Growing a Fan Base of Kids

…with Midnight World Series?

(Not only is it a shame, MLB; it’s a disgrace!)

     Suffering through the whole big greedy business mess of a World Series  between two teams that deserve each other: The Yankees who have outright ruined the sport with their money, and The Phillies who have no sense whatsoever of representing “The City of Brotherly Love,” I keep thinking that baseball was never intended to be a business in the first place.

     Okay, granted that today’s professional sports must be businesses to survive,  but baseball has gone WAAAAAAY over the top! Major League Baseball (MLB) has reduced itself to a big-money steamroller business that excels at the inbreeding and token wrist-slapping of steroid-juiced players, and that follows the lead of greedy aggressive marketing management people who could care less about flattening out the public’s already-shrinking wallets.

     Oh,  there’s good reason for that?

     First of all, will somebody please explain to me how MLB proclaims incessantly that it is  commited to cultivating young people as fans, and then schedules championship playoffs and the World Series at hours too late at night for young people to watch (or even listen to)? What’s wrong with DAYTIME? Broadcast media can’t charge as much?

     Perhaps someone could offer a reasonable explanation?

     Yes, of course.  MLB is now running games earlier than other recent years (reminiscent of “Less fat than our original chips!”). And how about “beginning next year,” MLB will be scheduling games even earlier (“Wait ’til next year!”??). Aha! Then there’s the great explanation that kids stay up later now than they used to (Oh? When they’re going to school earlier the next day than ever in history?).

     I would really like  to hear more about these points.

     Then there’s The WORLD Series  that fails to allow other countries in the world to compete!  

     Why does this seem  like bang-your-head-against-the-wall material? 

     So the dilemma  we’ve been boxed into is whether we encourage young people to be interested in sports and play them for fun and exercise and identify with REAL heroes (like Cal Ripkin, for example) who represent the heart of what sports is supposed to be about, OR do we encourage kids to pursue the business of sports with its untold billions of dollars (and routinely associated drug experiences) to be had, OR do we dissuade children from sports (and the grasps of greed)?     

     What’s going on here?  Do these thoughts bother you?  Maybe it’s just me.  Maybe nobody else gives a damn about how this next generation is growing up (or dwarfing down?)?      

     I think there must be something  parents and grandparents and others concerned about the destruction of sports can do to bring about change.  Do you?  What do you suggest?  Comment below.  Anything you think is okay.  Some action is always better than no action.  

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