f*** everything.
I like Mike Milbury.
Its true. Only about 4 countries in the world even play baseball seriously.
f*** everything.
I like Mike Milbury.
Its true. Only about 4 countries in the world even play baseball seriously.
They play it seriously in Asia, the Caribbean and a few South American countries for sure. Not sure that I would put the numbers that low.
I should have said significant sporting countries. Apart from the USA, Mexico, Japan and South Korea, the only countries where baseball isn't a serious minority sport are ones like Panama and Taiwan, with little or no sporting pedigree, and with limited other sports. Ice Hockey is massive in Canada, Russia, Scandinavia, Czech Republic and Slovakia, and is growing in Germany & Switzerland. Most of those countries have major international sporting pedigree and either have big populations or big spending money per capita! MLB certainly has pretty low viewership in global terms.
MLB & NFL are massive in North America, but as global sports are low participation and fairly low audience wise. The NHL needs to become less insular and embrace its potential wider fanbase more (which to be fair, they have started doing). If MLS can drag the standard up to that of the major European Leagues, it will blow all the others out of the water globally.
From a european perspective, its always been amusing that the most popular sports in the USA are the ones that a relatively small number of other countries have more than a passing interest in. Basketball has the potential to grow globally, partly because its more star driven, and is equipment light. It also is the one which the US can claim to be dominant at on a global scale, because global participation is high enough to make it relevant.
Of course the NHL will always be up against in global terms because in countries without a lot of natural ice-rinks, its a fundamentally less accessible sport. I mean, where I grew up, Ice Hockey was simply not available unless you had MONEY.
Unless you only care about the wealthy country aspect.
Baseball is religion in Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico... Venezuela and Colombia have played at very high levels traditionally as well. All of those nations play soccer as well, though some certainly better than others. Canada also generally has some guys in MLB. I think in some of the countries you listed Handball might be as popular if not more popular than hockey. I love it and watch it every Olympics but I doubt many have heard of it over here. Volleyball is huge in several countries, it just you can find this argument in a lot of ways in my opinion.
I don't really expect the NHL to massively overtake some of the domestic leagues in the countries you just named. They aren't the most popular now in terms of several on that list.
I think hockey should do more to promote the game, I for sure agree there. I don't think you really need to tear into other sports to make an argument for hockey, I think it is done all too often frankly. I will even admit I used to do it myself, but that effort has faded. I have stopped watching baseball and basketball almost entirely, I still watch the occasional game but I simply don't have the time to follow them or really enough interest in their product. Football is somewhat easy because it is only at times where I am already off work and the seasons are shorter than the other sports, if only my team wasn't a ******* laughing stock...
If I want to put something on hockey, I think they should make efforts to consolidate their calendar on an international calendar. But that will be tough given the difference in games played. But ultimately that for me is the step you make if you want to court the international audience. It would be challenging, actually they have a chance to do it right now in terms of rethinking that, not that I think they will, but I would welcome that. I will watch hockey before any other sport so I guess I don't care where it falls on the calendar. I think having the league run on the international calendar and freeing people up for World Championships and Olympics would help the league.In particular I think getting to host the World Championships regularly might benefit the NA audience and help the game. I get why some owners don't want that and I will be clear they shouldn't without getting rights to the media and other significant chunks, but that to me is the answer. If they don't want to do it, Fine I am not offended that I follow a less popular sport than some of the others. To me other people are missing out and I am fine with that, the NHL isn't going to force their way above Soccer, F1 or some other sports in a global picture. Heck a huge part of NA hates expansion into Southern markets still and that has unequivocally helped the game and we still have nimrods talking about it like a bad thing every chance they can in certain cities and media outlets.
MLB cleared 9 billion in revenue last year to the NHL claiming 4.5 billion. That is still a pretty significant difference in terms of the bottom lines.
To the uninitiated viewer, baseball is going to look like a snoozefest of epic proportions. Basketball is not my thing, but at least it's dynamic. Football I can sort of get into, but it's kind of meh with too much down time. Hockey, on the other hand, was love at first sight. That's coming from a person who grew up with soccer and occasionally tennis and the Olympics. I got my dad into hockey, not the other way around lol.
I loved baseball as a kid.
I really don't understand watching games anymore.
Truth is, even as a kid, I spend half the game game waiting for my favorite players to get up to the plate.
The only time I really love being at ball games is when you have a truly great pitcher on the mound.
I saw Clemens strike out 20 at Tiger Stadium and it was a sight to see.
To the uninitiated viewer, baseball is going to look like a snoozefest of epic proportions. Basketball is not my thing, but at least it's dynamic. Football I can sort of get into, but it's kind of meh with too much down time. Hockey, on the other hand, was love at first sight. That's coming from a person who grew up with soccer and occasionally tennis and the Olympics. I got my dad into hockey, not the other way around lol.
Only time I really like baseball is in person with buddies. Have some peanuts and knock back a few cold ones. I still go to the odd minor game down here in Florida since all the teams have their minor league affiliates down here because of spring training. But I can't watch it on tv anymore for a whole game through, even when the Tigers come down and play the Rays, I find it might be on for a bit but I eventually wind up doing something else.
You know when I like baseball?
On the radio in my backyard when I doing work. It's just a nice backdrop.
Baseball is my favorite sport to watch in person, and it's not really even close. Hockey is my favorite on television. While I follow the Bears a bit, I don't at all get the fervent support that sport receives. Basketball is something I like having on in the background - something I don't need to see every trip down the court, but I don't mind checking in on once in awhile.
While I follow the Bears a bit, I don't at all get the fervent support that sport receives.
So, Buffalo is a mess. With them firing their GM and assistant GMs, have to wonder what sort of changes they are looking to make on the ice and how that might benefit Yzerman.
Not sure. They're kind of in a spot where they shouldn't be giving up the kinds of players Detroit would want from them.
They got a couple awful deals in Skinner (7 more years) and Okposo (3 more years).
Eichel is great. But Johansson is a 3C.
None of their top Cs are over 50 percent on faceoffs. Eichel is at 47. Johansson is at 40. Larsson's at 48.
Weird that the Sabres have quite a few high picks who washed out as centers and shifted to wing.
Johansson. Reinhart. Girgensons.
Is Mittlestadt next on that list?
On the other hand, talent-wise, they're not that far away.
They've got a lot of potential in their defense.
The obvious thing they're lacking is a veteran, solid #2 center, like, drumroll please, Ryan O'Reilly.
Their drafting, since 2010, isn't been very good either.
They've missed (Nylander, Mittelsdadt so far) on some top 10 picks and even some of their hits (Reinhart) could have been better (Draisaitl).
They've also floundered on some midround firsts - Grigroeno was a bust. Girgensons has never been that good. Armia made the show, but not in Buffalo.