October 9th, 2012: Seattle based rapper Macklemore releases a song deviating from his theme of intense controversial topics and turning to sing one tribute to a love of his, under-appreciated by the world: baseball.
About 3 months ago, I stumbled upon that very song; a track entitled My Oh My and was instantly smiling at the passion he showed when singing about a famed playoff victory by the 1995 Seattle Mariners. Here was a man, a 30 year old who "couldn't have been older than 10" when the subject of his song occurred. Here was a 30 year old rapper who, 2 decades after that spine tingling walk off was still in love with the game he grew up watching.
“I used to sit with my dad in the garage.” He sings Mariners jersey across his torso and smile ever present on his face.
“That sawdust that pine sol and the moss. Around every spring when the winter thaw, we'd huddle around the radio, twist the broken knob. 710 AM no KJR Dave Niehaus voice would echo throughout the yard. Couldn't have been older than 10, but to me and my friends the voice on the other end might as well have been God's”
5 sentences: each one firmly exemplifies Macklemore’s unbelievable love for the Mariners. Yet nevertheless, embedded within those first few lines of that 2012 song is an underlying truth that in 15 years’ time might very well threaten the very integrity of not only the Mariners but the entire MLB. At this point in time, the groups of 10 year olds within this nation that repeatedly “sit with my dad in the garage,” and “huddle around the radio twist the broken knob” are slim in numbers.
“After practice we listen to the M's in the kitchen, and if mom wasn't trippin' come on dad please I swear just one more inning.” You see, the MLB loves it when kids beg for their parents to let them watch just one more inning but in 2013, those standoffs do not occur in the huge number that they did back in the 80’s and 90’s.
In this day and age 10 year old's do not love baseball the way they did in 1995. They fight to watch football, they fight to PLAY football, and frankly for many, sports like basketball and hockey are more closely watched that baseball.
Nevertheless, while ratings do pose a major problem for the league, their talent pool is now beginning to shrink as the number of kids involved in competitive baseball leagues has been steadily dropping.
In just 9 years, (2000 to 2009) participation in the baseball’s largest youth organization: Little League has fallen off a cliff. It has dropped 24 percent as, like I said before, children turn to football, basketball and even start up floor hockey leagues instead of baseball.
"You get more action… it's not as slow.” Keegan Antelman: a fielder/pitcher who plays in a 6-10 year old spring/fall baseball league said when I asked him why he likes street hockey more than baseball. “It takes more skill.”
Too slow. Baseball is too slow for children and it shows. Perhaps the fastest team sport on planet earth: hockey has seen participation skyrocket by almost 38 percent while Football, a sport now regarded as America’s NEW pastime has seen its participation numbers jump by almost 21 percent.
But back to baseball where, speed is not only a problem for kids.
"Parents want to see their kids moving," says John Mitchell, a former college baseball coach from Alabama. "They drop their kids off at soccer and they know they're going to run around like maniacs for an hour. When they watch baseball practice, they often see them standing around in the outfield while the coach throws batting practice."
In a nation now riddled with an obesity rate of over 10%, for kids as young as 8 or 9, sports are not just about having fun, they are about exercise…. and for baseball: the exercise you get from running 90 feet and stopping is not enough.
But wait, there is more. With major league baseball once again reeling from a recent resurgence of PED use, parents of budding ball players do not want to put their kids into a sport that someday might prompt them to take steroids that could easily take 10 years off their life.
“I think it disappoints them. They’re taught to do their best — and then they see all their favorite players getting suspended,” Baseball mom Debi Manby said in an interview with the Vancover Sun. “I would be horrified if he [her son] ever used.”
So at this point, you begin to wonder: how does a group of games played by 4th graders affect one played by 25 year olds? 2 words: talent pool.
If you look back at 2000, if you had a promising 8 year old hitter, a 8 year old in 2000 would be 21 now and contending for the attention of an MLB scout. The only problem is, if that 8 year old left the sport with the half million other kids who have fled between 2000 and 2009 well, he wouldn’t be there for the scout to look at.
"There are still players, but there aren't the numbers out there anymore," said David Bloom, a scout with the Baltimore Orioles. "The great players just don't stand out like they used to."
So: with all this riding against them, what does baseball need to do to ratchet them back to the top? SPEED THE GAME UP! Limit a batters right to call time to just 1 or 2 stoppages per at bat. Prohibit the catcher from visiting the mound unless the coach came out. Maybe even introduce a play clock if you will, forcing a pitcher to only take 8,9,10 seconds in between pitches.
But nevertheless, no matter what they do in the coming years, the MLB’s window of fame might be closing regardless of who is standing in between the walls trying to hold back the inevitable.
The roots of the game profiled in Macklemore’s less than hit song do not exist anymore. The magic is fading and at the pace that things are getting worse, there is nothing that the MLB can do about it.
For the music video of My Oh My by Macklemore click here
For the complete lyrics to My Oh My by Macklemore click here
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