OT- UConn Lacrosse

[babysheep]

For what it's worth there was a recent article (don't remember where, it was just an interesting tidbit. might have been the Yahoo front page) noting that Lax is the fastest growing youth sport in the U.S.

Because it's an extremely rewarding sport to play. You have to have the speed, agility and endurance of a soccer player with some serious physicality. And even as physical a sport as it is, it's a true finesse sport with most of the important stuff going on off the ball, and maybe that's why a lot of people don't like to watch it; it takes some kind of actual understanding of the flow of the sport to enjoy as a spectator, unlike sports like football and you can just go get drunk and be all "DERP WOW LOOK HOW HARD THAT ONE GUY HIT THAT OTHER GUY" and be entertained.

 

[johnhuskies95]

I didn't divert. Your reading comprehension is just terrible. I agree that baseball takes skill, but that doesn't make it worthy viewing. Gardening takes skill, croquet takes skill, even curling takes skill. It does not mean it's cool.

It doesn't matter if attendance is up. And I do not believe that one bit. Last season MLS was outdrawing our boring national pastime in certain cities. People would rather watch bad pro soccer than go waste their lives watching nine excruciating innings of the most boring sport not named cricket.

No, my point is that baseball obviously takes more skill than those things. Obviously. Nobody with half a brain would argue that cradling a stick with a mesh head and a ball inside it requires more skill than hitting a baseball going 95 mph with just a wooden stick.

You're talking about something that's not "cool"? What does that even mean? According to whom? You?

And then you're just outright denying proven facts. Baseball's attendance numbers are higher this year than last year and the numbers now are higher than they were 10 years ago. That is a fact.

Meanwhile, you are speaking out of your ass. Last year, an MLS team outdrew the MLB team in one city. One city. That is singular, not plural.

The MLB outdrew the MLS by 40%.

This entire thread you have not provided one thing that proves that baseball is on the decline. Not one thing.

 

[RuffRuff]

So what about football
Seriously dude the tone of this post and your previous posts screams "I got beat up by lacrosse players in high school and I can't get over it". You really seem to have some kind of emotional aversion to the sport.

So what about football
Seriously dude the tone of this post and your previous posts screams "I got beat up by lacrosse players in high school and I can't get over it". You really seem to have some kind of emotional aversion to the sport.

C'mon man, do you really think the sport of football and everything that goes into it can be played in the Olympics? The conditioning, the game planning. Football is an intense, highly physical sport that no one would sign up for on the Olympic level. We have a hard enough time fielding the best US NBA players to play in the Olympics with claim of injury due to hurt fingernails. And bottom line, the Super Bowl has 1000 time more meaning than the Olympics would have in it's given sport. Now Lacrosse on the other hand has no major venue and would jump at the chance.

I can see you and this Zoocougar cat clearly play/have something invested in Lacrosse, hence the quick reflex defensiveness with zero thought put into it. I have nothing personal at all against Lacrosse, absolutely zero - only observing it as a sport as a passive fan. I just find it lame - it's my opinion. I look at it as a corny yuppy sport full of Beeber haircuts flicking a ball around in a makeshift sport. I have nothing against others that enjoy it, all the power to them.

Zoocougar - take a look at the MLB Financials and come back to me and let me know if it's a dying sport. Baseball is a global sport, one of the things that makes it interesting - lacrosse has momentum in a tiny region locally.

 

[UofCT]

C'mon man, do you really think the sport of football and everything that goes into it can be played in the Olympics? The conditioning, the game planning. Football is an intense, highly physical sport that no one would sign up for on the Olympic level. We have a hard enough time fielding the best US NBA players to play in the Olympics with claim of injury due to hurt fingernails. And bottom line, the Super Bowl has 1000 time more meaning than the Olympics would have in it's given sport. Now Lacrosse on the other hand has no major venue and would jump at the chance.

