Hopes Are Tied To The 2022 Season
Today, one of our authors shares some personal thoughts on expectations associated with the past couple of pandemic-altered seasons and the impending season (hopefully) to come.
IBWAA members love to write about baseball. So much so, we've decided to create our own newsletter about it! Subscribe to Here's the Pitch to expand your love of baseball, discover new voices, and support independent writing. Original content six days a week, straight to your inbox and straight from the hearts of baseball fans.
Pregame Pepper - Cast Your Vote For The 2022 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards
The finalists have been announced for the 2022 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards, which will recognize baseball researchers who have completed the best work of original analysis or commentary during the preceding calendar year.
Nominations were solicited by representatives from SABR, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs, and your very own IBWAA. Here are the finalists for the 2022 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards:
Contemporary Baseball Analysis
Rob Arthur, “Better Defense Is Costing MLB Thousands of Hits,” Baseball Prospectus, June 4, 2021.
Ben Clemens, “Goldilocks and the Three Bunts,” FanGraphs, June 7, 2021.
Karen Gallagher, Scott N. Brooks, Ra Lofton, Luke Brenneman, “Field Studies: MLB Manager Hiring Criteria and Career Pathways from 2010-19.” Global Sport Institute, October 5, 2021.
Cameron Grove, “Some Games are Harder to Umpire Than Others,” Baseball Prospectus, September 17, 2021.
Eno Sarris, “What is ‘seam-shifted wake’ and which pitchers benefit most from it?,” The Athletic, January 21, 2021.
Contemporary Baseball Commentary
Michael Ajeto, “Major League Baseball Has an Assimilation Problem,” Baseball Prospectus, October 22, 2021.
Stephanie Apstein and Alex Prewitt, “This Should Be the Biggest Scandal in Sports,” Sports Illustrated, June 4, 2021.
Brittany Ghiroli, “Cockroaches, car camping, poverty wages: Why are minor-leaguers living in squalor?” The Athletic, August 5, 2021.
Craig Goldstein and Patrick Dubuque, “We Need a Restrictor Plate for Pitching,” Baseball Prospectus, May 25, 2021.
Robert O’Connell, “Minor League Baseball is Designed to Exploit,” Defector, September 8, 2021.
Historical Baseball Analysis/Commentary
Bruce Allardice, “Runs, Runs, and More Runs: Pre-Professional Baseball, By the Numbers,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2021.
Emma Baccellieri, “Deadening the Baseball? MLB’s Done It Before,” Sports Illustrated, February 9, 2021.
RJ McDaniel, “Baseball on the Radio, 100 Years Later,” FanGraphs, March 10, 2021.
Lou Moore, “Major League Baseball Had a Chance to Stop the Drain of Black Players From Baseball. It Didn’t.” Global Sport Institute, October 6, 2021.
Andrea Williams, “ ‘We Have No Right to Destroy Them’,” New York Times, April 14, 2021.
More details and criteria for each category can be found here. Only one work per author was considered as a finalist.
Click here to vote at IBWAA.com/sabr-voting. Voting is open through Friday, February 11.
Leading Off
Dear Baseball, Don’t Make The Mistake Of Making My Child Cry
By Sean Millerick
Two years ago this month, the moment individual tickets went on sale, I pounced at the chance to buy tickets to the Memorial Day game between the Washington Nationals and the Miami Marlins. This was partly about stadium chasing, partly about any excuse to watch my Marlins, but mostly, this was about taking my little girl to her first baseball game. Not even two years old, I knew of course she’d never remember any of it, except maybe the fireworks. I’d remember though and sharing baseball with her was one of the things I’d been looking forward to most as a parent.
Obviously, that trip never happened. Three weeks later, the world had been engulfed by the pandemic, and it was anyone’s guess if there would even be a baseball season. Once baseball did resume, fans were barred, and there was zero chance my kid was going anywhere near a stadium anyway.
Last season, I made it to a few games, but still had no interest in unnecessarily exposing my daughter to that many people. Still too much uncertainty. Especially for someone that a vaccine didn’t exist for and would probably be touching about a thousand more things and people than I was planning to that day. Next year though, I told myself. Next year would be the right time.
This is why my wife and I felt completely safe telling her last month that she was going to do just that. Coming down off the high of Christmas morning, she had taken to asking about all the other holidays. Basically, to find out how long it would take for the next Christmas to happen, and when she and her baby sister would get more things. The fact that everyone in the house had a birthday before then went over well, and the fact that what Daddy wanted for his birthday was to take everyone to a baseball game left her ecstatic. We’ll be in San Francisco, and so will the Marlins. She was first told this twenty-one days ago. I have since been reminded twenty-one times that we’re going to a baseball game.
The game in question is the first week of April. Which brings us to the problem that with each passing day this shortsighted lockout continues, it’s becoming more and more likely that MLB is going to make my child cry.
For years, MLB has complained about declining viewership and attendance. About an inability to connect with the younger generation. However, there is a real opportunity to change some of that in 2022. Lacking any kind of background in epidemiology, this is by no means a proclamation that the pandemic has ended. Far from it. However, there’s evidence that the current wave has peaked, and that this spring could find the country in the best position it has been since all of this began. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Certainly more light than there has been the previous two seasons. Between an increase in vaccinations, and admittedly an increase in pandemic fatigue, families project to be venturing out in a big way this year.
Now for my three-year-old, I know that the coolest parts of going to the ballpark will be things like bright colors, food, and merchandise. I can easily pivot to a zoo, a mall. If push comes to shove, a Super Walmart. But what about the countless children that are just a bit older, the ones that were promised that first game back in 2020? Whether someone’s first trip to the ballpark is on the table or just the first trip since 2019, millions of baseball families are likely very excited about having an as normal as possible experience watching their favorite team this year. In-person.
And make no mistake, that in-person experience is essential to falling in love with America’s pastime. Football and basketball are fun to take in live to be sure, but they have also become made for television in a way baseball hasn’t. With all due respect to pitch trackers and Statcast, baseball is at its best when you can take in the whole field of play from the stands. It’s just as much about the small moments between the pitch- everything from chatting with another fan to watching an outfielder subtly shifting their position based on who comes to the plate.
So even with concerns over inflation, supply chains, and yes, still over Covid, there’s really very little reason to believe attendance won’t surge in 2022. That is unless MLB is foolish enough to create some reasons of their own.
Losing games now would be far costlier than the games lost in 2020. Back then fans weren’t buying tickets anyway. Back then, at least on the players’ part, it was easier to believe that safety was a big concern. This time though, it’s unabashedly about money. This time around, fans who have been dreaming for years of taking in spring training, home openers, and checking off new ballparks are having to drag their feet on booking flights and accommodations. Having to wait to buy tickets. It won’t be too long before they start making other plans. As well as losing their patience. It won’t take much of a push for fans to do some talking with their wallets.
Two years ago, MLB blew a golden opportunity to be the first sport to return from Covid shutdowns. This year, thanks to the lockout, they’re on track to blow an even more critical one. As for myself? I’m a decided character, likely to take whatever abuse the league dishes out. Something probably true of millions of other parents that have watched baseball for decades. We’re already hooked.
Our kids though? Plenty of faster, hipper stuff out there to catch their attention. So, for the kids’ sake, and the sake of baseball’s future, take some advice MLB. Don’t be stupid enough to make them cry.
Sean Millerick is a diehard Miami Marlins fan but still finds cause for hope every Spring Training. He currently writes for CallToThePen. You can find him on Twitter @miasportsminute.
