Attendance

[IlliniKrush]

Are you buying her a gift?

Fixed

[Kyyle23]

Are you buying him a gift?

 

Im just giving it my kids and leaving. That should suffice

[greg775]

so glad you KNOW what all these people think.

 

the upper deck are not bad seats and my wife and I have made the trek up from Indy numerous times per year (we even drive back the same day)

 

so no we don't WANT good seats, most in the park are good enough, we'll spend a little extra on one game and get "Good" seats but that doesn't change the experience.

 

and we do want to spend money on baseball games, so that's why we fly out to Spring Training for the past 8 years and also attend about 4-5 games each summer in Chicago while driving up from Indy.

 

Stop acting like you know, cause really you don't.

 

There are always exceptions. You are one of the 8,000-10,000 (if that many) diehards, which is great. I'm sure we have about 8,000 fans who are awesome and would go to a ton of games each year regardless. I should have made that clear. But not more than 5,000 to 8,000 of you I'd say.

[IlliniKrush]

Putting this here since a lot of discussion in this thread has been about pace of play:

 

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/...action/related/

[Soxfest]

Dynamic pricing basically kills day of game or day before game impulse buying, except for Family Sunday where cheap options are all over, and that was SRO this past Sunday. You can go to Stubhub. I wish the Sox would just kill that model. It cannot be working.

It has not worked from day 1, since Sox announced the dynamic pricing policy.

[Eminor3rd]

TV has become a bigger part of following the team.

 

Teams are getting bigger TV contracts as a result.

 

Things are not as bad as they seem, IMO. I think the 40k regular season crowd is obsolete because they're watching form home.

[greg775]

Putting this here since a lot of discussion in this thread has been about pace of play:

 

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/...action/related/

 

Good article. If the umps would enforce the fricking rules as well as call the correct strike zone, baseball would be watchable again. 12 seconds to deliver a pitch? Yeah, right. Good luck with that. Umps won't enforce it unfortunately.

[Eminor3rd]

Am I the only one here who thinks baseball is perfectly watchable as it is?

[witesoxfan]

Am I the only one here who thinks baseball is perfectly watchable as it is?

 

Yes, needs more chainsaws and bicycle riding bears.

[cabiness42]

Am I the only one here who thinks baseball is perfectly watchable as it is?

 

I definitely think the game needs to be sped up, but I don't think it has a major impact on attendance.

 

If I am going to commit a day to go to a game, I'm going to go regardless of whether the game lasts 2½ hours or 3½ hours.

 

The length of the game is more likely to impact whether or not I'll watch on TV.

[Dick Allen]

Verducci's article stats the length of game has increased 29 minutes the last 10 years even though scoring is down. The Dodgers and Mets had a 1-2-3 half inning that took 22 minutes.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Dick Allen

[southsider2k5]

Am I the only one here who thinks baseball is perfectly watchable as it is?

 

The game itself is fine, though I hate 3:30 baseball for nine inning games. I wish they would enforce some of the rules about the speed of the game a bit better. Other than that, I am OK with it.

[NorthSideSox72]

Yes, needs more chainsaws and bicycle riding bears.

Have you seen the video of that guy riding a bike with a goat on his back?

 

The Cubs should do that with one of their players, would be a perfect fit.

 

[bmags]

The game itself is fine, though I hate 3:30 baseball for nine inning games. I wish they would enforce some of the rules about the speed of the game a bit better. Other than that, I am OK with it.

 

They have to cut down the time. Have to. I don't know what best way is to speed up pitchers, but it needs to be done.

[greg775]

They have to cut down the time. Have to. I don't know what best way is to speed up pitchers, but it needs to be done.

Bmags, all the umps have to do is enforce the 12 second rule, and the rule where batters can't leave the box, but they won't do it. They should all be fired and start over with umps. They are the one organization that does whatever the f*** they want to do. It amazes me.

[Marty34]

I definitely think the game needs to be sped up, but I don't think it has a major impact on attendance.

 

If I am going to commit a day to go to a game, I'm going to go regardless of whether the game lasts 2½ hours or 3½ hours.

 

The length of the game is more likely to impact whether or not I'll watch on TV.

 

They don't care about the guy that goes to a game here and there, it affects the season ticket holders greatly though as well as tv viewership. They have to make it where the expectation is to get the game over in 2:45 or less

[harfman77]

Am I the only one here who thinks baseball is perfectly watchable as it is?

 

I think the game is fine, its the pitchers that take a lap around the mound after every pitch they throw and the batters that step out of the box and take a cut between every ball thrown that really slow the game down and make it difficult to watch a complete game. The games are taking much longer than they need to which makes it tough for average fans to set aside enough time to take in a game, let alone 3-4 games a week.

