Editors Note: This column originally ran in the May 24, 2023 edition of The Ledger Independent.
Major League Baseball is making a concerted effort in its attempt to appeal to younger fans.
The game is not considered the national pastime, as it once was, with football taking over as the most popular sport in the country.
MLB is trying to appeal to the younger generation, but it faces an uphill battle with numerous people under the age of 35 or so.
The appeal of the sport has been lost to many of those folks, who feel that baseball is boring or too slow-paced.
You cannot count this old guy among that group.
The love of baseball was ingrained in me at a very young age, and persists to this day.
It has been a family tradition that was passed on to me, and has carried on to my son and grandson.
As mentioned in the first column I wrote in January upon my return to The Ledger Independent, grandson Owen is quickly becoming the most fanatical baseball fan of all of us.
He enjoys other sports as well, including basketball, football, and soccer, my son loves to golf, but baseball has remained our primary interest.
My dad loved baseball, and he used to regale me with tales of his prowess on the diamond in high school, and he was a pretty fair softball player in his 20s and 30s.
He loved to listen to games on the radio, and when he was a kid, he tuned into KMOX in St. Louis to listen to Cardinals games because their shortstop, Marty Marion, was his favorite player.
He also attended as many games as possible, and took me to Crosley Field and Riverfront Stadium to watch the Reds.
Dad used to enjoy traveling to World Series games, as well as taking in minor league games whenever he could. When the family moved to Louisville in the early 1970s, he became a season ticket holder for Redbirds games.
Before that, he was an umpire in the greater Cincinnati area, and he was an excellent one too, as I recall. He loved the intricacies of the game, and his knowledge of the history of baseball was extensive as well.
As you likely already know (if you have been reading my drivel at all over the years), baseball is and has been my favorite sport for as long as I can remember.
I also realize that is not the case with a lot of sports fans, and non-sports fans alike.
To each their own.
Everyone has different interests, and no matter what I say, there are some people who will never like baseball.
That’s fine; I completely understand that, but I can only write what I know, and one thing I do know is baseball.
Major League Baseball is attempting to increase interest in the sport, especially with their initiatives in the inner city, where basketball rules.
It’s much easier to get a pickup basketball game going than it is with baseball, and a lot of kids simply find baseball a boring and/or a frustrating endeavor.
Where I grew up we played baseball, and variations of the game every day in the summer.
In addition to playing organized baseball in Little League and Knothole, we played in the park until it got too dark to see.
It could be what we called lob-pitch, with four or five players on each side, and if you hit the ball to the right of second base, you were automatically called out.
We played softball for our park teams in Norwood, which had an outstanding recreation commission back in the day, with seven parks in the city. Some of us would also play softball on church league teams with adults.
We played Wiffle ball in back yards wherever we could, and we played something called slam ball, which I am certain kids today have never heard of.
Slam ball was played on school playgrounds with a rubber ball. We would draw a strike zone on the wall of the school and designate what a single, double, or home run was by where or how far we hit the ball.
We would make lineups and pretend we were big-leaguers, all the while wearing out our arms by trying to fire fastballs past our friends.
At the risk of sounding like an extremely old guy, times were much simpler back then, and more innocent as well.
Well, that concludes my nostalgic rant about the “good ol’ days.”
Getting back to 2023, another way MLB is trying to attract younger participants is by showing that playing the game can be fun.
Unlike days gone by, kids see big-leaguers enjoying themselves, including the silly dugout celebrations.
I’m not that old guy who shakes his fist and screams at clouds, or at kids to get off the lawn, so more power to them.
If they’re having fun, go for it.
Bat flips have also long been considered a way of showing up your opponent and a violation of one of the unwritten rules of baseball.
To that I say, get over it.
If you’re a pitcher and you don’t want someone flipping their bat when they hit a ball 400 feet, don’t give up the long ball.
In recent years, it seems a lot of the unwritten rules of the game are going away, and it’s about time.
It’s a new day in baseball, and in a game where failure plays such a large role, when you come up with a key hit or a home run, it’s okay to show some enthusiasm and enjoy your success.
Baseball is not an easy game to play, and at each level it gets even more difficult. The speed of the game increases, and one of the hardest things to do in any sport is square up a baseball.
Some kids don’t have the patience to stick with it, or they simply don’t like it, which is fine.
However, when you’re part of a team that plays together and you’re having fun, baseball can be a rewarding experience.
Reds don new threads
In MLB’s their partnership with Nike, we have what they’re calling the City Connect uniforms.
It could also be defined as a money grab, and another way for Nike, MLB and its teams to cash in.
The uniforms designed for the Cincinnati Reds have gained widespread approval from fans, and they’re more attractive than those I’ve seen for other clubs.
At the risk of again sounding like an OG, I’m not crazy about them.
Don’t hate them, but I suppose the best way to describe my feeling on them is indifferent.
If the new uniforms would have a magical effect on the Reds and help them win more often, they should wear them all the time.
After all, following the sweep by the Yankees last weekend, the slumping Reds slipped back into last place in the division.
I like the caps better than the jerseys, and the Reds are going to be wearing the City Connect unis during Friday games for the rest of the season.
It’s probably a good idea to wear them for night games only. Wearing those mostly black uniforms during steamy Sunday afternoon games could be absolutely miserable.
Attempts to quicken pace of the game
The new rules implemented this season are turning out to be the best changes to the game that Major League Baseball has made in years.
The game is quicker, there’s more action on the bases, and games don’t drag on forever.
I remember watching Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN, when it seemed like it was the Red Sox-Yankees most of the time. The score would be 9-8 and a nine-inning game would last for four hours.
Those days look to be over, thanks to the pitch clock.
Banning the shift was also a positive move, allowing for more base hits, especially for lefthanded hitters.
It’s too bad Joey Votto hasn’t been able to take advantage of that rule change, but according to reports, he may be heading back to Louisville soon for another rehab stint.
Here’s hoping Votto can regain his stroke at the plate, and end his Cincinnati career on a positive note.
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“Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.”—Mark Twain
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“The baseball mania has run its course. It has no future as a professional endeavor.”—Cincinnati Gazette editorial from 1879
