baseball.”
Just wondering: If Melo had become a Bull, would he have been welcome — even via a smartphone cameo — in that Derek Jeter “RE2PECT” ad?
Paul O’Neill is so entertaining in the booth that even Mrs. Whacks enjoys watching the ballgame when he’s on the mike.