Introduction

Welcome! This a blog dedicated to America's Pastime, aka the wonderful game of baseball. Major League Baseball was founded in 1903, which makes it the oldest major professional sports league in the United States. In many ways, baseball's seniority as a major American sport has become a blessing and a curse. On one hand, baseball boasts a rich and celebrated history that is in a class of it's own compared to other sports such as football and basketball. This history has allowed baseball to become part of the fabric of American culture, but has contributed to baseball's recent "decline" as well. A common theme in sports media today is that baseball is a "dying sport" due to it's refusal to modernize and adapt to competition from faster, more exciting sports like football, basketball, hockey, and to a lesser extent soccer and lacrosse. There have been calls throughout sports media for baseball to make itself more exciting so it does not become redundant. While I personally do not believe that baseball is "dying", I do believe that baseball must modernize, yet do so in a way that does not compromise the identity that it has built up over the last century-plus.

This blog will explore the challenge that baseball has at hand. It must adapt to the new world of social media, which demands sports to produce 15 second highlight clips that can go viral on Twitter or Instagram. This is a significant challenge for baseball. Other than a home run, it will struggle to produce plays that can compete with an athletic dunk in basketball or an 80-yard touchdown pass in football. There is no doubt that baseball moves at a slower pace than other sports, which has contributed to the narrative that baseball cannot connect to Millennials. As a Millennial myself, I strongly disagree with this notion. This blog will serve as way to highlight baseball as a sport that can connect to younger generations without sacrificing the traditions that it's built up over the years. The blog will discuss the relationship between baseball's past and present, and how they will affect the game's future. This will include comparisons of past and present players, the debate about Sabermetic statistics (this will be explained later for the uninitiated), analysis of games, and discussing the changes that have been occurring in baseball over the past few years. All of this will fit under the theme of connecting baseball with younger fans while still maintain the traditions that make it popular with older fans.