I remember summers when my brother and I would go the park and we knew kids from the neighborhood would show up to play ball. We’d shag flyballs, we’d practice pitching or hitting like our favorite players and eventually we’d have enough kids to play a game. And I’m not even talking about always 9 on 9. We’d make rules up so we could play. Ghost runners, pitching for your own team, rules where we didn’t even need 18 kids to play.

same here!

I was actually shocked when I was walking past the local park and there were kids plying some sort of baseball game (It looked more like a HR Derby, only about 6 kids were there). It was the first time I seen the old ball field used in a few years.

I’m 17 years old and I played hockey, baseball and football when I was younger and it wasn’t until recently I got into watching it on TV. I grew up watching my dad watch sports to and thats helps me get into them but what really did it for me was after I bought madden football for my xbox and learned the rules and players I got into it. I started watching drafts then I was a full blown fanatic. Now I’m getting into baseball. You’re not going to get into it much unless your team is really good at the time or you’re family is into it.

About going to games though I mean nothings like being at the game but being able to be at home get good camera angles able to see everything up close free to do what you want is nice. And the nicer it gets watching it at home the less people wanna go to the game. Driving and parking is always a hassle as well

Here are a smattering of complaints about baseball on TV:

“They’ve tried to speed up the between-inning delays by cutting down on warm-up throws, but it still takes time to exchange field positions and there is not much you can do at home except watch the beer commercials.”

“Let’s start with the announcers. They’re not objective. They can’t be. They are hired with the approval of the baseball club management.”

“Telecasts put you to sleep.”

“No two-dimensional picture can ever take the place of the real thing.”

“The game on the air must be made more exciting or people who sample a baseball program now and then will turn away and never return.”

Each of these comes from a baseball periodical. The date on the cover is 1965.

It seems like the new parks are one part baseball, one part amusment park so mom and dad don’t have to teach their kids what the game is about. Going to the game seems like it’s more about going somewhere, eating, consuming than watching baseball.

At the Dome last week, there was a guy sitting behind me teaching his kid how to score the game. It made me tear up a little.

I wouldn’t even say fan focus has been true in post-season games, but it certainly is not true during the regular season.

It was so bad last week that my attention turned from a good game to the steady stream of people up and down the stairs. It was so laughably bad Wednesday night that there was just a gigantic wiggle of humanity at the game, where the attendance was probably in the high 20,000s.

At any given time my estimate was that a fifth of them were en route to the concession stands or to have a heater. The families with kids under 12 spend more time feeding them than watching the game. This is true in the cheap seats or behind the plate. One guy in our row – who had the appearance of a serious fan – got up to go somewhere five times in a nine-inning game. He most certainly missed three full innings.

People watch the game in St, Louis, in my experience, and in Boston. But not at the Dome.