I got to wondering what does MLB need to fix in order to compete with the NFL in terms of popularity, marketing, and to just get people excited for an entire season.

 

 

1. Get rid of Bud Selig (I believe he is retiring after his contract next season)

 

2. Implement some sort of salary cap or increase the luxury tax by about 200%.

 

3. MLB draft needs to allow teams the option of trading draft picks just like the other major sports.

 

4. Get rid of bad umpires. Maybe send them down to umpiring minor league games if they do bad in MLB games.

 

5. MARKETING! Baseball needs to learn how to market it's players. Pujols, Hanley, Mauer, Utley, Howard, Reyes. They need to market the sport better in order to get people excited. NBA does it, NFL does it, why can't MLB?

 

6. Do not expand replay, I think a small amount of human error is what makes the game fun and exciting. (sounds like I'm contradicting post #4 but I'm not)

 

7. Increase televised games.

 

8. Either get rid of the All-Star game counting for home-field advantage or get rid of having every team represented and just let the best players play each other (fan voting to an extent)

 

9. Start playoff games earlier than 10 and 11 PM. Kids can't get interested in something if it's past their bed time.

 

10. This one is just my own opinion but I would like to see MLB get rid of East, West, Central and just have AL & NL. Top 8 teams from each league goes to the playoffs.

I got to wondering what does MLB need to fix in order to compete with the NFL in terms of popularity, marketing, and to just get people excited for an entire season.

 

 

1. Get rid of Bud Selig (I believe he is retiring after his contract next season)

 

2. Implement some sort of salary cap or increase the luxury tax by about 200%.

 

3. MLB draft needs to allow teams the option of trading draft picks just like the other major sports.

 

4. Get rid of bad umpires. Maybe send them down to umpiring minor league games if they do bad in MLB games.

 

5. MARKETING! Baseball needs to learn how to market it's players. Pujols, Hanley, Mauer, Utley, Howard, Reyes. They need to market the sport better in order to get people excited. NBA does it, NFL does it, why can't MLB?

 

6. Do not expand replay, I think a small amount of human error is what makes the game fun and exciting. (sounds like I'm contradicting post #4 but I'm not)

 

7. Increase televised games.

 

8. Either get rid of the All-Star game counting for home-field advantage or get rid of having every team represented and just let the best players play each other (fan voting to an extent)

 

9. Start playoff games earlier than 10 and 11 PM. Kids can't get interested in something if it's past their bed time.

 

10. This one is just my own opinion but I would like to see MLB get rid of East, West, Central and just have AL & NL. Top 8 teams from each league goes to the playoffs.

 

I think a 162 game season is just to long for most American's to stay interested.

 

I don't really think a salery cap would draw more interest at all.

I think a salary cap would be horrible for baseball. Teams like the Yankees and Red Sox keep the league in business. If they become average teams, I don't think the casual fan would watch many games at all. There is a reason the Yankees and Sox are on TV almost every night ESPN has a game. The teams that make the most most should be able to use it I think, because some teams barely make any at all. A Salary Cap is as unAmerican and uncapitalistic as it gets.

 

My suggestions:

1. Both leagues should use a DH IMO. Maybe that's not the traditional way, but it will increase scoring in the National League and make it more competitive with the AL I think.

2. Marketing obviously needs a major upgrade. You have guys like Pujols, Howard, or even Strasburg, use them to improve interest in the game. Heck, one of the all-time great Yankees is still playing in Jeter, why not market that more?

3. More teams in the playoffs. Or better yet, the best 4 teams get in regardless of division. Maybe that makes the regular season less meaningful, but it would make the playoffs even better.

4. $1 Beer nights every Tuesday night.

Interesting bit on Mike and Mike yesterday. They were talking about the "10 most marketable" baseball players, and how the average American probably wouldn't recognize most of them on the street. Especially when compared to players in the NFL and the NBA.

 

I had to agree. Jeter was 1, Pujols was 2; after that there were a bunch of guys that Joe Schmo might not know if they collided on Main Street. David Wright, for example. Strausberg (sp?) was #4 and lots of folks have heard of him, but how many either casual or non-baseball fans would know him if they saw him?

Don't compete with the NFL...two different sports.

