Whether you love or hate (or find apathy for) the All-Star Game, you have to realize it’s in serious long-term peril. While you’re entitled to your own opinion, you’re not entitled to your own facts. And here are some critical numbers and interpretation of those All-Star game numbers from Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated:
Viewership for the All-Star Game is hemorrhaging and in more unpleasant news for Fox Sports, the All-Star Game viewers are also getting older. A brief snapshot of the downward trend: The game drew 28.2 million viewers in 1985. Twelve years later, the first time Fox aired the game, viewership dropped to 16.7 million viewers. The audience fell to 12.3 million in 2005 and last year the game drew 11.0 million viewers, up slightly (10.9 million) from 2012. Last year’s viewership increase stopped a three-year decline in viewership but the game concluded as the third-least watched MLB All-Star Game in history.
Perhaps most disturbing: Sports Business Daily reported the average age for last year’s All-Star telecast was 53, the highest mark yet for the game. Given the 18-to-49 adult demo is the money demo for sports broadcasting, this is not a good trend.
Now we present a point/counterpoint on the current value of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Patrick Schmidt (@PatrickASchmidt), of FanSided.com (an affiliate of SI) will be taking the pro position, and I’ll be taking the con. Patrick is an experienced writer and hosts a weekly sports show for WISC-Chicago and Sportstownchicago.com
As he’s my guest, I’ll him go first:
I represent a dying breed of baseball fan who still views the All-Star Game as one of the marquee events on the sports calendar and the premier summer draw.
Baseball was my first love and like most first loves, it’s a love that still tugs at my heart and puts a smile on my face when I think back to all the great times and the iconic moments the sport has brought to my life.
Who can forget John Kruk facing Randy Johnson in 1993 and seeing his life flash before his eyes when a fastball comes screaming in and sails above his head?
Ted Williams throwing out the first pitch in the 1999 All-Star Game and Pedro Martinez striking out five of the six batters he faced in his first start?
Alex Rodriguez moving to third base in 2011 so Cal Ripken could start his last All-Star game at shortstop?
Chipper Jones giving a farewell speech to the players in the clubhouse before the 2012 game is stuff that gives a sports fan chills.
These are iconic moments in All-Star Game history that are etched into the minds of baseball fans.
Derek Jeter is going to add to that All-Star Game legacy on Tuesday when the retiring Yankees shortstop gets an extended standing ovation when he is introduced for the American League that will feature thousands of flash bulbs going off in the Target Field stands.
When he leads off for the AL, you can believe it will happen again and when he takes his last at-bat, it will mark the end of one of the game’s all-time greats and the face of baseball for the better part of the new millennium. Watching the elite talent from the National League against the best from the American League is literally a once-in-a-year game where future Hall of Fame players are pitching to future Hall of Fame hitters.
The All-Star game is the only opportunity many of us have to see players like Jeter, Miguel Cabrera, Yasiel Puig, Clayton Kershaw, Felix Hernandez and Mike Trout in action longer than a brief highlight on TV. The All-Star game brings our fantasy baseball lineups to life. Fantasy turns into reality and takes us back to our childhood for one glorious summer evening and elicits memories of playing catch in the yard with our dads.
It’s a first love that won’t be extinguished.
And now it’s my turn:
Since I’ve decided to “amnesty” myself when it comes to writing about baseball, this site broke the monthly traffic record. Didn’t just break it, but shattered it. We’re on pace to break it again this month. We reached our biggest total readership for the month of July on July 11th. With 20 days left in the month. Yes, initiating the amnesty clause in regards to producing baseball content in June and July, the height of the baseball season, has led to bigger and better things for The Sports Bank.
How does this relate to the All-Star Game?
It relates to baseball content in general, including the ASG, but we’ll save that discussion for another time. It also relates to the fact that I’ve amnestied listening to sports talk radio, reading newspapers and watching the local news. Everything inter-relates. So how come I’ve become better at providing news to a larger audience while at the same time consuming less of it?
Simple. All of these institutions are declining at the same time. By this point you’re really sick of me talking about myself, but it’s all intertwined to the larger discussion we’re having.
Major League Baseball cannot and will not adapt to the digital era.
Even worse, MLB really doesn’t translate to the social media era.
Everything MLB clubs have tried to do to fix this has been the complete opposite of what they should be doing.
I’m not dancing on the grave of baseball (or the All-Star Game) by any means. I grew up a huge Chicago White Sox fan. From about 1985, when I was seven years old, to about 2011 or so, going to Comiskey Park defined summer for me. A bad day at Sox Park always beat a good day anywhere else.
That’s what I used to believe.
The very first All-Star Game, in any sport, was held right here at Comiskey Park in 1933 during the “Century of Progress” World’s Fair in Chicago. For the period of my life that I spent as a White Sox fan, this fact was a tremendous point of pride.
And back when this first All-Star Game was invented, it was genius.
In 1933, you did not have:
inter-league play, 600 cable channels, watch live sports apps on your laptop/tablet/mobile app. You didn’t even have television back then.
Today, you can see any player on any team because every franchise, at least some of the time, is on national television. Remember, All-Star Games are by definition exhibitions and we have enough exhibition of every player you can imagine via other means.
So it’s a lot more than just that stupid 15 inning tie game in Milwaukee a decade ago, or the desperate home field advantage gimmick, or the should-have-been-out-to-pasture-long-ago Chris Berman calling the Home Run Derby. It’s the fact that baseball, newspapers, sports talk radio, tv highlight are getting more obsolete everyday.
I will say though that if you saw the musical “The Book of Mormon” and you recall the “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream” song/sequence…my version of that is watching Home Run Derby called by Chris Berman.
But seriously, nostalgia is a wonderful thing. The All-Star Game is great for nostalgia. However, nostalgia and news don’t mix. And you can’t sustain or grow the business of baseball on nostalgia alone.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports and Yahoo! The Postgame. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world. Banks has been featured in numerous media outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, ESPN, NBC, the History Channel and more. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)
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