Is Major League Baseball dying? A despondent Boston journalist thinks so

 … does not mention revenue-sharing or boredom

The Boston Red Sox are experiencing a banner season, one that could conceivably lead them to the World Series in a few months. They have won 62 games, 33 over .500, and are leading the venerable New York Yankees by two games in the American League-East. What Dan Shaughnessy is frustrated with is that Boston fans wish to talk more about the Celtics or Patriots than the Red Sox. 

Why aren’t the Sox generating more interest? After the Sox swept the Kansas City Royals in three games over the weekend, outscoring the last place, 25-64 KC team, by scoring 32 runs to their 13, the writer pointed out that this is not just a Boston phenomenon. “This isn’t exactly breaking news, but as great as the Sox weekend was, as scalding hot as the Sox are now, my takeaway is that Major League Baseball is in trouble.

And as much as I love the game, I can no longer defend all the things that are hurting the sport,” Shaughnessy wrote in the Boston Globe. 

Columnist’s rationale

Shaughnessy listed the reasons that he believes the game is suffering. “Too many bad teams,” the game is “unwatchable on television because games are too long,” “strikeout inflation,” “players don’t think there is a problem,” “analytics,” and “studiously bland” players. All of this, of course, leads to the attendance problems in the league. “Is it any surprise that MLB attendance is taking a hit? Twenty-one of 30 teams are down from last year and baseball is on pace for its lowest total attendance since 2003. Folks are staying away and who can blame them? The product is not keeping up with the times, and it is not very good,” Shaughnessy wrote.

The piece is perceptive, with a great deal of information from a columnist who has been writing about Boston sports for the past 37 years. Now 64-years-of-age, with the team he is covering looking like a potential world champion, he sees a sport on the decline. And that bothers him, a baseball purist, a great deal. 

Shaughnessy has written a number of books about the Red Sox, three dealing with the team’s ill-fated trade of Babe Ruth to the Yankees almost a century ago. “The Curse of the Bambino” was followed by “Reversing the Curse” after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. 

One reason for MLB woes: Bad teams

The first of the columnist’s arguments is that the major leagues have too many bad teams. A look at the standings of MLB supports this thesis. In the AL-East, the Orioles are 24-65, 37 games behind the Red Sox. The Royals are 24.5 games back of the Indians in the AL-Central, with the Chicago White Sox just ahead of them, 20 games back. The Texas Rangers are 20.5 games back of the Houston Astros in the AL-West. 

The National League teams are not as miserable, but Shaughnessy predicts that three of the AL teams will lose more than 100 games. “The Orioles are on a pace to lose 118 games. The Royals, 116. The White Sox, 108,” he prognosticated. 

Why so many bad teams?

The major criticism I have with Shaughnessy’s piece, which is very interesting, is that he does not necessarily identify why some of these things are occurring. For instance, why does MLB have so many bad teams? My belief is that a major part of this is institutional, and that is not going to change. Unlike the NFL, which has complete revenue sharing in which all teams equally share the television revenue, MLB has just a limited revenue sharing program. This means that the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox do not have to share their local TV revenue with the rest of the league — and that will not change. 

Consequently, Shaughnessy’s argument falls off the rails when looking at the Red Sox, which has the highest payroll in MLB with $247.5 million, according to Spotrac.com. Second are the San Francisco Giants ($224.9 mil.), then the Chicago Cubs ($198.7), Washington Nationals ($198.17), and Los Angeles Dodgers. ($198.16).

Those are all large-market ventures will significant outside media revenue from TV and radio. Compare that to a small-market team like the Pittsburgh Pirates ($102.9 mil), and it is easy to see why so many bad teams exist. Yet, Shaughnessy never utters the words “revenue-sharing.” That is problematic. 

Another missing word: Baseball is “boring”

Shaughnessy actually does allude to this a great deal, but never uses the word boring to describe the game. “… it seems that local sports fans only want to talk about the Celtics and NBA free agency. Tom Brady and Julian Edelman. Try to find a good baseball conversation. Spend an hour alternating between the Sports Hub and WEEI and take note of how little baseball conversation you hear. Unless there’s yet another caller bashing David Price, the Sox don’t generate much sports talk these days.” And I love this: “Baseball has become the sanctuary of senior citizens. Hardcore baseball fans are the same people who have land-lines in their home and still read daily newspapers.”

He is no doubt right about that, but again, why are only senior citizens the denizens of the game? Young people love fast-paced games like football, basketball, and hockey. Baseball is listless for them, devoid of excitement. From that perspective, perhaps the game is in trouble. If indeed it is a repository of only docile, sedentary seniors, then the future looks bleak. I do not think so, but attendance may continue to decline because of these issues. 

His column is worth a read. It is a good analysis. Find it here: 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/redsox/2018/07/08/the-red-sox-may-red-hot-but-baseball-striking-out-every-way/6gq0GyH9X01dtuJQZgblAM/story.html