[IlliniKrush]

Good article. If the umps would enforce the fricking rules as well as call the correct strike zone, baseball would be watchable again. 12 seconds to deliver a pitch? Yeah, right. Good luck with that. Umps won't enforce it unfortunately.

 

 

Bmags, all the umps have to do is enforce the 12 second rule, and the rule where batters can't leave the box, but they won't do it. They should all be fired and start over with umps. They are the one organization that does whatever the f*** they want to do. It amazes me.

Whoa whoa whoa there killer. Please, this isn't the umpires fault by any means. This is how the game has evolved, unfortunately. The first time someone calls a strike on a batter for breaking the batter's box rule, you're going to have an ejection. And that umpire is going to shoot himself in the foot because he'll be the only guy doing it, and eventually lose his job because of all the issues he'll face. This isn't high school baseball, where I can enforce whatever I want (even there I still have to use a lot of judgment on these rules).

 

Those guys simply do what they are told by their bosses. You can't pin this on them. This is above the umpires. This has to come down from MLB as a point of emphasis, be explained to everyone, then implemented, with the league having their back. Someone does this right now? The league is not going to have their back, it's going to be a "what the f*** do you think you're doing out there?"

 

Believe me, the umpires are all for better pace of play. Baseball needs to eliminate as much dead time as possible.

 

Put the blame where it belongs - the players.

Edited June 2, 2014 by IlliniKrush

[bmags]

Bmags, all the umps have to do is enforce the 12 second rule, and the rule where batters can't leave the box, but they won't do it. They should all be fired and start over with umps. They are the one organization that does whatever the f*** they want to do. It amazes me.

 

But when the umps do enforce this rule people talk about them going on powertrips. There really is no good way to do it.

 

Put a dang shot clock behind the guy, limit the amount of trips to the mound, get the game moving.

[bmags]

They don't care about the guy that goes to a game here and there, it affects the season ticket holders greatly though as well as tv viewership. They have to make it where the expectation is to get the game over in 2:45 or less

 

I would definitely be open to more weekday games if I knew they could end at 9:45 and not 10:30.

[harfman77]

Whoa whoa whoa there killer. Please, this isn't the umpires fault by any means. This is how the game has evolved, unfortunately. The first time someone calls a strike on a batter for breaking the batter's box rule, you're going to have an ejection. And that umpire is going to shoot himself in the foot because he'll be the only guy doing it, and eventually lose his job because of all the issues he'll face. This isn't high school baseball, where I can enforce whatever I want (even there I still have to use a lot of judgment on these rules).

 

Those guys simply do what they are told by their bosses. You can't pin this on them. This is above the umpires. This has to come down from MLB as a point of emphasis, be explained to everyone, then implemented, with the league having their back. Someone does this right now? The league is not going to have their back, it's going to be a "what the f*** do you think you're doing out there?"

 

Believe me, the umpires are all for better pace of play. Baseball needs to eliminate as much dead time as possible.

 

Put the blame where it belongs - the players.

 

Its not the players fault for taken advantage of a broken system, its the lack of enforcement. The umpires are not entirely responsible either, this needs to be something that MLB says that they are going to start being serious about and then give the umps the instruction and support to enforce the letter of the law.

[IlliniKrush]

Its not the players fault for taken advantage of a broken system, its the lack of enforcement. The umpires are not entirely responsible either, this needs to be something that MLB says that they are going to start being serious about and then give the umps the instruction and support to enforce the letter of the law.

The umpires aren't responsible at all, this is all on the players. They want to move the game along, it's the players and managers that slow it down.

 

One thing that really bugs me is Hawk b****ing about replay can sometimes take too long. But then the next inning, he'll talk to Steve about how the hitter should step out as many times as possible, waste time, interrupt the pitcher's rhythm, and slow the game down to a grinding halt. Completely contradicts himself. Can't have it both ways.

 

 

[chitownsportsfan]

I was at the Mariners and Tigers afternoon game yesterday. It was a 4-0 Mariners win that took over 2:40 minutes. There was literally no action from the Tigers other than a scattered hit or two and a walk. Luckily Elias likes to work fast, but Scherzer and Coke were ridiculous. I would like to see a rule much like the PGA Tour does where if you take too long eventually you get a warning and they put you on a clock. If you still take to long after the warning it's a balk.

 

I don't think asking the pitcher to take less than 15 seconds between receiving the ball and throwing / pickoff is too much to ask.

[Eminor3rd]

Are you people seriously watching games and looking at your watch wishing it was over 20 minutes sooner?

[flavum]

Pitchers- stay on the mound

Hitters- stay in the box

Call high strikes.