Would you say that the NBA and MLB are less popular now than they were 10 or 15 years ago?

[manly]

MLB that's a huge problem, like I get it's a game of fractions of fractions so you just have to have all these attempts to pan out, but every time they say oh such and such team is behind, I'm like what only 134 games left in the season, OH NOOOO.

NBA is similar but they are under 100 games, but they are now trying to fix the "resting starters" nonsense finally, but that was always another knock.

I think that is another reason, besides just the violent nature of the NFL that fans love, short of one team DOMINATING the entire season, every game matters for teams trying to make the playoffs. No team is ever going to sit a healthy starter short of having their seeding locked up.

By culture/routine, MLB is a 6 days a week sport. Economics aside, they just wouldn't consider cutting a season down to 120ish games. And even if they did, that's still 120 games I wouldn't be watching.

NBA isn't an everyday game, and the product improves a lot when players get adequate rest between games (compare the cadence of playoffs to regular season scheduling). Ideally they'd pare the regular season back to about 70 games, but nobody wants to lose the revenue.

I didn't grow up as a big football fan, and it's still not my favorite sport. But as you noted, every game has leverage and importance (even if not for playoffs, but for job prospects). This weekend is chock-full of interesting games, even though I'm not invested in the specific teams that are playing.

 

[spacejamz]

Crowd estimates of the Texas Ranger parade today were 500-700K....still going through my shots but here is a shot I got of the World Series MVP (with the trophy on the roof of the truck)...

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

I think the NBA would be more interesting if they went back to a division focused standings model like you see with the other leagues. Create two divisions in each conference and focus on geographic proximity. Have those teams in each conference play each other more often, and have them play a 2-3 game series rather than one at a time. Conference winner seeded like MLB or NFL. That would make it more interesting. Right now being in a specific division in the NBA really has no meaning.

That's an interesting idea. Though watching the same teams to me is tiring. The NFL is the worst about it. The TV schedule means your either watching your team play a division opponent or watching your division play somebody else.