Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Has Free Agency Made The Playoffs Obsolete?

There should be little surprise that the NBA Playoffs - the pinnacle of the Basketball year according to the NBA - is drawing less viewers than Professional Wrestling. I mean, honestly, who cares? Its the same old teams as last year and there are no players that anybody could care less about. Besides, whether we watch or not, these players will, with any financial sense in their bodies at all, be set for life. Our watching will not change that, and quite frankly, we all have more important things to do.

Such an attitude can't be far behind for Baseball and Football. It already infects NBA Basketball and NHL Hockey. The fact of the matter is, from year to year, a team changes its stripes so often that there is little reason to root for your home team anymore, and even less reason to root for a sport in general. The money that is thrown around these sports puts the athletes in the unenviable position of having to defend such huge salaries for what is, in essence, a child's game. For the Michael Jordan's of the game, this is pretty easy to do. For the rest of the athletes, its a no-win situation. Add any sort of negative press to an already troubled sport, and the viewers begin to turn away in droves.

But, at least, during the regular season fans can watch their team's struggles and triumphs and hope that their team makes the playoffs. As the team's chances diminish, so do the crowds. As soon as the team is eliminated, so are the fans. 32 Sports teams fans become 16 become 8 become 4 become 2 (and the occassional event fan who watches the finals because they're the finals). By the time a championship game comes around, there might be almost nobody watching the sport.

In sports like Wrestling and NASCAR, each and every contest can produce a winner that was different than the previous week. There are no heroes who stay heroes and no villains who stay villains. Fans are encouraged to adopt a single competitor as their athlete. And they live and die by that athlete, knowing full well that next week the outcome might be completely different.

If we can't have true team sports - where a team remains constant from year to year to year, and we can't have a true athlete sport - where the athletes are the source of our hero worship, then we are stuck with some sort of inbetween compromise where we root for our team until they suck, and then we move on to another sport until next year.

For big time pro-sports, its all about the product they put on the field... but its also about our connecting to that product. Any obstacle that gets in the way of our connection ought to be removed or restricted.

Its time Baseball did something about its free agency problem. Its time Baseball put the Genie back in the bottle.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Bob L. Head

Check out this story at ESPN regarding an upcoming giveaway by the minor league Portland Beavers. Clever, creative, and unique. Bob L. Head's of the world...unite!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

New Toys

More widget fun - note the new scoreboard in the sidebar - click on the menu to get MLB scores and today's action, in addition to NHL and NBA playoff scores...

We here at The 7th Inning Stretch are here for the fans and by the fans...

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

According to the polls...

75% of all Americans are sick and tired of hearing about steroids.
69% think that the constant coverage of star athletes and their alleged problems suck all the fun out of sports.
91% could care less whether Bonds breaks the home run record so long as the media stops harping on it and reminding everyone that he is the all time worst human being ever because he allegedly took steroids and that makes him a cheat and a liar and someone ought to send in the army and remove him from power (WMD's or no!).
5% of all Americans are stuck watching teams like the Devil Rays.
51% of all Americans elected George W. Bush despite evidence that he was a really lousy President.
85% believe that we ought to have a real commissioner.
100% of all real San Franciscan's hate the Dodgers.
115% of all real Bostonians hate the Yankees (some dead were reanimated for this poll).
99% of all Cubs fans agree that their team has no chance, but hope otherwise.
83% of all Braves fans are convinced that their team in the playoffs is a natural occurrance like rain falling.
21% of "fans" get their opinions on sports topics from polls like this one.
69% of NASCAR fans would rather be watching baseball... the way it used to be played.

All poll findings were done "scientifically" in much the same way ESPN conducts their "scientific" polls.