I'm going to get into trouble here with reading comprehension issues, but while watching the college WS, how can guys that play college baseball not hit at minimum, 325?
Here, let me dumb it down for you.
The overall national batting average for NCAA D1 in 2018 (the most recent year I could find) was .270. So anybody hitting above .270 was better than the average. This year, the median team batting average was also .270. So even six years apart, the batting average has stayed pretty consistent.
In other words, hitting .325 is substantially better than average, so that is how guys who play D1 baseball can't hit .325, minimum.
college baseball statistics, college baseball, batting average, statistics
d1sportsnet.com
Attendance was trending down. Then the steroid era hit. Home runs way up. Attendance exploded. Up nearly 20 million.
Baseball's steroid era is routinely defined as 1994-2004.
Here is the average attendance per game for MLB during those segments:
1974-1978: 16,946
1979-1983: 20,595
1984-1988: 23,211
1989-1993: 27,347
1994-1999: 28,097
2000-2004: 29,026
2005-2009: 31,484
2010-2014: 30,379
As you can see, the bold numbers are the steroid era. Going back to the previous 30 years, you see that the attendance was not "trending down." In fact, it was doing the complete opposite. Then, during the steroid era, attendance did not "explode." In fact, the attendance increase from the start of the steroid era was the lowest percent of increase compared to each five year segment going back at least 20 years (I'd guess even further than that).
So what you're claiming is not only wrong ("attendance was trending down"), but also completely misguided (steroid era "exploded" attendance).
League year-by-year totals for pitching, fielding, batting and team win totals.
www.baseball-reference.com
Steroid era ends and it starts to edge down a little. Not a lot. But a little.
Again, that is completely false. Let's look at the six years immediately after the steroid era:
2005-2009: 31,484
And as you can see again, the attendance for the five years immediately after the steroid era was substantially higher (compared to usual MLB percent increase) than the 10 years of the steroid era.
The time period around 09 you mentioned saw three straight years of decline.
That's only a half-truth, and it's because the years immediately prior to 2009 (years after the steroid era ended) saw big numbers.
2008: 32,382
2009: 30,218
2010: 30,066
2011: 30,228
2012: 30,806
So there wasn't a three straight year decline like you said. In fact, it stayed pretty flat for about eight years in a row. One would think that after the steroid bust in 2004 (early 2005 regarding the Congressional hearings), old-time baseball fans would give up on the sport. And I'm sure some did, which is why the growth that MLB saw for 60+ years flatlined. But there really wasn't a decline, and the short decline that happened was many years after the end of the steroid era.
Then the last couple of years it is heading back up.
That's because of two things:
1) Covid(2020 and 2021 seasons) wiped out attendance, so there was nowhere to go but up for the last couple of seasons.
2) MLB realized the sport was getting away from things that made it popular and fun: guys getting on base, bunting, stolen bases, etc. instead of just a strikeout, walk, or home run. So in order to bring fans back and make the game entertaining with more than just a SO/BB/HR, they manipulated the rules.
The entire point of why they did #2 was because they realized that the game had changed for the worse by getting away from people getting on base, moving them over/stealing, bunting, etc. Nobody wants to just see nothing but SO/BB/HR.
The fact that only 10 players in MLB are hitting at least .300 is abysmal. If you would have told fans that 20 years ago, they would have laughed at you. Hell, the '76 Reds, '96 Yankees, and '97 Mariners had five guys hit at least .300, yet all of baseball only has 10 currently.
As a fan who used to love baseball.
Then went away a little.
The recent changes have brought me back a little bit more.
Uhh, yeah. That's the entire point. The recent changes were to get away from just SO/BB/HR. It incentivized more getting on base, easier stolen bases, etc. That, in turn, will change focus to hitting for average instead of just power. That's why you came back, which is proving my point. The game had gotten away from that for 25 years.
. . . and you also came back because Marshall basketball, football, and baseball has been so bad, that you didn't get your fill of sports.