I can see you and this Zoocougar cat clearly play/have something invested in Lacrosse, hence the quick reflex defensiveness with zero thought put into it. I have nothing personal at all against Lacrosse, absolutely zero - only observing it as a sport as a passive fan. I just find it lame - it's my opinion. I look at it as a corny yuppy sport full of Beeber haircuts flicking a ball around in a makeshift sport. I have nothing against others that enjoy it, all the power to them.

Zoocougar - take a look at the MLB Financials and come back to me and let me know if it's a dying sport. Baseball is a global sport, one of the things that makes it interesting - lacrosse has momentum in a tiny region locally.

LAX BROS

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I have no idea what the heck you are talking about. No doubt, there are a few baseball enclaves out there willing to spend money, but this sport is dying a long slow death.

Also one of you baseball wackjobs said that baseball isn't a derivative.


That is also total BS. Baseball is based on a British schoolgirls game called rounders.

If anything, basketball and hockey are derivatives of lacrosse, since it predates both of those sports by centuries.

In fact, basketball and lax are the only true North American sports in origin. Even football traces it's origins to soccer.

What I am talking about is that somehow, this dying sport is able to pay considerably more to its stars (and even its merely good) than any other North American professional sport, even if the team doing the paying is in a minor market. I apologize if this went over your head and I will try to be more descriptive in the future as not to confuse you.

As far as baseball wackjobs who don't believe the sport is derivative, I am not one of those. I realize that all current sports are derivative. At least 1,300 years ago a game called crook (called koff by Viking invaders of England, where the name golf came from) was played by using a shepard's crook (also called a hook by some, which led to the names cricket, croquette, hockey and even lacrosse) for sports that were derived from whacking an object on the ground (usually a grass field) with the crook.

Various forms of this action (some 800 + years younger than kicking an object) evolved into many of the above mentioned sports along with polo and (although highly debatable) quite possibly tennis and badminton. The sports that you are claiming to be true of north american origin are an adaptation (per the man who developed, or as some had stated, invented it) of association football and the application of a Native American ritual (which was a bonding exercise between tribes that had no objective or rule other than tossing something back and forth for what could total a few days. It's current name came from the French name for the game of field hockey (as that is what it looked like to the first Europeans who witnessed the activity), which meant the crook from the above mentioned field game played many centuries earlier and the current sport is merely applying the Native American means of tossing the object back and forth to an existing European game.

If you want to believe that somehow, within any reasonable time frame there will be a prosperous professional lacrosse league (at something close to the current major sports), I have some reasonable housing opportunities that I would like to find some investors for and you appear to be an ideal candidate. If you also want to believe that Major League Baseball will not be around in any reasonable (or even unreasonable) time frame, hell, you could be the guy willing to buy the entire portfolio of properties.

 

[8893]

Insufficient reply. Why is it false? I'm giving reasons for my opinions, all I'm getting back is stuff like false, wrong, you don't know the sport. Inform me, where's the skill? Running back and forth holding a ball in a basket while everyone else watches doesn't seem that hard to do. There's the basic throwing and catching that has a degree of skill, but nothing that approaches hitting a baseball or dribbling a soccer ball. I think the lack of skill needed is part of it's appeal for new players.

I guess I must have missed the part where you gave your reasons. As far as I can tell, you cited a low skill factor before, and a lack of skill here. But you also concede that it has a "degree of skill." Wow. Great reasons. And you're the one criticizing those who like Susan Herbst because you say she hasn't done anything? It's clear you are a miserable, small , but I've had some wine with dinner and I'll be foolish enough to respond further.

Hey, I love a lot of sports. I grew up playing baseball, basketball and football, and then rugby later. I just don't see where people like you who are clearly clueless about all of them get off on judging any of them. Yes, professional baseball requires the highest degree of the most skills. I guess I missed the part where that was the comparison. We're talking about collegiate sports here, or so I thought.

And then there's the guys like Ruff Ruff who "played a sport at a higher level" who appear to be struggling to relive their glory days. Whatever you all need to feel comfortable in your tiny place in life, by all means do it.

