THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Baseball has way more other issues to worry about

My stepson Matthew is 25 years old.

He’s a true sports junkie, a flinger of objects when things go temporarily amiss for his beloved University of Kansas basketball team (he’s a KU grad), and a young man who frets non-stop about the fate of Kansas City sports teams.

He wears a blue Royals hoodie so often that it’s like a second skin.

So …

I asked if he was worried that this absurd stand-off between MLB and its players union would endanger the regular season.

Would the catastrophe of 1994 be repeated?

No, he said.

There’s so much money involved that they’ll figure out something.

Remember the ultimate motto of capitalism: “Greed is good.”

Instead, Matthew is depressed about the future of baseball the game, and notes that he hardly knows anyone his age who cares much about it.

“The games are too long and too boring,” he said. “It’s strikeouts and home runs, without any action in between.”

To back up his point with actual proof, Matthew sent me a story by Tyler Kepner in the New York Times.

KEPNER’S thesis is that baseball’s owners and players are squabbling over short-term fixes, when they should be looking at the long term.

In other words, improving the product.

Why?

Try on these facts and figures, things that hint baseball may struggle to remain relevant …

“Take the starting pitcher,” Kepner wrote. “He’s the guy who draws you to the ballpark, the TV, the gambling app. He’s disappearing, and that’s a major problem.

“In 2011, there were 39 pitchers who worked 200 innings. A decade later, there were four.

“The starter is baseball’s most marketable position; fewer dynamic starters make for a less appealing game.

“But, hey, at least it lasts longer than ever.

“Baseball achieved two dubious records last season: longest average game time (3 hours and 11 minutes) and most pitchers used per team (4.43 per game, tied with 2020).

“The average time between balls in play was about four minutes. Teams averaged nearly nine strikeouts per game, while stolen bases (0.46 per game) plunged to a 50-year low.”

In other words …

Games drag on forever, with very little action.

MLB claims it wants to make some significant changes, like enforcing a pitch clock and outlawing those ridiculous infield shifts that cut the field in half.

These experiments are being tried in the low minors and independent leagues, but …

Not in The Show.

QUICK side note here …

Why do these goofy shifts work?

Well, because players assume they’ll only make truly big money with home runs — no matter how many ground outs to right field occur in between those long balls.

By the way, I’ve covered major league baseball for so long, you’d be worried for my sanity.

And the point is that, like my stepson, I see the same outcomes here.

Money will eventually bring avaricious owners to end the lockout, with the players gaining a few concessions.

I mean, where else could an out-of-work rookie shortstop make half a million per year?

Korea?

Walmart?

Yes, yes, I want to see the Mariners in the playoffs, and I think they’re on the perfect path.

Eventually, they’ll get back to work and we can root for success.

BASEBALL itself, though, needs a respirator.

Here’s one more nugget from that Times story…

Kepner notes that there have been three work stoppages since 1981, including the ’94 apocalypse that eliminated half a season.

“Consider the damage,” he wrote.

“World Series ratings have never again been as high as they were in 1980, and now are an annual embarrassment.

“Per-game attendance reached an all-time high in 1994 (an average of 31,256 per game), and it took 12 years to return to that level.

“Now it is falling again: In 2019, the last season with full capacity, the average crowd was 28,203, the fourth consecutive year it had dropped.”

Players and owners who are yelling at each other about luxury taxes and service time needed for arbitration, and they each think it will improve their own bottom line.

And that’s true, if you’re only talking finances.

However …

Baseball isn’t a hedge fund, and it needs to add excitement if fans can still be enticed to buy tickets or stream games at home.

The sport won’t ever lose my dwindling generation, which I suppose makes Rob Manfred feel warm and fuzzy.

If baseball loses Matthew and his peers, though, they’ll find other things to do.

In fact, the numbers suggest that they already have.

Email: [email protected]

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published weekly during the season.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”