You only sign a major free agent when you are one player away from contention. You don't sign a guy asking for 10 million when he has been injury prone for the past 5 yrs. If they sign Berkman does that mean they lose 95 games instead of 105. Its not worth it in this stage of rebuilding the draft pick is more valuable.
No doubt that baseball's fan base is much older than basketballs. Also no doubt that worldwide basketball is bigger than baseball. I do think without a doubt there is a large baseball fan base at this time in the United States than there is a basketball fan base, but that is likely to change over the next 20 years. But come on man, do you really think that Youth is turned off to baseball because of steroids, and so they have turned to basketball? Really?
I think the length of the games is a bigger factor. The fact that it takes 4-5 hrs for most post season games is why the ratings are taking such a huge hit.
I am fine with Crane being cheap, for now. But I hope he doesn't become too used to it come 2015 or so.
I doubt selig would have found another team. The way I see is crane accepts going to the AL or the transaction of the team doesn't get approved and we are stuck with Mclane, someone who I doubt even cared about the Astros towards the end. Oh and Mclane would have still most likely been forced to move to the AL
If some of you hate the Astros why are you even on the Astros board? Go to the texans one or the rockets one. It's so annoying to hear people bi*** about the Astros yet stay in this board (no this does not apply to everyone but these types of comments have increased dramatically since the whole comcast thing was revealed)
Yeah we are rebuilding, doesn't matter how much money we spend we are still going to lose 100 (unless we somehow get all stars to sign here). I wish the new cba wasn't put in place or else he could have put all that extra money into the international free agency or the draft
Deal was already done. If it didn't get approved, it would have to be for reasons other than the AL move. The fact that Selig knocked off $65 million off the price shows how desperate they were to get a team to move. If crane had held his ground, they likely get another team to move based on a financial incentive. No group of owners holds up a deal that keeps the values of all their franchises super high due to BS realignment.
The deal was done but it wasn't approved yet, and because there are 40 minority owners involved in the ownership group every one of them had to be checked out. When the move to the AL became part of the deal Crane asked for a price reduction, because with a DH your payroll is going to be higher in order to pay for another starting type player.
Worldwide, basketball doesn't even rank above baseball. In fact, Cricket is the second most popular/played sport in the world, followed by others such as Field Hockey, Tennis and Volleyball. But, basketball is a more global sport than cricket of course. Is it more global than say volleyball, tennis and baseball though? That could be debatable. And MLB might have a problem attracting newer generations to the sports, but I would imagine it's more to the difficulty of playing (you need people to play with) and the cost (glove, balls, bat, helmet, etc)
You are right on LA and Phoenix- Denver, maybe. No way on the Bulls being more popular than the Cubs, and you have no clue about Boston- the Red Sox could be the worst team in the league for over a decade and STILL be bigger than the Celtics. Matter of fact, the Red Sox are bigger than the Patriots, too. They enjoyed their Patriots and Celtics championships, but it's nothing in Boston compared to the Red Sox.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/football/10/07/football.nba.fear.world/index.html http://www.nba.com/raptors/news/canadabasketball_010909.html
The Lakers say hi. The Sonics were undoubtedly more popular than the Mariners before they moved. Age demographics suggest basketball is gaining on MLB significantly. The leverage of the TV deal being slanted to the Astros has to do with having more game inventory and the fact that San Antonio and Austin do not have a designated MLB team which allows for more potential pickup.
3 and a half for every world series game last year which means every game is ending at 11:30 east coast time. The average fan who isn't die hard of the teams in the series aren't going to stay up like that when they are working to watch a game I don't care if it is the world series.
I already said it was more of a global sport than other popular ones, and have no doubt its quickly growing. And that's great. That still doesnt change the fact that it's not, right now, the second most popular sport behind soccer.
Interesting example with the Sonics... certainly they were popular, but with both teams at their peaks in the mid 90's, the Mariners DOMINATED that city. Turned it into a bonafied baseball town. Having Griffey, Randy Johnson, A-Rod, and then Ichiro certainly helped (as did winning). Anyways, you probably shouldn't use an example of a team that moved away from a city to prove your point on this. Certainly, the demographics favor NBA to gain ground... but that's always been the case. MLB revenues continue to grow, with a strange period of labor peace. They remain a solid #2, and that will continue to be the case in regards to national media coverage (even though right now its #1 NFL.......... and everybody else is being lapped).
Dude, look at TV ratings the NBA is number 2 period. You have been proven wrong on all fronts oh and add Toronto to a city in which basketball is more popular
No its not... its #3, and gaining... but still nonetheless, #3. If Toronto had a choice between losing the Raptors or losing the Blue Jays, they'd toss the purple dinosaurs out with the bathwater. Here's an article talking about why comparing World Series TV ratings to the recent NBA finals (skewed by the Heat being as popular as they are) is not the best comparison as to which sport is more "popular". Baseball's revenues are still healthy and exceed that of the NBA ($7 billion to 4.3 billion), and their TV deals remain lucrative despite the crappy ratings of the World Series. Again, city to city, baseball is quite healthy... and if both teams are doing well, baseball still tends to captivate the city more.
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/10/tale-of-the-tape-nba-vs-mlb-part-ii/ At least for the nationally televised games, it appears the NBA has already passed MLB, with higher ratings in the regular season, early playoff rounds, and finals.
