I have very fond memories from childhood of the World Series and childhood friends debating the merits of Yankees vs. Dodgers. It was early October and while summer was officially over it was usually sunny and warm enough yet to justify a summertime pursuit like baseball. Most of the games were played in the daytime. TV had not yet brought its cash and need for after work audiences to bear on the culmination of the nation's pastime for the year.
Then TV ratings and stuff happened and baseball moved to evenings, except on weekends. I remember when the last holdout, the Chicago Cubs gave up the ghost and put lights in Wrigley Field. It traumatized half a city, but in the end the furor died down and profits rolled in. The American League and National League both added teams. They divided each league into divisions.
Divisional playoffs were added. The American League said pitchers didn't have to bat, and added a designated hitter. Ticket prices went up. Luxury skyboxes went into every stadium. Baseball enlarged its spectrum and went into Canada. Cold weather cities built domed stadiums. Really hot weather cities built domed stadiums. Cities built stadiums with roofs that could be retracted in good weather, and closed in inclimate weather.
Jeeesus! Is this baseball? Okay, I admit going to Twins games and enjoying watching Billy Martin blow a gasket over one of those high pop flies that got lost in the massive white roof of the Metrodome. That was before they painted it blue, to emulate the sky I suppose, and to reduce the incidence of what came to be known as "Dome Balls." Still, in retrospect, it seems a little silly, and the Twins are moving to a new outdoor stadium next year. They saw the error of their ways.
The latest and greatest travesty to beset the National Pastime, however, is the expansion of the playoffs until the divisional rivalries are not settled until the end of October and the World Series will not be over until sometime in November. Have you seen the players on the field in Boston and New York wearing hooded things under their hats to keep their heads and ears warm, wearing insulated batting gloves, sitting in dugouts with electric heaters? What ever happened to "The Boys of Summer"? It's mid-autumn for crying out loud. They had to postpone a playoff game in Denver because the weather was more suited to "cross-country skiing."
Frankly, there is a point of diminishing returns when the baseball season goes on this long. People grow tired of it. There is simple baseball fatigue. And it has to compete with football (Both pro and college), basketball, and hockey. Want to play baseball this long? That's why they have leagues in the Caribbean and in Mexico.
As for the cold and inclimate weather factors, there are two possible solutions for the future of baseball playoffs and the world series. One possibility is that you forget that home and home format and make all playoff games go to a domed stadium to play. Frankly, that is untenable. Home crowds watching their teams play and the advantage that comes of playing on the home turf are integral to the game and its playoffs. The other option is to shorten the season to, say 150 games. That would end the season a couple of weeks earlier. The playoffs would begin earlier. The actual World Series would be back to being played in the early days of October like it traditionally has been. I vote for that.
Now as for the other problems of professional baseball, can we please get rid of the designated hitter? That's not real baseball. Can we stop with the corporate naming rights of stadiums? I can't really buy into U.S. Cellular Field. I still think of the White Sox as playing in Comiskey Park. Of course I think the football Cardinals moving to Phoenix and the football Rams moving to St. Louis is just wrong too. Some things cannot be fixed.
But one more thing. There is serious professional baseball in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Venezuela, and all over the Caribbean. Of course the U.S. and the Japanese are the only ones who pay serious salaries for their players. That's an issue too. Good God! $30 million to play baseball! As I said, some things cannot be fixed. How about a real World Series sometime, though. Let's see how the rest of the world stacks up against baseball in the U.S., or how we stack up against them, sort of like the World Cup in Soccer (Futbol). Little League has a real World Series. How about the Major Leagues?
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