I can still play all "my" sports pretty well. I can shoot a few baskets, throw a nice spiral for a few dozen yards, kick the hell out of the ball, and hit in the 80s in a batting cage. I've been trying lacrosse now because my girls are playing it, and all I am saying is that it takes a fair amount of skill too. It is different, and that's why you and the others here are criticizing it. I'd love to see you cradle, catch and throw the ball with precision. Better yet, I'd love to see you try to stop it coming at you in goal, as my daughter who is a goalie has to do. There's a reason that most kids want nothing to do with being LAX goalie: it's really freaking hard, it hurts a lot when you get hit by the ball, and no matter how good you are, you are going to get scored on, so you need to be resilient. In case you didn't know, there is not nearly the padding that a hockey goalie has.

This Beiber/yuppie stuff is just pure bullsh!t drawn from either clinical insecurity or a laughably small sample size. Try the sport yourself. See how well you do. At the highest level, all sports require a very high degree of skill. Ok, maybe not luge. But pretty much all others. The rest of this discussion is more telling for how obviously some guys like you have never really experienced any sport, and some like Ruff Ruff can't get over the fact that they ceased being relevant once their glory days were over a long time ago.

 

[MattMang23]

I have no idea what the heck you are talking about. No doubt, there are a few baseball enclaves out there willing to spend money, but this sport is dying a long slow death.

Also one of you baseball wackjobs said that baseball isn't a derivative.


That is also total BS. Baseball is based on a British schoolgirls game called rounders.

If anything, basketball and hockey are derivatives of lacrosse, since it predates both of those sports by centuries.

In fact, basketball and lax are the only true North American sports in origin. Even football traces it's origins to soccer.

If hockey derives from lacrosse, and lacrosse was originated in North America, would that, by your own definition, not make hockey a sport that also traces its origins to North America? Because it does.

Ice hockey has developed from mixing stick-and-ball games popular amongst Canadian First Nations, and the idea of British soldiers on outpost in Canada deciding to adapt that game to a natural winter condition in Canada, ice.

 

[ZooCougar]

Again, you just wrote a bunch of crap, unnecessarily I might add.

Show me where I said where there would be some prosperous pro lacrosse league. The most prestigious level of the sport will probably always be the collegiat level.


I do baseball's day is over. Its an inferior sport that is slow, sedentary and doesnt demand our kids maintain a high level of fitness. It will become another insignificant niche sport that farmers play. It doesn't translate well in he modern era. There are better sports for young people to play and they are voting as we speak. With each passing year, more and more kids are choosing other sports. Pretty soon, a record number of young people won't even know the rules. So long to baseball as a major sport. Look at the NHL, because if baseball can sustain even the same level that NHL has been scraping together, then it will be lucky. Count on it.

What I am talking about is that somehow, this dying sport is able to pay considerably more to its stars (and even its merely good) than any other North American professional sport, even if the team doing the paying is in a minor market. I apologize if this went over your head and I will try to be more descriptive in the future as not to confuse you.

As far as baseball wackjobs who don't believe the sport is derivative, I am not one of those. I realize that all current sports are derivative. At least 1,300 years ago a game called crook (called koff by Viking invaders of England, where the name golf came from) was played by using a shepard's crook (also called a hook by some, which led to the names cricket, croquette, hockey and even lacrosse) for sports that were derived from whacking an object on the ground (usually a grass field) with the crook.

Various forms of this action (some 800 + years younger than kicking an object) evolved into many of the above mentioned sports along with polo and (although highly debatable) quite possibly tennis and badminton. The sports that you are claiming to be true of north american origin are an adaptation (per the man who developed, or as some had stated, invented it) of association football and the application of a Native American ritual (which was a bonding exercise between tribes that had no objective or rule other than tossing something back and forth for what could total a few days. It's current name came from the French name for the game of field hockey (as that is what it looked like to the first Europeans who witnessed the activity), which meant the crook from the above mentioned field game played many centuries earlier and the current sport is merely applying the Native American means of tossing the object back and forth to an existing European game.

