We will come back but it will take some time. Good
Game!

Good for them. Maybe they can build on it

If they beat no one else this season it was going to be Riverside. The Highlanders doubled their season win total in the series, and they were picked to finish 10th out of 11, the Aggies being #11.

They may beat somebody better though. Got the impression that it was just an unusually busy time for hitting@UCR over the weekend, like the pitchers would do better at Dobbins.
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Interesting article in the NYT today about baseball being a dying sport. Attendance is way down. Interest in the World Series is way down. In 1975 36 million fans watched the Series versus 12 million last year. Little league participation is down by 50% in parts of the country. Average age of a BB fan is 57. BB is mainly financed by cable networks bundling baseball games into their products so you pay to watch baseball when you are not actually watching baseball. If this changes the author says BB cannot survive in its present form.

here in Livermore, we used to have 3 leagues but now down to 2. lots of travel options for kids but the overall number of players is down (especially when you take in the fact that the town has grown since my kids played 20 years ago). in my old home town of Antioch there is NO little league in a town of 110,000 people. some of that is due to embezzlement putting the league in financial straits, but there seems to be a general lack of interest. much more diverse population there compared to Livermore, which i think plays a big part.

Buddy of mine is a baseball fanatic here in the Sacramento area. He used to umpire in both high school and Little League, now just Little League. He says the league basically lost two years of players in the pandemic. Trying to get that mini-generation back on the diamond has been difficult.

Baseball has strayed too far away from its origins, and a result has become too slow. Homeruns were fairly rare. A lot more stolen bases, and pitchers finished their games.

Now all the emphasis on the homerun has drivem up the scores and lengthened the games. The longer the game the more pitching changes you have. Instead of a crisp, lower-scoring game over in about 2 hours they go 3+.. These rules they put in to shorten games are ineffective. Saving 5 min with a pitch clock doesn't do crap.

What they really need to do is reduce the influence of analytics nerds, who are teaching line-drive hitters how to hit 25 homeruns and bat .220. The Giants won 107 games with a team of cast-offs and no superstars. They were the dullest 100 win team I've ever seen. How did they do it ? Farhan Zaidi (a.k.a King Nerd) and his fellow nerds scienced the hell of it . It's not a game at the MLB level anymore, just nerds playing chess with live pieces.

You would think the college game would be more pure, but even UCD has an analyst messing with stuff-I think she's Assistant Coach Valenzuela's spouse.

This year I have seen an unprecedented amount of offense in college baseball games I've watched. I've been to about a dozen games total this year and have already seen games where the winning team scored 18, 21, and 24 runs. I saw online Sac State gave up 20 yesterday to Nevada, which is not even a very good team. College baseball games, which used to be shorter because of no commercials/promotions are now super long. UCD scored more than 30 runs over the weekend and still only won 1 game ?

I would like to know how they arrived at the age of 57-that seems off. If there were mostly older people at the games I attended the crowds would be much better behaved-where are my old people ? . I think the data must be collected with certain conditions in mind to narrow and shape the results, like looking for fans who attended a greater number of games, who attended spring training gamed, and who had season tickets. Obviously retirees have time to attend more games and travel to AZ and FL in March. The general idea is valid'-that it's mostly an older fanbase, but 57 doesn't seem right. I would guess more like mid to late 40's.

Do these studies take into account the popularity of baseball in Latin America? TV, computers, and absent Father's hard to replace.

Shortening the length of games seems to be one key. Baseball needs buy in from everyone, coaches, umpires, leaders. Pro baseball may have to ratchet down salaries.

Baseball is also popular in Asia. There are pro leagues in China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Outside Asia Australia and Italy also have pro baseball. South Africa and Israel have fielded World Baseball Classic teams, although the latter relied heavily on Jewish American players. It's more of a global game. Just a few years ago the Pirates even signed two players from India, where cricket is much more popular. One of them-Rinku Singh-pitched really well in the low minor leagues despite the fact he never played baseball in India. He was a javelin-thrower I think.

I think they need to define fan better. A fan might not go to any games because they can't afford it or don't have any teams nearby. They might not even get any televised games of their favorite team. Doesn't mean they're not fans.

MLB has done a lot to alienate fans over the years. They act like we should be so grateful to pay high prices and be treated like trash inside if you're not a season-ticket holder. And then the work stoppages.

They will never be able to really bring down MLB salaries significantly without some major world event. If more teams decided to cry poor like the A's the other teams like the Dodgers would pay the stars. What do the Dodgers care about the luxury tax ? A team can decide they don't want to pay the players above a certain amount they can't as a league or in groups of teams decide to pay players less because that is collusion.

One thing I'd like to see vanish from pro baseball are the so-called fan appreciation days. Appreciate the fans everyday by treating them better. It does nothing for me seeing them raffle off electronics and cars to a few people at Oracle Park while I'm sitting in a crappy 3rd deck seat because I'm not willing to pay $100 per ticket to see the darn game from slightly lower. I don't feel appreciated when I have to stand in a line going around the block for 30+ min while the stadium employees stand behind the turnstiles and glare at us, savoring the tiny bit of authority they have. I don't feel appreciated by having to pay over $30 just to get a hot dog, snack, and a drink, or ushers who aggressively demand to see your ticket but don't do crap when someone is sitting in your seat .
And here's the kicker-you have to buy a ticket to the fan appreciation game to be appreciated. I could have gone to 80 games, but if I don't buy a ticket to 81 I have zero chance of being appreciated. Meanwhile, somebody who makes that their only game of the year could win a new car.