The state of the sport -- Baseball

Rob Lazlo SportsFanatics.net columnist

Major League Baseball is probably the most beleaguered of any major sport, depending on what criteria you wish to use.

Clearly, no sport is more analyzed in terms of organizational sickness (Bob Costas wrote an entire book just on this subject, and he's not the only one), no sport has fallen further from its heyday than baseball, and no sport has had the kind of labor problems baseball has had.

All that said, baseball retains an allure, a near mythology, which, despite all the problems, makes baseball a unique sport in the American public's collective fan consciousness. Stated another way, people love this game in a way that they don't love football or basketball, even though football and basketball may evoke more immediate passion for the two or three hours while it is going on.

Baseball is not your mistress; it's your wife of 25 years. Another way to think of this intangible baseballness is to consider the number of people (your humble writer included) who attend minor league baseball games faithfully but would not go near a stadium featuring semi-pro football. These are the same people who shed a tear at the end of Field of Dreams and thought HBO's 61 was just terrific.

So what lies ahead for the national pastime? Here are the pluses and minuses currently on the board .

Competitiveness: Baseball doesn't get it. Pete Rozelle's great dream of parity in the NFL is occasionally the subject of jokes, but it has, over time, proven out to be a winning strategy. Revenue sharing, plus the modern-day salary cap, keeps every team in the hunt or capable of getting in the hunt by being nothing other than smart with their moves.

As a result, football enjoys an ever-changing landscape that offers both hope and continuity. Great teams can't stay great forever, but they can stay pretty damn good for a while. Meanwhile, awful teams can rebuild in two years or less if they don't mortgage their future.

Now contrast baseball. Exactly how long have the Montreal Expos sucked? When was the last time the Expos made a trade that was good for them? When was the last time the New York Yankees lost a great player and replaced him with a mediocre one or a rookie call up?

The fact is, a small collection of money-rich teams remain at the top of the baseball hierarchy. There will be a Twins every year (last year they were called "White Sox"), but is that truly competitiveness? Is the Phillies blatant this-year-only run at the Braves some sort of proof of what a low payroll can do? The Phillies will disappear next year and will remain invisible for at least another couple of seasons. The Braves will be back. The Yankees will be back. Cleveland is back.

Dynasties can help sports -- but only when they are beatable dynasties. The Lakers are great for basketball, but only if somebody knocks them off next year. If they keep winning titles, the sports will suffer. Meanwhile, teams like Pittsburgh, Milwaukee & Montreal have NO SHOT, and that's a problem. The day this problem is solved will be the day some form of revenue sharing is in place and the day no team trades stars for crap just to avoid losing them in free agency.

Bottom Line: Competitiveness in baseball right now is a big fat MINUS.

Internationalism: This is an area that perhaps holds the greatest promise for baseball.

No sport is more multi-racial or multi-cultural. Baseball is an absolute passion in Latin America & Japan. Mariners' games, which are broadcast in Japan after midnight local time, draw higher ratings in Japan than they do in Seattle. I think this is something baseball should seek to capitalize upon. A team in Mexico City or San Juan would be one possibility. A "USA v. The World" All-Star game would be another (I'd also advocate playing this game in foreign countries every year).

In the meantime, baseball (as usual, I'm sad to say) ignores even minor changes, which would allow it to take advantage of this opportunity. One such avenue would be broadcasting on Spanish language television. Of course, baseball would actually have to give these tiny media outlets a cheap price to start, which is why it hasn't happened, but the possibility of reaching a large audience is there. The possibility that these tiny outlets would get bigger if they had an attractive product like Spanish language baseball to broadcast is also there. Alas, the powers that be have become so "now" oriented that they cannot see the forest for the trees.

Bottom Line: This is a PLUS, but it could be more of one.

Essence of the Game: What they're playing today is NOT what they played 20 years ago, and I'm here to complain. The homerun is really ruining baseball and I think I can prove it.

With a plethora of mega-power homerun hitters chasing 60 or more every single season, the average fan has become bored with the homerun. Consequently, the most popular players and the ones fans gravitate towards are guys who do not necessarily hit homeruns. Pedro Martinez is certainly beloved in Boston, as is Mariano Rivera in New York, Jimmy Rollnis in Philadelphia, Schilling & Johnson in Arizona, Maddux & Glavine in Atlanta and Ichiro in Seattle.

Great pitching, great defensive players, guys who steal bases, these are players who give fans something they miss -- good fundamental baseball. I know there were very unflattering comments made about Ichiro on this site around the time of the All-Star game. I protest that. It is not this guy's fault that fans are bored to death with the walk-walk-bash offense and, therefore, are willing to make a rookie who runs fast and throws well from the outfield the most popular player in baseball. Starting pitching remains an important element of the game, but in the era of the incomplete game, which we are certainly in the midst of, a great bullpen is just as important as a solid staff. The Yankees realized that before anyone else to their credit. The Phillies have blindly stumbled upon it this year. Atlanta's inability to win more than one series bears it out.

Bottom Line: I'm not sure how, especially when part of the problem is the mini-size stadiums teams have built, but baseball has to get back to a better balance between pitching, defense, speed and power. One way would be to start paying the dollars for pitching it deserves. The best athletes become position players because A-Rod gets paid more than Pedro. Frankly, Pedro is worth more than A-Rod. So is Clemens. So is Randy Johnson. Possibly, Rivera is as well. One great hitter will not win you squat. A great starting pitcher, even with a lousy team behind him, can win you 20 games.

Does baseball have problems? Yes, big ones. Is it dead in the water the way some claim, because an entire generation has been skipped over? No. That's an overstatement.

Baseball has to get over the fact that it cannot simply say, "We're America's pastime, therefore you love us." That doesn't work anymore. Baseball must actively recruit and keep fans by following up on the things that work and working to fix the things that don't.

There is some indication that is starting to happen, but these guys are so rusty in the marketing department, that the process has been slow and fraught with stupidity. Baseball would benefit greatly by having a new, dynamic leader emerge to become commissioner. My choice (since he's recently available, having stepped down from his recent position), would be former Sixers President Pat Croce. Croce generates excitement and is a never-say-die optimist at a time when baseball needs one. Yo Bud Selig, give Pat a call.

Feedback can be sent to LazloF1@aol.com.

This article is courtesy of SportsFanatics.net.