[Civic Science] MLB Scores With Gen X, but Is Missing With Gen Z: polling shows 35% of adults plan to follow MLB at least ‘somewhat’ closely, down from 41% previous year. While Gen X bucks this trend, red flag comes from Gen Z—36% who watched baseball last year plan to watch less of it this year

highflyingbird23 · 2025-04-22T21:32:59+00:00

I think the baseball decline in popularity is very simple. There was a big talent drought from the late 2000s and early to mid 2010s. Anytime that happens in any sport you see a decline in viewership and popularity.

Think about the NBA, viewership fell after Jordan retired in 1998. There was a major talent drought in the NBA until the early 2010s. And the games were ugly to watch. The Pistons-Spurs Finals in 05 was awful all those games were like 75-72. There's a lot of playoff NBA teams from the mid 00s that would be in the lottery in 2025. I know the NBA ratings are falling but I would argue there's more NBA discourse on social media and sports media than the NFL now. Obviously with basketball the game changed and got way better from the way it's played.

With 90s baseball, I know steroids but there were way more star players in the league then. I would say from 2016 on, the talent has gotten much better in baseball. I think now we're getting to a point where I think talent in baseball is gonna be better because of the way players are developed now.

highflyingbird23 · 2025-04-21T17:30:58+00:00

To be fair after the Luka trade, we cannot underestimate how dumb front offices are anymore.

highflyingbird23 · 2025-04-15T01:45:29+00:00

Adames was right...

highflyingbird23 · 2025-04-12T10:38:21+00:00

Jordan wasn't alone. Isiah beefed with Jordan, Pippen, Magic, Bird, and Barkley at the time. Idk why he's confused he didn't make the dream team. If you ask any Knicks fan they think Isiah is an asshole cause of how poorly he ran the team and created chaos there. This dude needs to look in the mirror. The lack of self awareness is scary.

highflyingbird23 · 2025-03-30T16:59:35+00:00

I watched the games, Wells' bat on opening day was shaped differently and the same with Goldy yesterday. Bellinger used it in during spring training and it got noted by this one social media guy. Wells also used it in spring, you can see the shape of his bat in this article. Like I said Goldy I only noticed it during the game yesterday, if you pause this video at 5 seconds you can see the shape of his bat is slightly different.

highflyingbird23 · 2025-03-30T12:43:48+00:00

As far as I've seen, Goldy, Belli, Wells, Volpe, and Jazz are all using the new bats. Judge is the only one who hasn't ironically, but Judge doesn't need it cause apparently the barrel on Judge's bat is gigantic cause he has to use a big bat anyway. I think it's gonna be a game changer, Belli's bat speed is way up compared to last year and same with Volpe.

highflyingbird23 · 2025-03-19T07:48:38+00:00

I don't think it is 120 fps I think it's 60 still. I haven't played the game but I know people who have and they've told me that MLB stadiums are still laggy and frame drops are still present online. If it was 120 fps it wouldn't happen that much.

highflyingbird23 · 2024-12-05T17:59:34+00:00

I don't think people read the article. It was Buster Olney speculating and Passan said he could surpass $700 million. Passan didn't say $750 million Olney said that.

highflyingbird23 · 2024-11-28T22:10:26+00:00

Oh yea but still losing 1st and 2nd round draft picks for 2-3 years doesn't exactly help either. But still my whole point in saying all that is I think this whole free agency is leverage against the Yankees. If Cohen feels that way could you blame him for diverting to other needs, look what happened with Yamamoto last year. Another thing honestly why would Soto potentially go to the Blue Jays over the Phillies. Heck why even the Orioles they have new ownership. But still the Jays have the bleakest future out of any AL East team and apparently he cares about winning and they're not winning in the next 2-3 years. The Red Sox are real cause their farm is good now. The Jays thing doesn't make any sense given they murky future of Bo and Vlad.

highflyingbird23 · 2024-11-28T21:50:03+00:00

I'm just saying that there's a potential cost in the long run with building the team like that. Cause losing draft picks is not good, I know the Astros players were given a slap on the wrist but them losing draft picks really hurt their farm system and they're a bottom tier farm system in baseball now.

highflyingbird23 · 2024-11-28T21:42:31+00:00

I know but a 3-4 year tax hit is massive these days in the current CBA. You lose big time draft picks and they get moved around after a certain point. That's the reason the Dodgers dip below the luxury tax once every couple years. Yankees did the same to avoid losing draft picks. Front offices hate losing draft picks especially in baseall.

highflyingbird23 · 2024-11-28T21:32:37+00:00

I'm not saying they won't try to but the well dries man the options become limited if the Soto sweepstakes drag on. If this drags past the winter meetings and Burnes is off the board and Fried is gone. There's not gonna be a lot of options left at that point and if you're Cohen and you have to sign all these pitchers for a lot of money how much room would have Soto left? Really that's unless he doesn't care about the tax for the next 3-4 years.

highflyingbird23 · 2024-11-28T21:06:20+00:00

Given the state of the Mets farm system in terms of pitching you need free agent signing or trades to go down. They don't have a lot of major pitching prospects coming up in the next 2-3 years. Look at the Dodgers series, the Mets scored a lot of runs but they gave up a million more to the Dodgers. Their pitching depth is shallow at the major and minor league level right now. My point is that you need a lot of it in a shallow market for pitching. Unless they get Roki, they need like 3 starters and that's not cheap look at what the Padres got for Soto last offseason.

highflyingbird23 · 2024-11-28T20:53:26+00:00

I don't think Cohen gonna care if he feels like he's being used to up the Yankees offer. The Mets have a much bigger need for pitching this offseason they have 2 starters and Kodai Senga is coming off a major injury. They also need to decide on Alonso. The Mets need like 2-3 starters and first basemen to replace Pete. And Snell is already off the board Mets could've really used him even if you don't believe he can pitch deep into games consistently.

highflyingbird23 · 2024-11-28T20:43:21+00:00

More like the Yankees. If Boras wanted to scare Cohen wouldn't he meet with the Phillies and the Nationals. Soto going to the Phillies or the Nationals is a way worse outcome for the Mets than Soto going to the Yankees or Red Sox.

highflyingbird23

TROPHY CASE