MLB:Major League 'Bots
Robots have taken over baseball and are going to destroy it!
`As I read Jason Concepcion's article on Grantland, "Chandler Parsons, James Harden and the Human Element" my mind couldn't help but draw parallels to major league baseball, or rather a lack of parallel to baseball. Concepcion writes about the burgeoning beef between two former teammates after one chides the superstar potential of the other.
The opening sentence really drives this point home to me, "Even as basketball becomes smarter…data-driven…some things remain unquantifiable…" Baseball is in the middle of a change from throwing out any 8 players the manager's gut tells him to, to a more data-driven and by the numbers at all times game. Adam Dunn is the last of a dying breed, guys who hit 30 homeruns and strike out 200 times and who's defensive range is as far as they can throw their gloves. The rise of saber metrics in sports is unquestionable but in baseball it is literally visible.
The shift has become incredibly relevant in today's game and has taken an incredible amount of hits from players across baseball. When players are slow to begin performing to the level that they are known to reach they will often fall back on the look at the back of my baseball card at the end of the year. This type of response tells me two things; first the data is always right and brutal, second the players have seemed to given up trying to fight the data because the data always wins. You can bet to hear "closers just don't have the same adrenaline in a non-save situation" about 50 times a year, before the all-star break, because everyone knows a closer is going to give up runs if it's not a save situation, it's just going to happen there is nothing we can do it about it.
As managers continue to use the data provided to them by the player's actions on the field the players have accepted their numbers as fate. Baseball has been gutted of its excitement by the change in data driven analysis, since the steroid era there has been a shortage of excitement, and personalities and more importantly rivalries.
Hotshot rookies in today's game are robbed of their excitement and energy when they come up to the majors because they have to play the game the "right way." Bryce Harper was dealt that lesson his first season, Jose Fernandez was taken to task by his opponents and his manager.
As baseball continues to draw criticism from the outside world for being boring and the notion of being "the nations pastime" is completely laughable and essentially ironic whenever its used, those involved continue to promote these "unwritten rules" that hamper the fun of the sport. Barry Bonds while he may not be the king of the homerun in 99% percent of fans minds is without a doubt the king of admiring his homeruns. Ken Griffey Jr. has an iconic stance which is of him watching as his homerun flew to the stands.
Posing at the plate after a homerun is the incorrect way to react; stealing when you have a "large lead" is detestable, bunting in a 2-0 game is bad etiquette. How can anyone tell a young fan to watch this game if there is no soul, no excitement, and no sense of what makes the game and all sports for that matter, great: the drama. Watching a baseball game there is no sense of urgency, no sense of two teams who don't like each other, two teams who want the same objective and need to stop the other in order to reach it. The players don't want take a chance because it may break a "unwritten-rule" and offend their opponents. The drama in baseball is better seen in standings the next day, reading a team comeback from 3 games back of the leader is exciting, seeing a team win 3 games in a row in a game with no intensity is not fun. As baseball games continue to take longer to finish and even longer to start, taking the human heart and passion out of it is the wrong way to play. Baseball has fallen into a rut that it created by lobbing hand grenades, to budding personalities for the past decade, and like any relationship that is in a rut, it is in danger of falling apart.
The current template that baseball has set is the complete opposite of the data that is provided by the people it wants to get to watch their product. The 18-30 year olds of yesteryear are not the same kind of people of today. The calling card of this generation is no commercials or as little as possible and instant results. In a typical 3 hour game there is a total of 14 minutes of action to 42 minutes of commercials, the NFL averages just 11 minutes of action and 1 hour of commercials. While football may be the biggest sport in America, it is by far not the fastest paced game, so why is there a belief that football is fast and baseball is slow.
The rise of fantasy football is the driving force behind this belief. Playing fantasy football makes those 3 hours go by quickly, watching as your points flow up and down replaces watching the commercials and not to mention something like NFL Redzone which is a channel dedicated to showing only touchdowns, what more can you ask for. Another factor is the personalities in the NFL, players that know they are fantasy studs say it and talk about it, the physicality of the sport also helps to create altercations that lead to viewers creating a villain and a hero.
While fantasy baseball is just as popular as fantasy football, it is here that the differences between the two sports begin to help and hinder each other. Football may lose the action battle but it wins the battle of knowing when an exciting play is imminent and can give instant gratification. It takes an entire week to see who wins a fantasy baseball match up while it takes two days to see who wins a fantasy football match up. Knowing that a team is about to score is a great asset in helping the NFL maintain an allusion of action, the Redzone channel shows teams in the Redzone because the possibility of a scoring play is high, baseball doesn't have that because there is no way to know that a team is going to score when placed in a certain situation or score at all.
All of this is to say, baseball please stop yourself and embrace the bat flips, embrace the posing, embrace the fun and energy. Reject the respect, and hate each other, get rid of the robots and bring back the humans! I promise you we will come back if you do, and if you need help watch this video. Oh and remember we want the guys with the colored jerseys.
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