If you want to believe that somehow, within any reasonable time frame there will be a prosperous professional lacrosse league (at something close to the current major sports), I have some reasonable housing opportunities that I would like to find some investors for and you appear to be an ideal candidate. If you also want to believe that Major League Baseball will not be around in any reasonable (or even unreasonable) time frame, hell, you could be the guy willing to buy the entire portfolio of properties.

 

[husky8273]

Which would draw more fans - UConn vs. Notre Dame in lax at the Rent or UConn vs. ND in baseball in New Britain or Norwich?

 

[8893]

and hit in the 80s in a batting cage.

Ok, that must have been the wine talking. I can hit in a batting cage. 80s, probably not.

 

[RuffRuff]

I guess I must have missed the part where you gave your reasons. As far as I can tell, you cited a low skill factor before, and a lack of skill here. But you also concede that it has a "degree of skill." Wow. Great reasons. And you're the one criticizing those who like Susan Herbst because you say she hasn't done anything? It's clear you are a miserable, small Fecundity, but I've had some wine with dinner and I'll be foolish enough to respond further.

Hey, I love a lot of sports. I grew up playing baseball, basketball and football, and then rugby later. I just don't see where people like you who are clearly clueless about all of them get off on judging any of them. Yes, professional baseball requires the highest degree of the most skills. I guess I missed the part where that was the comparison. We're talking about collegiate sports here, or so I thought.

And then there's the guys like Ruff Ruff who "played a sport at a higher level" who appear to be struggling to relive their glory days. Whatever you all need to feel comfortable in your tiny place in life, by all means do it.

I can still play all "my" sports pretty well. I can shoot a few baskets, throw a nice spiral for a few dozen yards, kick the hell out of the ball, and hit in the 80s in a batting cage. I've been trying lacrosse now because my girls are playing it, and all I am saying is that it takes a fair amount of skill too. It is different, and that's why you and the others here are criticizing it. I'd love to see you cradle, catch and throw the ball with precision. Better yet, I'd love to see you try to stop it coming at you in goal, as my daughter who is a goalie has to do. There's a reason that most kids want nothing to do with being LAX goalie: it's really freaking hard, it hurts a lot when you get hit by the ball, and no matter how good you are, you are going to get scored on, so you need to be resilient. In case you didn't know, there is not nearly the padding that a hockey goalie has.

This Beiber/yuppie stuff is just pure bullsh!t drawn from either clinical insecurity or a laughably small sample size. Try the sport yourself. See how well you do. At the highest level, all sports require a very high degree of skill. Ok, maybe not luge. But pretty much all others. The rest of this discussion is more telling for how obviously some guys like you have never really experienced any sport, and some like Ruff Ruff can't get over the fact that they ceased being relevant once their glory days were over a long time ago.

I'm not downplaying the skill level needed for Lacrosse. I'm not downplaying those who do enjoy it nor am I downplaying it's current rise in popularity - it's a growing sport, no doubt. It's has a specific market. I'm downplaying the ceiling on how marketable it can be beyond what it is.

I am absolutely not replaying the glory days - guy, I know you like forums for positioning your big words while the adrenaline is flowing, but get over yourself. I'm expressing my personal lack of interest in a sport - how is that reliving glory days? It's an opinion. I'm a fanatic for a sport I never played for nothing but the pure appreciation of what it's all about - football. So not at all, major fail - just a reference to the who started turning this into a tit for tat childish back and forth. If anything, I am pretty vocal about why baseball is boring - that's another argument. It's not at the top of my list as favorite sports to be a fan of and that's the sport that I played professionally - it has it's warts as far as dynamic/structure(no salary cap, too long a season, too long a game). So not to toot my own horn, but I'm probably coming from about as unbiased a perspective on this as one could. Baseball has a romanticized place in US history that will never die. It also has fantasy baseball. I always say that baseball is built for the type of fan that loves history/stats. I have zero personal against Lacrosse, whereas I can tell a lot in this thread take it personal that someone doesn't appreciate the sport. Any sport has a stigma, a brand a purpose. I just don't buy Lacrosse beyond what it is today - a regional sport, for reasons already stated. I totally get why it's become popular around these parts - it's a continuous flow sport which aspires well to the newly evolving ADD mind. I knew someone would throw out the ridiculous point of it being played 200 years ago by Indians. The issue with Lacrosse is that it hasn't materialized through the growth phase of sports in the US/Global history, industrialization/globalization. It's just coming into it's own now, likely too late to make any serious moves. It doesn't have a recognized history, brand, sports figures other than Jim Brown's second sport and I just think it overlaps other sports in it's basis. Maybe if my kid grows up loving it I will change my mind and get all insecure about it when someone calls it out like everyone else/you, but right now as an open minded passive sports fan, can't get into it in the slightest. It's particularly horrible on TV.

