Sports United

America’s Pastime Rallying to Stay Alive?

“Baseball is America’s pastime, but you know, it makes me a little sad to know that it might already be surpassed in popularity by sports like football, basketball, and maybe even soccer, but still, I think baseball [still] holds a special place in Americans´ hearts.”

Baseball’s Current State

Baseball has been known as America’s pastime for countless generations. It is a game

played, loved, and watched by many. The players of old drew thousands of civilians to their temples to watch them perform at the highest levels, while the players of new can now pull a few hundred thousand views on social media upon making a remarkable play, if they’re lucky. Major League Baseball has seen a noticeable decline in fan attendance over the last few years, and this decrease in fans has been apparent to any avid baseball fan. Many games nowadays are viewed by in person crowds of up to less than ten thousand, a clearly pitiful turnout. These

results have led fans, employees, managers, and the commissioner of Major League Baseball to wonder, what can we do to make baseball America’s Pastime once more?

What Makes Baseball America’s Pastime?

This question does not have a concrete answer. To some, baseball is a game introduced by family and was just always part of one’s life. After asking Biko Skalla, the broadcaster for the Savannah Bananas on how he was introduced to baseball, he said, “You know, growing up, my Uncle Mike never stopped talking about the fabled New York Yankees. I grew

game to play was baseball. I quickly became obsessed, playing the game every chance I could,”. To others, baseball is a game taught by friends, and is a hobby often played for fun. James Altgelt, a high school um-

Courtesy of Jason Miller/Getty Images

Courtesy of Jeff Chiu

- Biko Skalla Broadcaster Savannah Bananas

Alexander Johnson

pire, replied to the same question I asked Mr. Skalla by saying “I first heard of baseball in elementary school when I was growing up. We started playing stickball, and it evolved into baseball,”. Going back to its roots, baseball was invented in the mid to late 1800s. Its earliest form, rounders, was enjoyed by the people of England, but upon arriving in America, rounders evolved into baseball. This game quickly became very popular, so much so, that an entire league was devoted to baseball, and then another. These professional leagues were full of men having fun and playing a game to pass time, and earn extra money when possible, because they still had families and real jobs to take care of. These professional teams accumulated crowds slowly, and by the time the game had really developed into something relatively high-paying and rewarding, the crowds were absolutely nuts. Civilians flocked from all parts of the country to see their favorite players compete at the highest level. Players like Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Walter Johnson, and many more put the sport on the map, and started to gain people’s attention. Babe Ruth’s record setting 60

home run season in 1927 was documented closely in New York papers, and many games that he played were watched in person by just

about as many as the stadium could hold, and tuned in to by radio by many more. In recent years though, that kind of enthusiasm from fans has been lackluster. The decline in fan attendance has been clearly noticeable. Baseball is no longer what it was. Here’s what Mr. Skalla has to say on the matter: “Base ball is America’s pastime, but you know, it makes me a little sad to know that it might already be surpassed in popularity by sports like football, basketball, and maybe even soccer, but still, I think baseball [still] holds a

special place in Americans´ hearts.” Although teams and employees of Major League Baseball have noticed the shrinking fan population, it’s not like they’re sitting back and letting it happen. They’re trying to solve the problem. There are some recent rule changes that have been added to the game that make a difference in how the game is played. Some of the most noticeable changes are the pitch clock, the bigger bases, and the robo-umps in the minors. The pitch clock has already been shown to shorten the game, a long time complaint ofanybody who’s watched the game without interest. The bigger bases give the runners more room for stolen bases, and the defense less room for error. For the most part, these changes have been accepted, while other changes, like the robo-umps, have caused mayhem among baseball enthusiasts. These changes are too recent to see how effective they’ve been against fan attendance, but something that has been observed to accumulate crowds as big

Courtesy of David Meerman Scott

as the stadium can hold is on the rise, and has possibly caused changes to the MLB. (Enter the Savannah Bananas). tendance. Mr. Skalla and the team want to leave the fans with something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives, and something they’ll think fondly of for years to come. “I think to sum it all up, the Bananas are a show for the people. We are a bit of a circus aiming to give fans tons of fun and tons of memories.” (Skalla).

Courtesy of Los Angeles Times

team want to leave the fans with something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives, and something they’ll think fondly of for years to come. “I think to sum it all up, the Bananas are a show for the people. We are a bit of a circus aiming to give fans tons of fun and tons of memories.” (Skalla).

How is Baseball Changing?

The Savannah Bananas are Changing Baseball

ing, and providing a better fan experience. This variation, called Banana Ball, has been so popular that every single home game has been sold for the months of April-September of 2023! One important rule in Banana Ball is the restriction of stepping out of the box, or stepping off the mound, along with a pitch clock. These rules make the game go by so fast, and it has left many The Savannah Bananas are a wildly popular baseball team who travel across the nation, playing games against the Party Animals, the only other team in their league. The Bananas perform trick plays, dances, and wild stunts on the field during games with high levels of competition. Some of these tricks include flaming bats, flip catches, and performing popular social media dances in the middle of their wind-ups. “Obviously we do all our tricks and jokes and what not, but it goes further than players on stilts, or dancing before a pitch, or hitting with a bat on fire. Our guys are out there competing, they’re out there trying their hardest.” (Skalla). This has proven to be true, as nearly 20 players have been drafted to play for Major League teams.

