In today’s version of “Old man yells at cloud, but maybe he has a point,” Hall of Famer Goose Gossage pilloried the state of Major League Baseball in a story by USA Today in which several baseball lifers are quoted.
To Gossage, the game has become all about home runs, defensive shifts and, as he so eloquently puts it, “These [expletives] won their rotisserie leagues at Harvard and all of those [expletive] schools and now they’re general [expletive] managers.”
They grew up loving the game, made a fabulous living playing/managing the game, but now decry how the modern game of baseball has turned into nightly Home Run Derby, calling it ‘Unwatchable’. https://t.co/PT0AJQnoFP
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 19, 2019
Legitimate gripes?
Gossage, as well as Pete Rose, Lou Piniella and other former managers and players, decry the modern game’s lack of action. For this, they blame the launch-angle obsession of hitters, the apparently juiced baseball and defensive shifts.
The result, they say (correctly) is that baseball has become a game of home runs and strikeouts and not a whole lot else.
“I can’t watch these games anymore,’’ Gossage said. “It’s not baseball. It’s unwatchable. A lot of the strategy of the game, the beauty of the game, it’s all gone. It’s like a video game now. It’s home run derby with their (expletive) launch angle every night.’’
Even Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who has an intimate relationship with the game in 2019, says he’s concerned.
I am not a fan of much of the current aesthetics of baseball and think the juiced ball has made things pretty crappy all things considered. But I’m not sure that going to Goose Gossage and Pete Rose for their takes on the matter is the most revealing avenue one could take.
— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) August 19, 2019
What now?
It’s not uncommon for professionals in any industry to think their era was the best time to be active. Perhaps this is no different.
But it’s also a fact that attendance is down throughout Major League Baseball (and most sports, for that matter) and that TV ratings are stagnant at best.
So what should the game do? Gossage, Rose and others interviewed offer precious few ideas.
Any honest discussion of why fans “are losing interest in baseball” must address the economics of the game, including but not limited to the negative impact of tanking on attendance and how high ticket and concession/parking prices are keeping fans home.
— Mike Gianella (@MikeGianella) August 19, 2019