 

[8893]

Not sure which "big words" got your attention Ruff, but I'll try to keep it simple:

I'm not debating marketability as a spectator sport, television appeal or anything else like that. I'm also not the one claiming that baseball is going anywhere. I actually love to watch baseball, probably more than any other sport besides men's college basketball. I also enjoy watching NFL football and NBA playoff basketball. None of this has anything to do with my issue with the position taken about lacrosse by some here.

You say you don't have anything personal against lacrosse, but you repeatedly refer to it as "artificial" and "a corny yuppy sport full of Beeber haircuts flicking a ball around in a makeshift sport." Apparently your nephews have made quite an impression on you. All I am saying is that your sample size appears to be pretty small and you might want to watch it at some other level. If you can't see the stereotype in your statements I don't know what to tell you, except that they are not accurate based on what I have seen.

Football, soccer, basketball, rugby and hockey, among others, are all just as "makeshift" and "artificial" as lacrosse from my perspective. And all are pretty much, at their most basic level, some form of "glorified keep-away," i.e., keeping possession of the ball (or puck) and scoring with it are the goals of the game. They are all derivative of the exact same concept. I just don't see how someone could brand one of them "makeshift" or "artificial" any more than the others.

You say you are not downplaying the skill level, I'll take you at your word. I guess that's Whyquit's angle.

 

[caw]

Having never played lacrosse, but I find college lacrosse more entertaining than college baseball, college soccer or college hockey. JMO, but I would put it third of college sports I would watch on TV. Full disclosure; soccer is my favorite TV sport (and when in Europe, favorite spectator). Obviously, college basketball and college football would be #1 and #2 for college sports.

 

[specialisthusky]

wow this thread took off. I'm from South Jersey. Lacrosse came to my highschool my freshman year. It absolutely took off and by my senior year the team competed for a state championship and sent kids to play at places like Providence and Ohio State (i have no idea if they are good lax schools or not). The overwhelming majority of these players were your stereotypical lax bros.

Baseball was 100x more popular than lacrosse while i was in high school, but i have returned home and discovered a lax club team now exists that is taking kids away from the little league fields. Baseball is now about 50x more popuar so it is definitly gaining some momentum.

In terms of potential popularity. Lax tops out at NHL level IMO. No way does it ever amass to the money making machine the MLB is. I've been to a few MLL games (Philadelphia Wings). It was boring to be honest but there were some great fights, which is exactly what people who don't play/understand hockey say about the NHL.

 

[Waquoit]

I've been to a few MLL games (Philadelphia Wings). It was boring to be honest ...

Best Lacrosse players in the world. Thank you for your honesty.

Whirley Ball is kind of fun to play and has the same skill level as lacrosse. Who wants to watch that?

And no one talks about the many folks who gave up the game because it sh!ts. They're known as Ex-LAX.

 

[Adios]

Going by the attendance I saw at UNC during an NCAA tournament game against Denver University, baseball, soccer and hockey would all outdraw lacrosse.

I do have a Bridgeport Barrage t-shirt. Cool item. Wish I saw them in person.

