Opening Day 2008-The State of Baseball

The Nationals and Braves open it up tonight in the Nats new ball park with Tim Hudson and Odalis Perez. Goodness, opening with Odalis Perez tells you what the Nats rotation looks like!
I'm excited about tomorrow and probably will stay home from work and check it all out.

I went looking for some Reds tickets on-line recently and it got me thinking about the state of baseball today. Not really all the steroids/HGH crap that I'm tired of, but where the game is heading with the children of this country.

Other than Baseball Tonight, it's become increasingly hard to find baseball on TV. Fox is continually improving their highlight shows and you get that one game a Saturday but not until the middle of the summer. The Foxsports satellites like Foxsports South and Ohio shows games but not all cable companies offer them. If you want to get all the games, you have to pay 15 dollars a month to watch it on MLB.COM but how many people have a computer monitor that you can enjoy the games on or a computer that can handle the streaming?

Less and less kids are playing baseball. I was just thinking last week about where a baseball field kids can get to in my community is even at. I remember playing wiffle ball every Sunday. Most yards are so small now that kids can't even do that. When I was at ESPN the Weekend a few weeks ago, someone asks Peter Gammons about the issue. He was at a loss and said even baseball havens like Sarasota were seeing the same problems.

Fantasy baseball is picking up. Someone needs to develop kid-specific fantasy leagues or a father and son league for kids to participate in. Get your kids involved in your league. My 8 year old is drafting in a league this week.

Baseball card prices continue to rise. When I was a kid in the 80's, 50 cents was the top price you'd pay for a pack and you actually got a bunch of cards in it. Now, for $2.99, you might get 8 cards. There were three brands: Donruss, Fleer, and Topps. Now, there are about 25.

Baseball ticket prices are up 12%. My wife and I are both teachers and I truely can't afford to take my family to a game. That may also say something about teaching salaries. I live about two hours away from Cincy. After tickets, food, and gas, I'm looking at $175 minimum to see a game.

I'm not sure I have any answers but I'd love to see the "genious" that is MLB management come up with some strategies to get kids back involved at an affordable price.