Local media coverage of baseball...

[Avondale Red Rage]

Is it just me, or is there a pathetic lack of baseball talk in this town? For those of you in a different baseball city, is it a prominent part of the daily agenda, or is it like here: 85% football, with basketball & baseball filling in the gaps?

Trying to figure out if I'm becoming my dad as I get older, or if the NFL has a financial interest in the Dbacks mother station, or people really don't care about my favorite sport?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[AZCrazy]

There's no baseball season just yet.

Spring training is cute, but it's a laid back party, not a source of wild energy.
The D Backs were one of the worst teams in modern history two years ago. They made strides to be .500 last year, after two or three years of .500 ball before the garbage year.

This is the West, where life is good, and people aren't bitter broken down slobs like they are back East. Sports are fun, but they're not going to generate passion when the team is mediocre and options are plentiful.

Once the team is 25-5, the fever will pitch.

 

[Avondale Red Rage]

I guess since its March, that explains the incessant speculation and babble on football?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[JS22]

It's not just you. The local shows would rather talk about deflate-gate (STILL), Mark Sanchez going to the Broncos, etc, than anything Dbacks, Suns, or Coyotes related. I don't even really bother anymore.

That said, they know that the NFL is king 24/7 year-round. There's not many like us that would rather hear them talk about something else every once and awhile. Let's not forget that the Suns are a disaster, spring training is kind of meaningless, and nobody really cares about the Coyotes.

Edit: I just flipped the radio on and Doug and Wolf are talking about Chris Johnson for the 50th time this week.

 

[CardNots]

There's no baseball season just yet.

Spring training is cute, but it's a laid back party, not a source of wild energy.
The D Backs were one of the worst teams in modern history two years ago. They made strides to be .500 last year, after two or three years of .500 ball before the garbage year.

This is the West, where life is good, and people aren't bitter broken down slobs like they are back East. Sports are fun, but they're not going to generate passion when the team is mediocre and options are plentiful.

Once the team is 25-5, the fever will pitch.

Awesome post!

The dbacks haven't done a good job of competing for my free time. I live in Escondido now a days. Too many options. I'm excited to see what we have but it better be good or back to living life without em.

 

[Bert]

There are lots of reasons but with local radio it purely comes down to demand. They base their programming almost entirely on focus groups and surveys and direct feedback of what people want them to talk about.

I love baseball, but it's just not as popular anymore. ESPECIALLY with the younger generation.

Here's some social media stats just to add context:
The Suns and Cardinals both have twice as many twitter followers as the Dbacks.

The Seattle Seahawks have just about as many twitter followers as the Yankees. (Is that mind blowing or what?)

The Boston Celtics have half a million more twitter followers than the Boston Red Socks.

Instagram is even worse, the Celtics have TWICE as many followers as the Red Socks.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. You have to feed the beast what it's hungry for. There just aren't enough of us demanding baseball talk.

 

[Dback Jon]

Just on Facebook:

Suns - 1.9 million followers
Cardinals - 1.35 million
Dbacks - 700K
Coyotes - 300K


Larry Fitzgerald has over 1 million followers

Contrast that with Paul Goldschmidt, who doesn't even have a Facebook presence.

 

[Bert]

Just on Facebook:

Suns - 1.9 million followers
Cardinals - 1.35 million
Dbacks - 700K
Coyotes - 300K


Larry Fitzgerald has over 1 million followers

Contrast that with Paul Goldschmidt, who doesn't even have a Facebook presence.

Wow, more good examples, thanks Jon. It's so crazy when you start to look at it. Baseball is just not popular with this younger generation at all.

I mean, I bet you could ask 100 school kids who Lebron is and probably 95 of them would know. How many of them would know who Mike Trout is? Bryce Harper? Goldy?

It's funny because it's just a matter of what in my opinion is a misconception. Yes baseball is a slow game compared to other sports but that's just a superficial observation. There is so much strategy and so many individual battles going on, it's anything but boring in my eyes...

 

[AZ Native]

Wow, more good examples, thanks Jon. It's so crazy when you start to look at it. Baseball is just not popular with this younger generation at all.

I mean, I bet you could ask 100 school kids who Lebron is and probably 95 of them would know. How many of them would know who Mike Trout is? Bryce Harper? Goldy?

It's funny because it's just a matter of what in my opinion is a misconception. Yes baseball is a slow game compared to other sports but that's just a superficial observation. There is so much strategy and so many individual battles going on, it's anything but boring in my eyes...

Baseball is an old man's sport, just look at me.

 

[Bert]

Baseball is an old man's sport, just look at me.

I know buddy, me too. The thing is tho, they simply must find a way to engage the youth of America or soon American Baseball will be American Soccer...

