The Josh Innes Show - Baseball Continues To Kill Itself

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Will we see MLB realignment? Do we want to see MLB realignment? I have one thing that is a major pet peeve regarding baseball... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So I don't talk a lot about baseball anymore because I find baseball to be boring. And maybe when the postseason comes around, it'll change. I'm sure it will. I'm sure I'll do podcasts about the Astros and decisions the manager makes and all that kind of shit. But I've grown bored with baseball. The game itself bores me. I was in St. Louis for two and a half years. I thought I would have loved it because one of the reasons I chose to work in St. Louis, because I had options.

I mean, I could have stayed and made nice money in Nashville, which was a wonderful place to live, where I was the face of a radio station. But part of the reason why I went to St. Louis is I thought, well, I'll be here forever. I can go to all the Cardinals games, and it will be great. And then I got there, and they sucked, and I realized I kind of hate baseball. And baseball's done it to itself. I just think the game has gotten more boring and less interesting. It's interesting, actually, too.

Let me play a couple commercials. We'll get these out of the way early here, and we'll get moving. Here's a couple commercials. I was having a back-and-forth with somebody about this. on Twitter the other day, a guy that's a media dude in St. Louis and a couple other people that were all pissed off because I said that I think eventually the Cardinals are going to leave St. Louis City and they're going to move to St. Louis County. And if you're not from that area, that sounds ridiculous, like what does that mean? Well, the county and the city are two

separate entities. So when you see statistics about like murder rates and crime rates for St. Louis, well, the number is very high because it just involves St. Louis City. If you combine in St. Louis City and St. Louis County, the numbers are far more normal or whatever like you'd see in any city, right? But that's not the case in St. Louis where St. Louis County is its own entity, and that's where all the suburbs are, and St. Louis City is its own entity. So when I say that the St. Louis Cardinals will eventually move to St. Louis County, I think that means that they'll probably move out to one of the suburbs of St. Louis. There aren't a ton of great ones, but they'd probably move out to one. And I'm not saying they're going to do that tomorrow, but we've had that

discussion on here before that I think a lot of teams are going to leave cities when they build their next stadium. The Cardinals are what in their 20th season now or their 19th season at the New Bush Stadium. They're not going to leave that stadium tomorrow, but 15 to 20 years from now when that stadium's 35, 40 years old, they might. And I think they will. And I think a lot of teams are going to do that. Teams that build new ballparks here in the last 20 years aren't leaving tomorrow, but I think eventually they will. And part of the thing people were angry with me with and we're fighting with me on Twitter, is I said that people don't want to go see the Cardinals and go downtown because downtown St. Louis is a shithole.

And their argument was, well, it's always been a shithole, but people went to the games when we won. And that's fair, right? I think there's some level of fairness to that that winning and winning the right way, and by the right way, I mean, a way that will attract people and get them excited, I do think that's an important part of it. And if they were a solid franchise, I don't think they'd have attendance numbers where they have them now, which are just embarrassing.

I mean, it is awful, awful to watch because nobody's there. And I was going back and forth with a guy about this talking about baseball and what can be done because I have just lost my passion for baseball. And again, part of that was because of the Cardinals being terrible while I was there. But part of my passion has gone away because the game revolves around hard hit ball rates and exit VLOs and VLO and it's just not as much fun to me. the stolen base, while not as scarce as it may have been a couple years ago, the stolen base isn't as prevalent and speed isn't involved. Look, if you've listened to this podcast for any amount of time and any of its iterations, you know how I feel about baseball and things that would make baseball more exciting.

And one of them would be getting the base runners back in the game. And that's why eliminating the overshift was great for me because I think that it gives you a chance to get more base runners and that becomes more fun and action equals excitement. But one of the things that I think has actually been to the detriment of baseball in terms of getting people into the stands is the pitch clock and the shortening of games. If you're at home, I understand why a two-hour baseball game is appealing, right? It's 7 o'clock at night, first pitch 705, whatever, 7-10, and a two-hour ball game that's done by 9, 915 is pretty good. Like, you'll take that. And for the at-home viewing, it's perfect.