 

Baseball's popularity will wane some as folks expressed before with the length of the season. Baseball is like life-it happens every day, and you go out and do your best. Football is more like a video game, and although I love it, ultimately it is what will hurt that sport. The players will keep getting bigger and stronger and faster-no suspicion of any ped's here..:confused:...and then due to the fans demand for violence someone is going to be killed on the field and that is going to suddenly change everything. It's supposed strngth will be its weakness.

 

Baseball is a beautiful game that doesn't need much to be changed. Let the NFL be the WWE. Baseball is a game to be shared by Father and Son. It is subtle and understated. Football is in your face and rowdy and fun, but doesn't have nearly the history and fabric that baseball does. Football is the ultimate hype machine. Baseball makes mistakes-like the whole steroid era-when it tries to be something it is not.

Don't compete with the NFL...two different sports.

 

Baseball's popularity will wane some as folks expressed before with the length of the season. Baseball is like life-it happens every day, and you go out and do your best. Football is more like a video game, and although I love it, ultimately it is what will hurt that sport. The players will keep getting bigger and stronger and faster-no suspicion of any ped's here..:confused:...and then due to the fans demand for violence someone is going to be killed on the field and that is going to suddenly change everything. It's supposed strngth will be its weakness.

 

Baseball is a beautiful game that doesn't need much to be changed. Let the NFL be the WWE. Baseball is a game to be shared by Father and Son. It is subtle and understated. Football is in your face and rowdy and fun, but doesn't have nearly the history and fabric that baseball does. Football is the ultimate hype machine. Baseball makes mistakes-like the whole steroid era-when it tries to be something it is not.

 

I was going to make a similar point. For years, football has been the modern-day equivalent of Roman "gladiator-games". Also for years, the indoor equivalent has been big-time wrestling.

 

Until the rise of MMA, or whatever it's called. The more blood and guts, the more popular.

 

That being said, I don't see baseball challenging football; and part of the reason is the marketing of it's marquee players.

Some people simply do not appreciate the intricate details of a baseball game. Are there things that could be done, sure. However, in our fast paced world it seems that people are flocking to more easily visible "action", like football.

 

I know many people that used the strike and steroids as a reason to not watch baseball. The real reason was that they don't know how to watch a baseball game.

 

One thing that could be done is for Insight to pick up the dang MLB Network. Ticks me off.

Interesting bit on Mike and Mike yesterday. They were talking about the "10 most marketable" baseball players, and how the average American probably wouldn't recognize most of them on the street. Especially when compared to players in the NFL and the NBA.

 

I had to agree. Jeter was 1, Pujols was 2; after that there were a bunch of guys that Joe Schmo might not know if they collided on Main Street. David Wright, for example. Strausberg (sp?) was #4 and lots of folks have heard of him, but how many either casual or non-baseball fans would know him if they saw him?

Was Hanley on that list?

Like I said, MLB needs to market their star players.

1. Get rid of Bud Selig (I believe he is retiring after his contract next season)

 

2. Implement some sort of salary cap or increase the luxury tax by about 200%.

 

3. MLB draft needs to allow teams the option of trading draft picks just like the other major sports.

 

4. Get rid of bad umpires. Maybe send them down to umpiring minor league games if they do bad in MLB games.

 

5. MARKETING! Baseball needs to learn how to market it's players. Pujols, Hanley, Mauer, Utley, Howard, Reyes. They need to market the sport better in order to get people excited. NBA does it, NFL does it, why can't MLB?

 

6. Do not expand replay, I think a small amount of human error is what makes the game fun and exciting. (sounds like I'm contradicting post #4 but I'm not)

 

7. Increase televised games.

 

8. Either get rid of the All-Star game counting for home-field advantage or get rid of having every team represented and just let the best players play each other (fan voting to an extent)

 

9. Start playoff games earlier than 10 and 11 PM. Kids can't get interested in something if it's past their bed time.

 

10. This one is just my own opinion but I would like to see MLB get rid of East, West, Central and just have AL & NL. Top 8 teams from each league goes to the playoffs.

 

This is just my opinion on some of your points:

 

1. Bud Selig's time has passed. Certainly one could argue that some of the best times in baseball history were on his watch, but it all came back to bite him with the entire era tainted by steroids. Also, he's never been much of a presenter and he's not an appealing figurehead. You need a little charisma, a little charm, or to be a tough-nut - Selig has never been any of that.