One of the most noticeable things about the Bananas, is that they play a different form of baseball. There are several different rules that speed up the game, making it more excit-

We are in a New Age of Baseball. Over the last few decades, there have been many occurrences never seen in baseball before, like women in high levels of baseball, two-way players, new exit velocity and pitching velocity records being broken at higher and higher frequencies, etc. These changes

- Biko Skalla Broadcaster Savannah Bananas

to think that the MLB’s new pitch clock and limitation to disengagements and pickoffs have been modeled after the Bananas rules. “One of our rules in Banana ball is that batters cannot step out and pitchers cannot step off, and we’ve now seen a change in MLB. They’ve added a 15 second timer with nobody on base and a 20 second timer with runners on base…” (Skalla). Mr. Skalla has informed me that the team’s main goal is to create core memories for the fans in attendance. Mr. Skalla and the

in the game are things that people travel long distances, and pay high prices for. Most games that Shohei Ohtani pitches and hits end up with more tickets sold than the usual amount, and just recently, Olivia Pichardo became the first ever woman to play D1 baseball, the highest level of collegiate baseball there is. As baseball becomes more inclusive, it inspires more and more people to play and become invested in America’s Pastime.

“Obviously we are trying to gain people’s attention, when I got here there were already 88 sold out games in a row, and as of now, we are north of 200 straight sold out games, with over 600,000 thousand tickets already booked.”

How Important is it to be Considerate with fans?

The Savannah Bananas players and their staff have always been so interactive with their fans, a main attraction to much of their crowd, and that is also something the fans of MLB have been complaining about. They say that the MLB does not involve the crowd enough, and does not take into consideration the circumstances or situations of the fans. After asking Trace Loehr, a minor league prospect, on how the mlb can start regaining fans and start increasing fan attendance, he said “We will only see changes when the MLB becomes as interactive as other countries and sports.” An example of MLB’s lack of interactiveness is the price of the tickets. Due to inflation and other reasons, MLB tickets have skyrocketed to an average of roughly 60 dollars, a price many have found to be absurd for 2 and a half hours or less of entertainment. That kind of money is just not possible for many families across the nation to pay for, causing anger among fans. “You know, it’s not like a football game, where you play 16 games, and I just think the economy, the way it is, it’s tough to pay those prices.” (Altgelt). The cost of the tickets, along with other details like what some people call MLB’s lack of understanding for the fans infuriates many, and may lead fans to steer away from games, and possibly switch to or prefer lower and cheaper levels of competition like high school or college baseball. After asking Mr. Altgelt if he’d rather watch MLB games

or high school / college games, he responded by saying, “When I’m at home, if I have an option between college baseball or MLB baseball, I´m watching college,” going on to say, “the amount of money that we´ve been paying these players in all sports has become just so commercialized that maybe we´ve taken away from the actual sport itself.” This complaint has beeen brought by many fans, complaining that the players no longer try as hard as they used to, and no longer play with the same kind of attitude, so as to preserve their health,which ultimately lowers the overall fan experience. This means the loss of fans, and then fan attendance, which is exactly what you don’t want.

Bringing Back the Crowd

Although fans may not be intrigued to travel to stadiums and pay high prices to watch games, many people have chosen to watch online. As the popularity and use of social media increases, the number of events, incidents, and occurrences that are posted online also increase. Some of these include concerts, competitions, and sports.

Short clips of baseball games and plays are uploaded consistently and are viewed by many. Other forms of baseball content include recaps. Many baseball related content creators, like baseball youtubers, put together highlights and clips of the previous day’s games for people to watch if they’re in a rush, or if they just don’t want to sit down for hours and hours to watch every single game. Even the official MLB youtube channel posts daily 10-15 minute videos on the highlights of each and every MLB game. Other than recaps, the official MLB channel also occasionally streams current games on their platform, attracting several thousand people, especially on important games, like playoff games. These new ways of watching the sport could possibly be making an impact on the popularity of baseball and its fanbase, and could maybe cause an increase in viewership over the following years. These new methods to collect fans and views could be making up for teams’ lowering attendances, which could save some teams from having to relocate, like the Oakland Athletics, but only time will tell.

ROBO-UMPS Are They Good For Baseball?

What Are Robo-Umps?

Robo-Umps are a relatively new addition to the game of baseball. They aren’t actual robots on the field making the calls, instead, the

Manfred, the commissoner of Major League Baseball now plans to have it be introduced in the upcoming 2024 MLB season (Pierce, 2022).

traditional human umpire is out there making the calls, but when a team player or manager would like to challenge a ball or strike call, the pitch is verified by an electronic strike zone. The strike zone is a electronically viewable 3D rendition of the zone, or box, and it shows where the pitch crossed the plate or zone. Robo-umps had been used in recent years throughout the minor leagues, but Robert

“It just doesn’t make any sense to me, it just takes away the whole point of catching.”

- Harrison Chang, LASA Baseball Catcher, Voted Against

In addition, the use of robo-umps will be employed in every single Triple-A ballpark for this 2023 season, whether fans and players like it or not (Postins, 2023). These new moves have caused mixed feelings among baseball fans, and here’s a pie chart showing the opinions of the 38 people that took this poll. 29 SU SPRING 2023~

“Personally I’m a fan, you know, now, as an umpire, you just don’t have to deal with fans yelling, “That was a strike!”, or “That was a ball”. I think It’ll make the umpires’ job a lot easier and less frustrating.”

WHAT DO THE PEOPLE THINK?

For Against

Results

Indifferent Against - 47% For - 47%