 

[RuffRuff]

Coincidentally, the cousins that played at Trumbull high fit the LAX stereotype to a T, both with haircuts circa the Beatles and ok athletes. I know I'm stereotyping, but it kind of is part of the brand as far as how it's recognized. Then you see where the sport is played, the colleges that are passionate about it and it's hard not to. It's the sport where you see the dad's pull up in their convertible with pink popped collar and throw around sweater cheering on Biff III.

 

[8893]

Coincidentally, the cousins that played at Trumbull high fit the LAX stereotype to a T, both with haircuts circa the Beatles and ok athletes. I know I'm stereotyping, but it kind of is part of the brand as far as how it's recognized. Then you see where the sport is played, the colleges that are passionate about it and it's hard not to. It's the sport where you see the dad's pull up in their convertible with pink popped collar and throw around sweater cheering on Biff III.

Also coincidentally, I drive a convertible, usually wear a pink polo shirt with the collar turned up and a sweater wrapped around my shoulders, and am named Biff II. My daughters all attend private schools and are named Buffy, Muffy and Biffilina, respectively. And I wear a Bieber hairstyle.

Damn, dude, you have us nailed!

 

[stamfordhusky]

Coincidentally, the cousins that played at Trumbull high fit the LAX stereotype to a T, both with haircuts circa the Beatles and ok athletes. I know I'm stereotyping, but it kind of is part of the brand as far as how it's recognized. Then you see where the sport is played, the colleges that are passionate about it and it's hard not to. It's the sport where you see the dad's pull up in their convertible with pink popped collar and throw around sweater cheering on Biff III.

Every year Trumbull has one of the worst lax programs in Connecticut. Maybe that explains it. You should try watching one of the teams that routinely beats them 16-2 to see what real lax players look like.

In much of the east, lax has left baseball in the rear view mirror when it comes to which sport the top athletes play.

 

[ZooCougar]

I also saw a bunch of baseball players on tv who looked fat and unathletic. That pretty much fits the bill. They may not be much more fit than the average pro bass fisherman.

Coincidentally, the cousins that played at Trumbull high fit the LAX stereotype to a T, both with haircuts circa the Beatles and ok athletes. I know I'm stereotyping, but it kind of is part of the brand as far as how it's recognized. Then you see where the sport is played, the colleges that are passionate about it and it's hard not to. It's the sport where you see the dad's pull up in their convertible with pink popped collar and throw around sweater cheering on Biff III.

 

[Dogdeacon]

I also saw a bunch of baseball players on tv who looked fat and unathletic. That pretty much fits the bill. They may not be much more fit than the average pro bass fisherman.

Haven't you undone your own argument a little by mentioning that you saw the baseball players on TV?

I wonder if baseball is in trouble long-term*, but honestly if you've got a lefthanded kid that can throw a ball 90MPH he will be playing baseball. I don't know if that hypothetical fits some artificial definition of what 'top athletes' are, but the $ ultimately do have a say in what athletes end up doing

* Even the absolute, Defcon 5 worst projection for baseball in America still has to be about 10 x more popular than lacrosse. And please don't sight youth participation stats, that's been true of soccer since the 80's and its yet to get major sports traction in the USA. Lacrosse can draw 40-50K for an event at Foxboro (I've been, its great) but Fenway draws 45K 81 times a year.
And how many professional baseball players are there in the USA ? I'd bet the absolute # is about 5 times that of any other sport. How about # of total employment affiliated with the sport as again baseball has to be #1 and have a crazy multiple versus the number of folks earning their living in lacrosse. No value judgement, just the way it is and presents a substantial obstacle to change or penetrate the market.

 

[FAIRTIDES]

I also saw a bunch of baseball players on tv who looked fat and unathletic. That pretty much fits the bill. They may not be much more fit than the average pro bass fisherman.

Zoo,

Your "offerings" on this thread are way over-the-top. So much so that I picture you sitting at you computer, tongue firmly imbedded in cheek, asking yourself how you can top your last wacky contribution, and who's response will show the most frustration. It's obvious. You don't like baseball.