 

2. I would like to see a cap of sorts. Bob Costas long ago advocated a "super-star" cap, which would limit the amount of money you could offer a player. In theory, a Reds lifer who came up through the system, if offer $20M per year by both Cincinnati and Boston would choose the Reds because of his history there. I'm not sure if that's realistic, but it would interesting to see some type of cap.

 

3. The biggest improvement for the draft would be to include international players like the NBA does. Why should teams with the money to fund Caribbean camps get all the good players? Why did Boston have to pay $50M just to negotiate with Matsusaka? Put them all in the same draft, or hold some type of international draft as well.

 

4. Umpires. I recently heard that FIFA (imagine that) has a maximum age for referees. Once you get past the age, you can't referee major events. Perhaps baseball (and all sports) should look into something similar.

 

5. Marketing has been terrible for baseball for years. I think they were scared by the steroids and were afraid to promote anyone in case they turned up dirty. But MLB also doesn't allow videos on Youtube or access to almost anything about their sport. Why is it so hard to watch old Willie Mays highlights? How can you grow the game without accessing it's past?

 

6. I agree with no replay expansion. Baseball's biggest problem already is that it takes too long. Why would four umps going into the booth for 10 minutes every three innings make it any better? I am a fence-rider, however, in allowing K-Zone use for the strikezone, just because it should be fair for everyone pitching and hitting and the way it is now, it isn't. The 1995 Indians/Braves World Series would be Exhibit A for this.

 

7. Putting more games on television would make sense, but television is almost an exact science. Baseball game times aren't. It's hard to commit to showing much. FOX has Saturday afternoon; ESPN has Sunday, Monday and Wednesday; MLB Network has a couple nights a week; FSN shows the local games nightly. I think baseball's on TV plenty.

 

8. The home-field/All-Star tie-in was a good theory at heart, but it's a terrible way to do things. When Marlon Byrd threw out Big Papi, the three outfielders were a Cub, an Astro, and a D-Back...those guys are determining home field? No. Should just go back to rotating between AL and NL like it did forever.

 

9. I don't know how to fix the late playoff starts. If you start early, kids are in school. If you start at 7, kids are eating supper or playing a sport themselves. If you start late, kids are in bed. Bottom line, if kids want to watch, they will.

 

10. I understand your league idea, but I'd almost rather see two more teams added to the AL and both leagues have 16 teams. Divide the 16 teams into 4 divisions and only division winners make the playoffs. That would eliminate the wild card team, but not the playoff position. And therefore each club in the postseason would have finished at the top of their table.

Some good points brought up thus far.

 

- Baseball does the worst of any sport of marketing itself. Unless a newsworthy story comes out or a controversy in the clubhouse, baseball has the attention of everyone on opening day, when the Yanks/Red Sox play, and during the playoffs. The NFL and NBA do 50 x better of extending their season well beyond their regular season. Once the NFL gets started in August with training camp, they dominate baseball. That is fine, but it is also sad when they dominate baseball during the off season. The NBA with marketable guys, the draft, and this year's "decision" has now taken a big chunk of time from baseball.

 

- I am fine with no DH in the NL if the pitchers took it seriously. But they do not. It is viewed as a joke that pitchers even bat, they don't practice, and teams manage around it. If that is the case, eliminate it and institute the DH.

 

- The season is way too long, but baseball will never cut games because it is all about numbers. To me the games are too long for as many as there are.

I've always been against Interleague play. I like how, back in the day, the only time AL teams saw NL teams were in the All Star Game and World Series... It makes the AL vs NL a bigger deal IMO...

I've always been against Interleague play. I like how, back in the day, the only time AL teams saw NL teams were in the All Star Game and World Series... It makes the AL vs NL a bigger deal IMO...

Numbers show that the interleague games are amongst the most watched during the regular season. I enjoy them and I believe it was a smart decision of Selig.

I've always been against Interleague play. I like how, back in the day, the only time AL teams saw NL teams were in the All Star Game and World Series... It makes the AL vs NL a bigger deal IMO...

 

I think there should be more interleague play, especially if one side has a DH and the other does not. Those are the most interesting games of the year IMO.

I think there should be more interleague play, especially if one side has a DH and the other does not. Those are the most interesting games of the year IMO.

 

I actually agree with that and almost put it with my other ideas. Interleague is very fun to watch and I think there should be about another week of it added. 162 games is quite a bit just to have 9-15 games played of interleague. Add another series and it'll be good.