Wait, baseball may not be dying, you guys

Craig Calcaterra

Jul 3, 2014, 4:00 PM EDT

Everyone tells me that baseball is dying, and then I go and read stuff like this from Maury Brown at Forbes:

Major League Baseball got some good news on the financial front ahead of their All-Star Game, when credit benchmark company Fitch Ratings reaffirmed baseball’s ‘A’ status on the league’s $500 million senior secured credit facility. Fitch also affirmed the ‘A’ rating on the outstanding $995.85 million term notes the league is carrying. They rate MLB as “stable”.

While fans have looked at declining television ratings for Major League Baseball at the national level, baseball continues to be a financial juggernaut, and Fitch honed in on that.

As Brown notes, all of the things people say about baseball — that the national ratings suck, that the demographics make the Republican Party membership look young, hip and vibrant and that the sport somehow no longer occupies a favored place in the national consciousness — the fundamentals of the sport are still strong. It’s profitable, its TV deals are lucrative and attendance continues to be strong.

This is probably one of those deals, we’ll be told sometime soon, where the numbers don’t tell us everything and that, really, in every way that matters, the sport is indeed doomed. Wait for it. You know it’ll come.

Baseball is dying, you guys

Craig Calcaterra

Jun 30, 2014, 1:30 PM EDT

As we observed last week, it’s not enough to note that the World Cup is getting great ratings and is generating a lot of passion and excitement. Or that, generally, soccer continues to grow in the United States. We must turn it into a zero-sum game and observe all of this in the context of baseball’s long-discussed demise (note: the discussion began in the 19th century).

The latest to provide a eulogy — or, technically speaking, a terminal diagnosis: Frank Fitzpatrick of the Philly Inquirer:

Baseball’s been a lifelong companion. But the old game is looking a little frail, and I worry about its future.

I can’t easily express any specific concerns. The worries my gut sense haven’t yet reached my head.

Something doesn’t feel right.

It’s like that moment we first noticed our parents’ mortality. Maybe it was nothing more than an incongruous comment, a faraway look in their eyes, or an uncertain step, but whatever it was, we instinctively knew nothing would ever be the same again.

Of course, all of that is leadup to a discussion of the World Cup. Which while it is wrongheaded and insulting about baseball, manages to insult the World Cup as well by not discussing it on its own terms as opposed to in terms of baseball’s alleged demise.

Then again, the author refers to a game involving “the Florida Marlins” from just last week, so maybe we’re not dealing with a guy who knows a whole hell of a lot about anything.

Mets Pitchers: Hitting Is Hard, You Guys

Pitchers Don’t Usually Hit Well, but Mets Hurlers Go Into Their Next Series a Dismal 0-for-41 at the Plate So Far

Jared Diamond

Biography

April 28, 2014 8:24 p.m. ET

Bartolo Colon has 10 hits in 17 major-league seasons. Associated Press

On March 22, in the sixth inning of a spring-training game against the Miami Marlins, Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon slapped a grounder into left field for a single. The crowd at Roger Dean Stadium erupted into a standing ovation, reacting to the sight of the 285-pound Colon waddling to first base.

As it turns out, Colon deserved every last bit of that applause. They didn’t know it, but the fans in attendance that day witnessed one of the rarest sights in all of baseball: a hit off the bat of a Met pitcher.

Mets pitchers will enter this week’s series against the Philadelphia Phillies with a combined batting line of 0-for-41, a historic stretch of offensive ineptitude for a team that ranks last in the National League in hits (185), batting average (.218) and slugging percentage (.318).

Since at least 1974—as far back as Stats LLC tracks such curiosities—no pitching staff has opened a season with a longer stretch of futility. The Atlanta Braves’ pitchers started 0-for-39 in 2008 and 2011, setting the previous standard. There is, of course, a decent chance that the Mets’ hitless streak to open 2014 is the worst of all time.

In fairness, nobody expects much production from the pitcher. Many of them would just as soon play by American League rules and cede their place in the lineup to a designated hitter. But even the weakest-hitting hurlers manage to bloop a ball over the shortstop’s head or roll one past the first baseman every once in a while, even if by dumb luck.

“I’m sure we’ll eventually get one,” said Jon Niese, who leads the team’s starting pitchers with a career .164 batting average. “Law of averages, right?”

Perhaps. But who knows how long it will take, and how many rallies it will kill. The Mets’ rotation is one of the best in the league at throwing the baseball, but it doesn’t inspire much confidence when it comes to hitting it.

Colon, who starts Wednesday, hasn’t gotten a regular-season hit since June 10, 2005, and he has 10—total—in 17 major-league seasons. This season, his exploits at the plate have become an Internet sensation, with videos emerging online every time he bats. On April 19 against the Braves, when he swung (and missed) so hard that his batting helmet flew clear off his head, thousands of GIFs were born.

Colon, however, looks like Mike Trout next to the Mets’ fifth starter, Jenrry Mejia, who got his one career hit four years ago. Since then, he’s gone 0-for-26 with 14 strikeouts.

The Mets’ best hope is probably Niese, who pitches Tuesday. He has established himself as a competent hitter, batting .205 last season and .218 the year before. He’s also among the Mets’ stronger candidates for a hit in any situation: Curtis Granderson, Chris Young, Ruben Tejada and Eric Young Jr.—four starting position players who are paid to hit, not pitch—are hitting a combined .182 this season.

Niese is 0-for-3 so far this year, but he has walked three times. “Five hundred on-base,” Niese said of his average. “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to pitch to me, either.”

The pitchers joke about the situation, but they recognize that their struggles are hurting the Mets. Every National League team has a spot in the lineup that is close to an automatic out. Entering Monday, pitchers across baseball were hitting .132. But the Mets have six spots in the lineup from which they have received little to no production—catcher Travis d’Arnaud (.219 batting average), Eric Young (.216), Tejada (.200), Chris Young (.194), Granderson (.129) and the pitcher (.000)—making their 14-11 record thus far all the more improbable.

Mets pitchers have already left 47 runners on base, which ranks fifth in baseball. Meanwhile, every other squad in the National League, and even two in the American League, has received at least one hit from a pitcher. And those hits do matter: Three of the top four NL teams in pitcher batting average last season—Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Atlanta—made the playoffs. That could just be a coincidence, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

“We need a hit,” Mets pitcher Zack Wheeler said. “We need to get on the board.”