Russillo & Kanell was without its most fashion-forward member on Thursday afternoon, paving the way for what has become an albatross: a compelling segment on Major League Baseball broadcast over the national radio airwaves.
Ryen Russillo opined on the misguided attempt to “fix baseball” with gimmicks and alterations all in the interest of appealing to people who simply don’t care for the sport.
“If you don’t like baseball now, what could they possibly do to make you like in the future?” he asked. “Shorter games? Okay, just start watching in the sixth inning. Shorter season, you say? Okay, just start watching in the summer. If you don’t like the sport now, why would less of it make you watch more?”
Russillo laid out the challenges facing baseball but then did what few others do. He pointed out other sports are as well and that his brethren in sports-talk radio may have been missing the point for years.
“The only baseball topic I can guarantee you’re going to hear all season is “what can it do to survive?” We should be asking that of all sports and all television properties. But let’s stop asking the people who aren’t interested– that aren’t actually baseball fans–what baseball needs to do to fix itself.”
This is the sentiment I’ve been trying to convey for years with less eloquence. Arguing that baseball is different from other sports and thus shouldn’t have to conform to mirror them isn’t some outrageous opinion. It’s not as if every other league has the future all figured out.
Russillo, like The Big Lead, is in the eyeballs and earholes business. Day-to-day baseball talk is not going to set the page-view counter or a switchboard ablaze. And that’s fine. There are ways to talk about it outside of donning a surgical mask and trying to cure all its problems.
