Baseball is Dying

[Frayed Knot]

And, of course, the whole baseball-is-dying narrative gets written by those who view things solely through the prism of national TV ratings. But baseball's strength isn't now, and never has been, network TV ratings. Sure, MLB would love to have what the NFL has: a huge flock who'll velcro themselves to their couch in front of any game--meaningful or not, involving the local team or not; if it's on TV they're watching it, no questions asked.
But in a lot of ways the NFL would like to have what MLB has: loyal audiences in more than two dozen cities (and many spots in between) where the audiences, smaller and more local they may be, tune in 162 times and where the teams themselves collect the revenues. Having network TV as your lifeblood has certainly worked out well for football, but it also makes them a slave to that source and some less-than-promising side-effects are starting to be felt as a result of that alliance: declining attendance, local TV blackouts, sky-box dependancy, last-minute game time switching solely at the whim of the networks, nighttime January playoff games, etc.