It's like soccer. Soccer fits into a perfect little window and then it's over. Football fits basically into a perfect little window. Pro football, particularly, college you never know. But pro football is basically going to fit into that little three-hour window and you know what you're getting. Part of the appeal of attending a baseball game is that it's a social event and you like to kind of loiter around. You like to wander around the ballpark for an inning. You wait in line for a hot dog here.

You go get a beer here. You talk with your buddy here. That's part of the appeal of baseball is that you know when you go to a baseball game, you're getting a night out. now you're in a situation where if you're a little later you're stuck in traffic you get there it's already the third inning by you know 730 725 it's already the same amount for tickets the same amount for beer the same amount for food but you're getting less time at the ballpark and I think that that's a factor that bothers people because it is an investment like football is once a week you go down there you tailgate if you choose to do that you have a good time and that's that like that's football baseball baseball a night in, night out thing. There might be seven to nine consecutive days that they're playing home baseball games. So for you to make the commitment to do that, let's take Houston. I would use St. Louis, but let's just use Houston. Let's say you live in the woodlands. Now, Houston's obviously not hurting for attendance, St. Louis is. So this is kind of moot for them, but let's just

say the Astros were like the Cardinals falling off a cliff, bad ownership, or the people hate the ownership, general managers on the way out. Let's say that's the case. If you live out in the woodlands or you live out in Pearland or you live out in a taska cedar, you live out in Humble, you live out in Sugar Land, you live out in Katie, wherever it is you might live. And you know that you have to make a commitment to get out there. So you're going to drive 35, 40 minutes, battle traffic, pay $20 to park, pay another $20 for two beers, if that.

I mean, that might be more. I mean, I paid like $18 for a can of beer there once. So, like, you're spending all this money. And then you sit down and you're getting like, in some cases, an hour or. and 45 minutes of entertainment. Now, that is the rare cases, but let's say you're getting two hours to 205 of entertainment. Do you really want to do all that and invest all that money and your time and your gas and your cash to sit around for two hours at a baseball game when historically used to spend two, 45 to three hours in there, and it was kind of a loitering

pace. Like there was a slower pace and you could just kind of loiter in a baseball game. I do think that hurts baseball. I think that's to the detriment. Great for TV. And that's where Most of your viewership will be anyway, so you're playing for TV. But going to ball games is a pain in the ass when you live in a major city and you have to commute and you have to get there and then you get off of work, then you have to go pick up the kids, then you get stuck in traffic, then you have to park, you have to pay to park, you have to invest all this money in it, and then they're giving you less of a product when you're in there. I think that is a negative. I didn't think the pitch clock and everything would bother me as much as it does, but it does, and I was wrong. Like, is it nice that there's a pitch clock and the game moves faster? sure and for TV it's fine but there have been ball games I've gone to and I'll look up and I'm like it's already the fifth fucking inning we've been here 45 minutes like we're not getting I don't think when you go to a baseball game you are now getting the bang for your buck because like look you'd be better off going to a movie you know a movie might cost you a ton more than it used to but you go to a movie you can drive to one that's right around the corner from your house everyone's house has a movie theater somewhere you know five minutes away why would you want to drive 40 minutes down to the

ballpark to spend the amount of time you'd be spending at a movie. But why do I bring this up today? Because I think baseball has done a very bad job, and baseball is eating itself. You hear stories about how they want to implement a salary cap, which I think would be good. And even if not a salary cap, a salary floor would be very good. Like, make teams spend money. I can make an argument that a salary floor would be actually better and more beneficial than a salary cap. Like, in a way, you'd say, why would you punish these teams that have a ton of cash by putting a cap on what they can spend?

put a floor on it and make teams have to spend money. Now, the argument could also be made. The teams would just hit this salary cap floor by paying shitty players more money. Like, it doesn't mean they'd go out and find better players. They'd just be forced to spend money on dudes. Like, that is not a guarantee. Just like having a salary cap is not a guarantee that it would make things more competitive. Having a salary floor doesn't mean the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to go out and get better players

because they have to spend money. They can just spend more money on shitty players. It doesn't mean they're evaluating the right talent. doesn't mean they're signing the right guys, right? So, who knows that that would work? But I do think a salary floor would be helpful and beneficial. But then I was seeing a story this morning about possibility of realignment with baseball and one of these sites kind of mapped out how they thought that would be.