But, perhaps you weren't watching while;

. MLB yr-to-yr attendance figures continue to show growth in the face of ever-increasing ticket prices.
. Every time an MLB franchise becomes available, the really rich fall all over themselves submitting bids.
. The winning bids are so high that they have a favorable financial impact on every franchise. The recent winning bid for the Dodgers was $2.0 Billion.
. Have you noticed how many new stadiums have been built for millions and billions of dollars? The technical financial term, is a "bunch."
. Have you seen what the pay the players?
. The situation defined above , attendance growth, franchise cost and value with rich owners, and new stadiums is also true of the Minor Leagues, except, of course, player pay. Minor League franchises have become status symbols.

The people who have created baseball's present environment must be really stupid; or must not be working with data and projections available to you.

 

[mauconnfan]

I also saw a bunch of baseball players on tv who looked fat and unathletic. That pretty much fits the bill. They may not be much more fit than the average pro bass fisherman.

Fat unathletic but can hit a 98 MPH fastball or keep the hands back and wait for a 83 MPH duece and take it 440 feet over the wall...................yeah that's not as athletic as running around with a freakin ball in net of a long stick without having to dribble it or anything special? This thread is a joke at best..................I respect the people who like and play the game of Lax and it's tough kinda preppy game but it has no comparison to baseball whatsoever........

And if you knew anything about the fitness of the new "kid" coming up in baseball check out the indoor batting cages in the winter in the Northeast and the gym the same morning or night................bunch of 12-13 year olds trying to be real good at the national pastime.........you're lost!!!

 

[RuffRuff]

Baseball may not have the best runners/jumpers in the world, it's a sport that is a combination of athletecism, skill and size. Are there a few semi chubby pitchers out there that are blessed with a good arm? Sure, but that is 100% the exception. That was something seen more often in the 80's and before all this conditioning wasn't around. I'm not sure what baseball games you're watching. Have you seen Josh Hamilton? Miguel Cabrera? Cliff Lee? What you might not realize is the size of the average baseball player - they are huge men. Not just height, but hands, forearms, legs. I am 6'4" and when I got to spring training my first year, average. I was on a plane with Hank Aaron year s ago - not the biggest guy, but his hand was like 5 bananas. Get down to field level at an MLB game and take a look at those guys. I guarantee you that if you put a street fight together between pro LAX players and MLB players, it wouldn't even be close. LAX players might be quick shifty guys that like to bounce off each other and flick a stick, but baseball is made up enormous guys.

Listen, I'm joking about the Biff stuff - get a kick of you goons getting all fired up about this sport. And yes, maybe LAX is picking up steam over baseball..... in FFld County, LI and Maryland. I give you guys credit for your passion. Zoocougar, I give you credit for nothing - posts are assanine, but entertaining.

 

[ZooCougar]

I think you got it. But I stopped reading after the first paragraph.

Consider this: Look at how far baseball has already fallen. 60 years ago the sport was a religion. Now it is the third most popular sport and bleeding popularity fast.

Why is it inconceivable that it will continue its decline? I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Zoo,

Your "offerings" on this thread are way over-the-top. So much so that I picture you sitting at you computer, tongue firmly imbedded in cheek, asking yourself how you can top your last wacky contribution, and who's response will show the most frustration. It's obvious. You don't like baseball.

But, perhaps you weren't watching while;

. MLB yr-to-yr attendance figures continue to show growth in the face of ever-increasing ticket prices.
. Every time an MLB franchise becomes available, the really rich fall all over themselves submitting bids.
. The winning bids are so high that they have a favorable financial impact on every franchise. The recent winning bid for the Dodgers was $2.0 Billion.
. Have you noticed how many new stadiums have been built for millions and billions of dollars? The technical financial term, is a "bunch."
. Have you seen what the pay the players?
. The situation defined above , attendance growth, franchise cost and value with rich owners, and new stadiums is also true of the Minor Leagues, except, of course, player pay. Minor League franchises have become status symbols.

The people who have created baseball's present environment must be really stupid; or must not be working with data and projections available to you.