How Baseball Lost Its Bearing

As a boy growing up in New York City, I lived in a baseball world. I collected baseball cards, played in a spring little league, and even, when pops was feeling generous, I would go to watch the always exciting New York Yankees annihilate another ball club at Yankee’s Stadium in the Bronx.  But as much I have tried to ignore it, the truth is evident: baseball is not what it used to be.  Other, more rapidly paced, sports have taken baseball’s place in American fans’ hearts and on their TV screens.

Here in Aspen High School, not one of my close friends even realizes that the once quite significant MLB post-season is about to begin; however most of the student body could give you an analysis of A-Rod’s recent steroid scandal.  Maybe it is because the Colorado Rockies are in the last place this year, but I doubt it.  But what is it then that makes baseball seem like an extraneous sport in today’s world?

During the spring sports season in Aspen, lacrosse has always had a much more competitive little league then baseball simply because lacrosse it has more kids.  Lacrosse is the go-to sport probably nowadays because of its thrilling fast pace, which is opposite to baseball’s slow moving tempo.  Today’s youth is moving forward with an irreversible and eager speed.  Instead of waiting 15 seconds between C.C. Sabathia’s strategic 95 mile per hour fastballs, we’d much rather watch a 350 pound, testosterone packed, Samoan defensive lineman blindside an unready quarterback, or watch excitedly as two gigantic, well bred, goons bare knuckle box on the hockey ice.  For many sports fans, baseball doesn’t deliver the same thrill count.

Baseball is much more of a mental game.  Viewers have lost their ability to concentrate.  America’s national pastime has become America’s national sports afterthought.  As the MLB’s slogan says, “There is only one October,” and as much as I hate to admit it, I live in a time and place where people will be spending equally as much time watching the latest season of South Park or Barefoot Contessa as the professional baseball playoffs. While there still remain pockets of loyal fans, residing in deep Texas and underground Brooklyn, American baseball’s reign of stardom has undeniably and inevitably expired.