They would want to do a regional type of realignment, right? And that's just another thing that just, why? Why would you want to do that? I don't see the benefit in that. And part of what Rob Manfred is saying is, well, it'll help with baseball, broadcast because you'll get, you know, more games that make more sense time-wise. You won't end up with so many playoff games where it's like the Yankees versus the A's and the two time zones don't make sense.

And like, you think that's what's hurting your numbers? Like, it's not fixing a problem. It's acknowledging there's a problem, but you're not actually fixing it. You keep doing the wrong shit. Like, I don't know, like, I don't know that baseball can do anything that would ever get it to the point where it would be. be a truly dominant sport again, but I don't know that anything other than football can. Like, not to be dire here or dower or dire and dower.

Baseball is what it is. Baseball has the most freakish, wacky athlete out there now, a dude that can pitch and hit and do well at a very high clip. Nobody gives a shit. You know, it's like, I don't know what baseball can do. When was the last time that baseball was truly atop the national zeitgeist? McGuire Sosa, like even bonds breaking their records, it was already like, no, it's kind of old hat, been there, done that.

You know, like, it felt like McGuire Sosa was the heat of the Monday Night Wars and wrestling. And then, like, it lasted that year. And then eventually someone else kind of did the same shit. And you're like, I've already seen this. Like, oh, look, there's a broad panty match again. I've already seen the broad panty match. I don't need the brawn panty match.

It was cool when we did it. It's cool when, you know, Stacey Keebler's in a wedding dress match or whatever. But that was four years ago and who cares. Like, even the Barry Bonds, like, no, I bet most people that are real baseball fans can tell you who gave up McGuire's number 62, Steve Traxell on September 8th, 1998. I bet you a lot of people could tell you that. I could not tell you who gave up the Bond's 73rd home run or the 71st home run or the 73rd. And I can't tell you who gave up his Hank Aaron record breaking home running. I can't tell you any of that.

Because by that time, I think people were already kind of over it. It had its moment. It brought baseball back for a while with McGuire and Sosa. McGuire and Sosa ain't walking through that door. So I don't know what baseball can do. I guess you've got to give them credit for continuing to try, and you've got to give them credit for continuing to try different things and maybe innovate. But I just don't think this sport is conducive to major success.

The game itself is not conducive to big-time success in this era. And I think all of these leagues are going to deal with that except football. is the golden goose. It can't be fucked up, particularly the NFL. I think college is fucking with itself real good. Because I'm a die hard LSU college football, love college football. And there were long stretches that I loved college football more than I actually love the NFL. But I think college is really kicking itself in the balls too. And I know that if you say this, people shit on you and they think you're, I mean, they'll go so far as to call you a racist or they'll say, oh, there's the white guy that wants to keep black kids from getting money and wouldn't you take more money? I'm all about being able to move and go to a different school. I just think they do it the wrong way when guys are bouncing from school to school chasing a paycheck every year. I don't think that teaches you anything about life. It doesn't teach you anything about having responsibility. It doesn't teach you anything about commitment.

And I think 15 years down the road, I think you'll look at that. And I think you'll regret it because financially, nobody's making enough money as a college football player transferring or a college basketball player transferring to be set for. life. You're 18 and let's say you make $4 million over the course of your college career or you get one big bag that's, you know, $500,000, which I get it. It's sexy. $500,000 ain't going to do you anything for the rest of your life unless you invest it and do something smart and who's to say these guys are doing that. But as a fan, like going back to baseball, like I have a hard time engaging and watching baseball games because the sport just bores me now. Look, I watch the Tigers and the Tigers are going to be in the playoffs, and that's great.