 

[DWKB]

Royals coverage is actually the top stories in KC right now.

As for the age of the game, it's the nature of the sport that places so much emphasis on history, restraint, unspoken rules, and tradition.

Just look at the resistance to the DH here.

 

[Phrazbit]

Royals coverage is actually the top stories in KC right now.

As for the age of the game, it's the nature of the sport that places so much emphasis on history, restraint, unspoken rules, and tradition.

Just look at the resistance to the DH here.

If the Dbacks were the defending WS champs I expect that would be the case here too. Were the Royals getting much press about 2 years ago when they were mediocre? I don't know but I doubt it.

 

[DWKB]

If the Dbacks were the defending WS champs I expect that would be the case here too. Were the Royals getting much press about 2 years ago when they were mediocre? I don't know but I doubt it.

Simply answering the OP question about other markets dude, not looking for a fight.

 

[Phrazbit]

Simply answering the OP question about other markets dude, not looking for a fight.

I didn't think thems were fighting words, sorry.

As to the OP, IMO baseball needs to lighten up. All of the "unwritten rules" need to go, especially if guys are not allowed to have the occassional brawl to enforce them. Let guys flip bats, pimp homers, ect. Let the players bark at each other. It was always odd to me that a pitcher can strike a guy out and do a big scream, stomp and point at the sky, but if the next hitter blasts a homer off him and pimps it for a few seconds then the batter is liable to get hit in the head his next time up.

Let the players have fun. Baseball is slower paced and it does not help itself when the guys are supposed to act so joyless in their efforts.

 

[BC867]

Baseball is slower paced and it does not help itself when the guys are supposed to act so joyless in their efforts.

Baseball will be a quicker paced this season. But the onus is on the sponsors to have shorter commercial time between innings. And the Manager or Pitching Coach to sprint to the Pitchers mound for visits.

At least, MLB recognizes that the games were really dragging on. And they were already down to 2:54 last season. The average time of an NBA game seems to be a little over 2:30 (including the half-time break).

 

[Bert]

Baseball will be a quicker paced this season. But the onus is on the sponsors to have shorter commercial time between innings. And the Manager or Pitching Coach to sprint to the Pitchers mound for visits.



At least, MLB recognizes that the games were really dragging on. And they were already down to 2:54 last season. The average time of an NBA game seems to be a little over 2:30 (including the half-time break).

It won't work, games will still take 4 hours, I will personally see to it. ~Bruce Bocci


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bert]

Great example of this today. I was driving home from Payson and I did something I NEVER do, I listened to Bickley and MJ. I Only did it because I didn't get to see the game last night and I wanted to hear about the comeback....

So an hour into the show they have talked about Football for 40
Mins including a 10 minute love song to the 85 bears sung by Dickley, then they talked about the masters and Ofcourse Dickley plugged his band 15 times...

No coyotes no Dbacks yet you know, the teams actually playing right now lol. It is what it is...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Avondale Red Rage]

Great example of this today. I was driving home from Payson and I did something I NEVER do, I listened to Bickley and MJ. I Only did it because I didn't get to see the game last night and I wanted to hear about the comeback....

So an hour into the show they have talked about Football for 40
Mins including a 10 minute love song to the 85 bears sung by Dickley, then they talked about the masters and Ofcourse Dickley plugged his band 15 times...

No coyotes no Dbacks yet you know, the teams actually playing right now lol. It is what it is...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's like that everyday, unless there is a stadium controversy, or the vaunted starters cough up a few runs. Then one day Bickley started ragging on the fan apathy at the game. It's the Dbacks mother station and Bickleys band gets more air time.

It seems my radio listening habits have gone the way of trying to find news on the telly, keep switching channels until I find something of substance, which means I'm constantly changing channels.

 

[GatorAZ]

Great example of this today. I was driving home from Payson and I did something I NEVER do, I listened to Bickley and MJ. I Only did it because I didn't get to see the game last night and I wanted to hear about the comeback....

So an hour into the show they have talked about Football for 40
Mins including a 10 minute love song to the 85 bears sung by Dickley, then they talked about the masters and Ofcourse Dickley plugged his band 15 times...

No coyotes no Dbacks yet you know, the teams actually playing right now lol. It is what it is...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They talk Diamondbacks a lot. They interviewed TLR for a good 15 min on Friday.

 

[Bert]

They talk Diamondbacks a lot. They interviewed TLR for a good 15 min on Friday.

I was simply relaying my experience and in this case, they did not.

 

[unseenaz]

They have TLR, and Hall on weekly. Last week they had Gonzo, Williams, Pollock and Brandon Drury.

I do get major "Cardinal fatigue" listening to the 98.7 though. It's 85% of what they talk about.. in APRIL. It's a little out of hand