Category: Uncategorized
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MLB Fail: All Star Uniforms
The All Star Game was just held last week in Seattle and much of the attention was on the jerseys worn by the American and National League players. In what has been a continuing trend MLB has decided in recent years to eliminate any distinction between players by having them wear similar uniforms rather than…
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Our Too Early Pitch Clock Check In
It is probably way too early, but we thought we would look at average game attendance and where it stands compared to the prior year, since this is the year of the pitch clock. We are at about half way through the season, and per Baseball-Reference.com (as of July 3rd) baseball has currently drawn about…
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The Balanced Schedule
Part of the homogenization of baseball has been to essentially eliminate any difference between the American and National Leagues. The introduction now of the universal DH and a balanced schedule, whereby every team now plays every other team during the year erases almost any dissimilarity between either league. The table below (introduction of the new…
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Warm Up Pitches
Unbelievably pitch clocks also now apply to pitchers when warming up between innings. Normally, the rule allows a pitcher to throw eight pitches before each inning to warm up after sitting on the bench. We say normally, since now MLB has decided to apply a pitch clock to warm up pitches. This new rule somewhat…
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Bad Owners Series: Cincinnati Reds
One factor that MLB will never consider when examining their drop in popularity would be to look inward. That would be to take a good look at its ownership groups or more importantly their failed ownership groups. What is that old saying, “you can’t fire the boss.” Well maybe in this case the fans should…
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George Will, What the Hell!
George Will of political pundit fame also brandishes himself as a true blue baseball fan and has wrote about the game for many years now. One of his latest opinion pieces in The Washington Post has as us here at BP not just scratching our collective heads but outright banging them against the walls (which…
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Follow the Money, or Maybe Not?
Based on our last post (MLB Competitive Balance Not So Much), we examined the success and failure rates of all major league clubs by creating what we term the Baseball Purist (BP) Success Rate. We wondered though if there is a correlation between our rudimentary metric and the amount spent by each club over time. …
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MLB Competitive Balance
We do not hear much in baseball about competitive balance. Maybe we should. The table at the bottom of this post shows the records of all 30 teams since 2000, which shows the success and failure rates of all MLB clubs. How though should we measure success? Do we base it on a team’s win…
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Playoffs for Everyone
President John F. Kennedy at Washington DC, Griffith Stadium to throw out first pitch 4/10/1961. Chicago White Sox vs Washington Senators.
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Too Much of a Good Thing
While some of us cannot get enough of a good thing, the vast majority realize that even the best of something is eventually too much. Baseball is no exception. Let us go back around 60 years to understand why the game has ended up in its current state. As noted in our previous post (The…
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The State of the Game
Baseball was previously known as America’s Pastime, but sadly those days are long gone. Many considered the golden age of baseball from 1920 – 1960, while others believed the post war era from 1946 – 1969 as the games heyday. Whatever you think was the height of baseball, those days are clearly over when compared…
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Maybe Size Matters
One of the reasons touted by MLB that the game needs rescuing are the flat attendance figures. In 2007, MLB reached a high in its history of 79.5 million fans attending games that year. That number slid into the mid 70 million level and further dipped below 70 million since 2018. Of course the Covid…
Baseball Purist 