And I like going to play off baseball games, but I don't watch it as intently as I used to. And maybe things change. Maybe we've changed as people. I don't know. But college football, I loved. Loved college football. And now I watch these guys. It's not that they're getting paid.

They've always gotten paid in some way, so it's never bothered me. It's more so than anything. When I see USC playing a Big Ten schedule, to me, that's just death-neousy. for college football. Once you really destroyed the regionality of it, once you really took a gun to the head of the idea that here's the West Coast, and we have a loyalty to the West Coast, and then here's the SEC,

and everybody's kind of got their own niche, and everybody's got their own corner of the world, and everybody's loyal to that corner of the world, and you feel like it's us versus them, once you started throwing, once you have a league that has Rutgers and USC in the same league, or Rutgers and UCLA in the same league, you're talking thousands of miles away,

it's dead to me. Like, I love LSU, and I want them to win, and I'm buying merch online. I hope they win the national title because I love them. I love the city of Baton Rouge. I love Louisiana. I love all that shit. But my same passion doesn't exist like it used to. It's not the same for me anymore.

It doesn't pop the way it used to, and a large part of that is how I think they've ruined the game. I think NIL has been good for the players. I think it's bad for the overall product. I think part of what makes any sport great is you feel a commitment. commitment to the guys that are there, and part of that comes with that time they spend there. Like, C.J. Stroud, back to C.J. Stroud from the previous episode, where we talked about how people are all pissed off that he wore a Mariners hat. Well, you're going to have time to feel a

commitment to C.J. Stroud, because C.J. Stroud's going to be there five, six years, presumably. He's your guy. Let's say you're, I'm in, I'm in Michigan. I'm 45 minutes away from Ann Arbor. They just paid Bryce Underwood, right? Do we really believe that Bryce Underwood will spend his entire college career in Michigan? What if he struggles early this year, wants to move on and go somewhere else? What if someone looks at the bag he's already making here and decides to pay him more? Do we really believe that Bryce Underwood spends four years or three years at Michigan? No.

Everybody's a mercenary. Everybody's a hired gun. And that's hurt me for that. That's hurt my enjoyment of college football. I love college football. It just feels different to me. I'll watch the shit out of it and I'll bet on it and it'll be all well and good, but it just doesn't the same to me anymore and it just feels dirty or like it feels it somehow feels

ickier than it did that's an industry term icky it somehow feels itkier than it did when guys were being paid under the table when there were rules and the people were breaking those rules this feels dirtier than that it feels itkier than that and i think we all want to believe that since we're loyal to a school that we've been loyal to our whole lives that there are dudes that want to come play there and they want to be loyal to it for three or four years as well we well and they just don't they're loyal to the green and it gives them short-term gratification but at the end of the day like 19 year old dude makes 400 grand what are you going to do for the next 60 years of your life you know and maybe you'll go play pro anyway maybe I mean I'm sure there'll be examples of

that but there'll be other examples of guys that took 400,000 dollars 30 you know 100000 whatever they took to go play somewhere because they're good college players and then they're going to be used car salesman you know so I don't know Just my enjoyment of overall sport has been impacting, going back to the idea of realignment. There is something to be said about advancing things and making things more modern and current, but there's also something to be said about stability that people enjoy. When you have to keep changing things over and over because you're afraid of what, you know, losing audience, as you evolve or die, right?

And in some instances, that's right. But I don't think that's always what's right. I don't think you always have to, certain things you do not need to evolve. Like, I don't believe, like, as we talked about before, I think it would be, beautiful if the NFL would implement instead of an on-side kick, having to pick up a 20-yard pass for a first down. Like, I think that'd be beautiful. That's something that would benefit the game.

I think the dynamic kickoff is something that's benefited the game. I think that the extra point being moved back has benefited the game. Evolver die. Realigning the divisions in baseball is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I don't think that does anything. All right, more to come.