It's time that MLB admit the hard truth: Baseball is boring

It's time that MLB admit the hard truth: Baseball isboring.Calm down. I know it's not actuallyboring we die-hard fans wouldn't love it if itwasbut that's how casual and non-fans often see the sport: a mostly action-le s slog that's not worth their time.And because perception is reality, this is the real i sue that must be addre sed when pondering ways to Gaylord Perry Jersey attract new fans."Boring" has little to do with pace of play. It's about what fansareseeing vs. what theywantto see. Sports fans in ☎️ like a spectacle and baseball lackssufficient spectacle. But toshed the "boring" label, baseball needs toembracespectacle.MLB commi sioner Rob Manfred and othersthink that , or limiting mound visits, or other pace-of-play tweaks will help do away with this "boring" perception, but it really won't. Nor will players' a sociation head that MLB can keep people interested by educating them more about the nuances of the game. All of these mi s the point.MORE: Fans will not turn away because a game takes ☎️ hours ☎️ minutes instead of ☎️ hours ☎️ minutes, or because they don't get why a guy laid down a sac bunt in the third inning. Fans will turn away because MLB has failed to sufficiently entertain them. And in today's full-throttle entertainment culture, it's going to take more than pace tweaks, nuance and nostalgiato keep people watching.It's not just about seeing more homers, or more runs, ormore sparkling defense. No, it's about fun specifically, fun in the way that theNBA and NFL are seen as fun to the casual fan. It' Alen Hanson Jersey s about the overall viewing experience, personalities and flash. It's about thatspectacle.Casual sports fans including, perhaps most importantly,America's youth will not look to baseball to entertain them when they're far more easilywowed bytheNBA and NFL. In other words,many more kids today likely fantasize about being the next LeBron James or the next Tom Bradythan being the next Kris Bryant or the next Mookie Betts.Baseballhas personalities, and it could haveflash. The only problem is thatboth of those are actively discouraged in the name of playing the game "the right way."Fun is "disrespectful." Flash is making oneself "bigger than the game." Spectacle is eschewed. We're told that to appreciate baseball, we must embrace stoicism. Failure to do that is, supposedly, a blow to baseball itself. Or a blow to America. Or a blow to polite society, depending how much of a quasi-religious quality one chooses to attach to the game.Baseball'sstiff reputation is what happens when there's a worship of, an odd insistence on Austin Slater Jersey stoicism, the insistence on policing fun anda strict adherence to that "right way," which could rightly be interpreted to mean "the boring way" for someone looking to be entertained by more thanstrategy, sacrifice bunts and defensive shifts.MORE: This is where somedie-hard fans might say of the casual fan: Screw 'em. If they don't like baseball, we don't need 'em. While I understand the sentiment,it's just not a realistic approach for a sport trying to expand its reach and stay relevant among a younger sports populace.Which brings us to another hard truth:Baseball has no national names. There is no "face of baseball" that's instantly recognizable among casual sports Johnny Cueto Jersey fans on the street. Not Mike Trout. Not Bryce Harper. Not Kris Bryant. Not anyone. This is .There is no LeBron James of baseball, no Tom Brady of baseball. Many fans have their heads in the sand about this, a suming, for example, that just because Trout is statistically the best player on the planet that he's also the most famous player on the planet. These are definitely not the same thing.That MLB has failed to market itself properly isn't a new revelation, but it remains an important one. If baseball wants casual fans, especially younger ones, to get excited about the sport, it must go out of its way to make the sport's stars known. There's no reason why an exciting and eye-friendly in-sport star such as Bryant can't be a beyond-the-sport superstar with the likes of James and Brady. But, of course, this takes work on the part of MLB and MLB needs to recognize this, rather than placing its hopes for growth on tweaks that won't make much difference in the end.MORE: Pablo Sandoval Jersey MLB must stoptrying to coast on thevery outdated notion that the sport is still America's pastime and that it will always have a special place in the hearts of sports fans. Not only is this nowhere near true anymore, but baseball has long since failed to consistently capture the nation's sports consciousne s the way it did for much of the ☎️ th century.American sports have evolved. Entertainment in general has evolved. Baseball must evolve, too.So, please, MLB, don't be boring.