It can't just happen on a whim, either. College kids have been shooting and a 10-foot hoop for 6-8 years. Anyone who has ever played in the NBA can tell if the rim is off by as little as an inch just by looking at it. Heck it happened at UConn last season. The entire Association with more than 5 years in would retire en mass, rather than go through that adjustment.
The long and short of all sports is that big games are more exciting, and the Playoffs are all big games. So right off the bat (NPI), there is no wonder how anyone who remotely likes baseball is confused by the NFL-Only fan.
On the other hand, There are multiple issues with MLB, beyond the pace and how the game is played, which are all tied, loosely or directly, to money. However, since they can't take money out of the equation, they can only treat the symptoms.
1) Playoff games start at odd times. 1:00, 4:30 or 8:00ET, Done and done. If, in the 8:00 window, rain delays the 1st pitch, it's by one hour, at most. At that point, the ground crew better start rolling up the tarp, or see you tomorrow. This is not 1978 anymore. Anyone with the My Radar app knew that game the other night was getting postponed. The only reason the Yankees/MLB did not call it before 10:00pm the other night was to maximize beer sales. That's dirty pool.
2) The players are really freaking good. Sure some may have a bad day here or there, but being so good creates a stalemate, as compared to all of the players being various degrees of mediocre. It's what makes the minors and college so entertaining. It's certainly not as simple as thinking the casual fan wants more scoring. I'm in the middle of a 12 year run of coaching various levels of Little League. Farm and Minors games end in scores of 15-12 and they are excruciating.
3) "Moneyball" changed the way the game is played, for better or for worse. Gone are the days Ozzie Smith, Devon White, Vince Coleman, Rickey Henderson, and Brett Butler. Virtually gone is the bunt. It's barely taught in youth baseball anymore. Stealing is also a lost art. Billy Beane or some other personnel guy will see it's not enough for his hulking OBP guys to get on 1st, only to be routinely wiped out by a 6-4-3 double play. They will need to eventually acquire some speedy, punch & judy hitters to manufacture runs again.
4) Baseball is great live, but there's a flip side to that coin. It has become an awful television sport. There is a minimum of ten players on the field at any given time and the camera is usually focused on three. Considering the amount of time the pitcher takes between pitches only makes it seem worse. Now the pitch clock should at least partially address the latter (Minor Leagues Games are phenomenal live events, thanks to, I believe, the clock.), but TVs are large enough and wide enough to enlist a regular split-screen feature so that the home viewer can see what is going on in the field. Particularly with men on base. Think of the old Nintendo RBI Baseball or Bases Loaded games. Who says no?
