The World Series is over and my team from North Texas won it all! The Texas Rangers won their first title in franchise history so I applaud them. Winning is what winners do and because the Rangers put in place a winning manager and management team they were destined to win sooner rather than later. The Dallas Cowboys also operate from Arlington, Texas but they have a very different history after a 30-year drought of any title. Winning always starts at the top, it does not begin at the bottom or the lowest level of any organization. If your owners insist on placing themselves in positions they are not qualified for such as owner Jerry Jones has, insisting he’s General Manager material you end up with the kind of result the Cowboys have faced for 30 years or so. Thus winning does not trickle up, it trickles down from the very top of any organization.

I just heard this morning that this World Series, 2023, had the smallest television audience rating on record. It’s no doubt that from all the playoff contenders this season, both the Rangers and the Diamondbacks were the least likely to reach the World Series to represent the American and National leagues. So there’s that, however, I think there’s something else to the story and it has zero to do with the popularity of any specific baseball franchise. Here’s the way I see things, sure if the Rangers keep winning they may grow an audience that expands a little bit beyond North Texas but that’s not the problem here for Major League Baseball in my humble opinion. Let’s go back in time to try and understand what is happening that baseball audiences are shrinking out there. When I was younger I was more of a baseball fan than I am now or have been for a couple decades. So what happened?

Well, for one thing, the World Series [for years and years] always took place the first week in October so the World Series was decided a month earlier than it is today. Now they’re going into November of the year. I’ve seen baseball players having to wear winter clothes depending on where they had to play. Baseball players used to be known as the “Boys of Summer”, but no more. Remember that? This is wrong, way wrong to be playing a Summer sport when Fall football is well underway. The Major League Baseball season is too long – no sport requires 162 games to determine who’s the best, or which team will dominate out there. What happens when you host 162 games? Game outcomes prior to the playoffs become meaningless, after all there’s too many of them to matter. Shortening the baseball season by 30-35 games is a great solution. The first games to cut out are these meaningless regular season match-ups between American and National Leagues teams. So now we have National League teams playing American League teams way before any playoff begins? Who gives a flying f*k which team wins these games? This is a total waste of schedule! What fans want to see if how their team matches up against the rivals in their own division and their own league, that’s what’s important to the fan. Playing a team outside their league prior to the World Series is absolutely meaningless!

The next issue is that MLB is now going pay per view. That’s right, they want you to pay them directly for watching their 162 season long games. Ridiculous! Not going to happen in my home. I don’t care, again there’s 162 games over a period of six full months.

MLB can stop the loss of viewership in a few ways by adopting a “Less is More” strategy:
– Reduce the baseball regular season schedule by 30-35 games, instead of 162 games the regular season would be 130 games, which is plenty!
– Eliminate any regular season match between American League and National League teams, otherwise the mystique of the World Series is destroyed.
– Bring back the World Series schedule to begin no later than October 1st, no November baseball!
– Televise regular season games for free again, as pay-per-view only will greatly reduce your viewership!