I was talking with my brother about this today because college softball was on TV today. He brought up a very good point. I wrote a post speculating why we don't care about college baseball, but he brought up a very good point that I hadn't considered.
The two main colleges sports we care about is football and basketball. But he said that's because those sports originated in the college game and then became professional sports. Football was originally created by the Ivy Leagues schools as an off shoot of rugby. Basketball was created by Dr. James Naismith based off of a childhood game that he perfected while he attended college and subsequently first caught on in college. But baseball did not start off in the college ranks. The MLB has a rich history dating back to the mid to late 1800s and then became a college game.
So throughout history, America has watched college football and basketball and only professional baseball. But because America likes professional more than amateur sports, we of course grew to like the NBA and the NFL (and its professional roots). But since baseball was already professional, America tended to ignore it when collegiate athletes played it. And why should they watch the college ranks, they were essentially already watching the best of the best anyway?
Now I like this theory a lot. But I also think mine theory of the minor league system and foreigners holds its weight as well. Since apparently Baseball Prospectus is losing all of its top talent anyway, maybe they could do a professional historical and sociological study to find the exact causal link. I am really curious about this issue and am open to all legitimate ideas.
Also Journalissimo, maybe if you actually wrote for this blog you could have written this piece, but now I call dibs on all copyright! Woo hoo!
Showing posts with label College Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label College Baseball. Show all posts
Why Don't We Care About College Baseball?
America seems to care a lot about college football and college basketball. I contend we care about college basketball mainly because of March Madness than because of the sport itself. But college football is huge and we seem love everything from the start to the end. But major league baseball is the second biggest sport in America behind football and more popular than basketball. So then why is it that we don't care about college baseball yet we care about other college sports?
Now I don't have studies or true causality behind any of my arguments and frankly if someone can give me a better explanation than what I give and can support their arguments I would appreciate. But I'd still like to think my arguments now make sense.
First, there's the argument that college baseball games aren't shown on national television. This make sense. Right now college baseball is in full effect and I haven't seen any game shows or advertised for on ESPN. I've seen games on The Big Ten network and I'm sure there are games that are aired on ESPN2 that I just haven't seen, but to be honest I've flipped through more college softball games than baseball games. Well, this logic seems to make sense. If people can't see the games, then they can't get interested in them. If ESPN and the major networks show games, then people would watch and then become interested.
However, I think the causality is skewed here. I believe that people don't care so the television stations don't show the games and not the other way around. If people did truly did care, then the stations would show the games. I contend that if the networks did show the games, it still wouldn't matter.
Not only that, but ESPN does show the college World Series. They do, although briefly, talk about certain aspects of the college WS throughout the afternoon ESPN shows and Sportscenter. But again, I think these things are only brief because we as a nation generally doesn't care.
So then why don't we care? We care about then MLB, but not the college game, why? My contention: It's because we can't follow college baseball players into the pros.
With college football and college basketball, you can immediately see how players make the transition. We saw Derek Rose go all the way to the championship game in the college game and take a mediocre NBA team to a great playoff series.
But we can't do this college baseball players. First of all, the vast majority of MLB players either come right out of high school or come from other countries. Most MLB players don't play college baseball. And the ones that do- aren't really the games elite. Obviously, many clubs (like the A's) try to draft college players because they get a better look at what kind of athlete they're getting. But even if you do have a great college baseball player, it takes time for that player to make it to the MLB. Immediately after the draft, players go immediately into the minor leagues. Its because of this that even if you wanted to, its would be difficult to follow your favorite college baseball player develop.
I think that is the major reason. However, another minor reason is because of history. College football and basketball have a great history and rivalries which means people grew up watching these major sports. Unfortunately, baseball hasn't done this so I think now its caused people to not care. However, this explanation does explain two things. 1) Why can't college baseball create history now? At some point sports need to start somewhere as there's no reason college baseball can;t soon soon if history is the sole reason and 2) Why at some point in the past did college baseball not start getting into the mainstream? I refuse to believe that college baseball was so poorly run for 100 years+ that they didn't at least try.
That's why I think it's because of the nature of of the minor leagues in baseball that people do not really follow or care for college baseball. Again, if you can think of a better reason and more significant proof, I'd love to hear it.
Now I don't have studies or true causality behind any of my arguments and frankly if someone can give me a better explanation than what I give and can support their arguments I would appreciate. But I'd still like to think my arguments now make sense.
First, there's the argument that college baseball games aren't shown on national television. This make sense. Right now college baseball is in full effect and I haven't seen any game shows or advertised for on ESPN. I've seen games on The Big Ten network and I'm sure there are games that are aired on ESPN2 that I just haven't seen, but to be honest I've flipped through more college softball games than baseball games. Well, this logic seems to make sense. If people can't see the games, then they can't get interested in them. If ESPN and the major networks show games, then people would watch and then become interested.
However, I think the causality is skewed here. I believe that people don't care so the television stations don't show the games and not the other way around. If people did truly did care, then the stations would show the games. I contend that if the networks did show the games, it still wouldn't matter.
Not only that, but ESPN does show the college World Series. They do, although briefly, talk about certain aspects of the college WS throughout the afternoon ESPN shows and Sportscenter. But again, I think these things are only brief because we as a nation generally doesn't care.
So then why don't we care? We care about then MLB, but not the college game, why? My contention: It's because we can't follow college baseball players into the pros.
With college football and college basketball, you can immediately see how players make the transition. We saw Derek Rose go all the way to the championship game in the college game and take a mediocre NBA team to a great playoff series.
But we can't do this college baseball players. First of all, the vast majority of MLB players either come right out of high school or come from other countries. Most MLB players don't play college baseball. And the ones that do- aren't really the games elite. Obviously, many clubs (like the A's) try to draft college players because they get a better look at what kind of athlete they're getting. But even if you do have a great college baseball player, it takes time for that player to make it to the MLB. Immediately after the draft, players go immediately into the minor leagues. Its because of this that even if you wanted to, its would be difficult to follow your favorite college baseball player develop.
I think that is the major reason. However, another minor reason is because of history. College football and basketball have a great history and rivalries which means people grew up watching these major sports. Unfortunately, baseball hasn't done this so I think now its caused people to not care. However, this explanation does explain two things. 1) Why can't college baseball create history now? At some point sports need to start somewhere as there's no reason college baseball can;t soon soon if history is the sole reason and 2) Why at some point in the past did college baseball not start getting into the mainstream? I refuse to believe that college baseball was so poorly run for 100 years+ that they didn't at least try.
That's why I think it's because of the nature of of the minor leagues in baseball that people do not really follow or care for college baseball. Again, if you can think of a better reason and more significant proof, I'd love to hear it.
