A little late, but... Team Goose or Team Bryce?

Sadly, for the good of the game, I'm with Bryce.

Team Bautista

ok 2 to Bryce

I know it's hard to align with that guy.

jimmurphy said:

Sadly, for the good of the game, I'm with Bryce.

Does the line that separates exuberance (Ozzie Smith's backflips) and competitive fire (Pete Rose's inning-ending ball spikes) from showboating, as subjective as it is, need to be erased entirely for the sport to continue to entertain?

(Asked by a fan who admittedly found nothing more thrilling than the stoic dominance of a Gibby or Lefty. Or trots like this guy's.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEqDcHz40hw&sns=em

Or, to put it in somewhat more modern terms, are the Trouts and Altuves going to be the death of major-league baseball unless it embraces or even encourages its Harpers and Bautistas?

DaveSchmidt said:

Or, to put it in somewhat more modern terms, are the Trouts and Altuves going to be the death of major-league baseball unless it embraces or even encourages its Harpers and Bautistas?

This ^

Discussion on ESPN the other day about just how poor the baseball ratings are for young people. If they ain't watching young, they ain't watching older.

Too many other options today. Need to change with the times.

Discussed this today with my son (a week shy of 17), and he's personally Team Gossage but is also like Team Murphy in believing that Team Harper is the only hope for the future of the game. I tried to convince him that the MLB doesn't need $200 million payrolls, national TV megadeals and 30 teams to survive, but he was fixated on the possibility that he'll get stuck living in some region without a team and only one national Game of the Week, watching guys who work in insurance in the off-season, and wasn't buying it.

I ended up telling him that he and his current (and former) teammates and fans at CHS had better have a lot of kids.

Even having a lot of kids doesn't guarantee they'll watch.  It has to be more entertaining to grab their attention.

I guess it comes down to this for me: To attract the NFL-, NBA-, UFC- and video-enthralled youths that may be needed to keep baseball in the billion-dollar ballpark, they'd have to mess with the game so much that I wouldn't care about it anymore. Let them have it, then, and I'll live on the memories. Like Breyers ice cream.

But that seems a good ways off. I think there's enough room in the sport to welcome and accommodate the Harpers without overturning its traditions, enough appeal to survive on some level even if its popularity continues to drop -- and enough fan DNA from my father, me and my son to pass on to any future grandchildren.

the game is inherently too slow for most people.  And this isn't a "these kids today" thing.  The sport's fan base has been trending older for decades.  In the NYC area and the Northeast, we haven't perceived it as much because New York in particular remains a baseball market.  

that said, I welcome the initiatives to speed up the game.  Even as a devoted fan, I'd been finding myself exasperated by the slow pace caused by fidgety hitters and overly-deliberate pitchers (I'm looking at you Steve Trachsel).

and even though I'm a fan of a certain age, I enjoy the celebrations.  I always thought the unwritten rule that you put your head down and trot around the bases expressionless after a HR was dumb.  It's a game, and it's entertainment, and it's more fun for me if they guys playing it look like they're having fun.  

I thought the Bautista bat flip was thrilling.  I used to enjoy the '06 Mets' choreographed hand slaps.  Some of the stuff is stupid -- like the Harper hair flip.  But I'll accept the hair flip if that's what comes along with the other cooler celebrations.

how could you not like this?  Especially under the circumstances.  Look at how excited the fans are.  So why shouldn't the player show the same excitement as the fans?

but this is just stupid:

Stupid doesn't even begin to describe it.  But agreed on other counts.  Suck it up pitchers (after all, it's their egos most in question in these debates usually) and enough with the retaliation blowback, too.  If someone crushes one, get the next guy without trimming his nose hair.

Neither.  They are both jerks.  I'd rather watch them play than hear them speak.

demonstrations of emotion or over the top behavior after a homerun or other big hit is not going to attract the younger generations to watch the game.  its neither good or bad.  its meaningless.

baseball is slow, its slower now than its ever been, especially since they squeeze so many commericals between innings and have strategy that uses every pitcher on the staff, every game.  baseball is about drama and suspense, but its never going to be a watch this amazing stuff happening all the time, game.

actually playing the game as a kid and loving the game as a kid, continuing to play in pick up games or adult leagues on the other hand will keep other generations of kids watching the game.

hoops said:

demonstrations of emotion or over the top behavior after a homerun or other big hit is not going to attract the younger generations to watch the game.  its neither good or bad.  its meaningless.

baseball is slow, its slower now than its ever been, especially since they squeeze so many commericals between innings and have strategy that uses every pitcher on the staff, every game.  baseball is about drama and suspense, but its never going to be a watch this amazing stuff happening all the time, game.

actually playing the game as a kid and loving the game as a kid, continuing to play in pick up games or adult leagues on the other hand will keep other generations of kids watching the game.

^ this ^

Agree with HOOPS... But I also have to say, the NFL is losing me for a lot of the same reasons.  too many commercials, amount of time between plays, calling timeout just as the ball is being kicked and then more commercials.  My feeling is if it were not for gambling the NFL would not exist.  

By the way, I find Harper a fun player to watch.  

As far as being overpaid -- NBA basketball players take the cake.   College basketball is more fun to watch.

Dave's brother Mike has weighed in:

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/phillies-mike-schmidt-jose-bautista-bat-flip-yoenis-cespedes-032416

The other day a stranger on the train said I was a ringer for Jim Boeheim. Now I got a brother on Medicare?

Team Stengel.

jimmurphy said:

Dave's brother Mike has weighed in:

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/phillies-mike-schmidt-jose-bautista-bat-flip-yoenis-cespedes-032416

Mike also wants all those kids to get off his lawn.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/magazine/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-baseball.html?ref=baseball

that article is patently absurd.  Um, Jose Fernandez? 

Robert_Casotto said:

that article is patently absurd.  Um, Jose Fernandez? 

Do you mean Bautista?  I saw no reference to a Jose Fernandez.

it had some garbage in there about baseball not embracing its latin players.  I could rattle off a baker's dozen latin players that are embraced real good. 

Here's a little youthful exuberance for Goose to chew on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxwERYqnZrQ