Baseball's Wane Discussed

A former Boston Red Sox pitcher, an academic and two journalists last night discussed "why baseball, in the public mind, has sunk so deeply."

Twenty-three people gathered at the Institute of Politics to hear Bill "Spaceman" Lee, a left-handed pitcher who was a star on the Red Sox' 1975 World Series team; David King, assistant professor of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government; Don Skwar, columnist at the Boston Globe; and Larry Tye, a Boston Globe reporter, reflect on why fewer Americans are identifying baseball as their favorite sport.

Citing an ABC News poll stating that only 28 percent of Americans identify baseball as their favorite sport, Tye said baseball has not been so unpopular since 1960.

Lee attributed this decline in interest to the hectic nature of modern society.

"Baseball is a reflection of our whole society--our attention span," he said. "With basketball you only need to see the last two minutes. In football, you only have to see it once a week and then you can drink your 12 Budweisers and go back to work on Monday--baseball you have to digest."

Lee also said that the media has contributed to the public antipathy toward baseball.

King attributed part of the sport's decline to the decline of family values in the United States.

"Baseball is a game of community and family," he said. "As family has deteriorated in this country, so has this game."

Lee, who wore a red cap emblazoned with the letters "CCCP" during the recent Ken Burns' "Baseball" series on PBS, said materialism and commercials have corrupted the game, naming Adam Smith, the father of market economics, as the culprit.

"Ballplayers are reaping the benefits of laissez-faire," Lee said.

The other panelists agreed.

Although players' salaries have tended to rise, King said "baseball [as an industry] has done an especially bad job at finding its niche in the international market."

Skwar also focused on the commercialism of the game today.

"TV is everything. [basketball star] Shaquille O'Neal is big," Skwar said. "Baseball stars are just not anywhere near the other athletes in the pecking order with the kids, and kids are where it all starts."

Skwar blamed the owners for failing to market the sport effectively.

"[Baseball] owners don't do anything to promote their players. [Red Sox slugger] Mo Vaughn--he's a gem," Skwar said. "Everything that's good about an athlete, Vaughn personifies. But I don't see the Red Sox going out there to promote him."

One audience member suggested that with "an incredible sports saturation," it has become "a zero-sum competition between sports." Baseball has lost the competition to other sports, he said.

King said continuing to support the game in areas with a strong baseball tradition and fostering a love of the sport in youngsters can help baseball remain our national pastime.

"Baseball has got to re-commit itself to urban areas," he said. "Demographically, first-generation Latino-Americans comprise the largest support group [for the game], and the League should be aware of that."

In addition to supporting community involvement in the game, the speakers and audience members discussed the reinstatement of a league commissioner as a way to boost the game.

The panelists pointed to basketball commissioner David Stern as the type of leader baseball needs.

Player-manager relationships also need to improve in order for the game to move forward, the group said.

"[Baseball is] at a critical point and [is] going to have to do something either to awaken the sleeping giant or put it to rest once and for all," Skwar said.