Via Darren Rovell via SportsBusiness Journal and Daily, the 2011 MLB All-Star game set a record low, having just 11 million people tune in. The previous low for the game was set in 2010.
It's got to be worrisome for baseball to see numbers like this. Especially during a sports landscape where literally nothing else is going on. Well, "literally" probably isn't a fair word. We did have the Women's World Cup and the ESPYs build up, but other than those things? Literally nothing else was going on.
I was going to go into a section of bold headlines of my idea for baseball fixes, but honestly, baseball just isn't worth my time. It probably boils down to a few things. Oh damn it, I'm about to do it anyway.
1) Speed of the game: They've got to speed up things. The game needs to adapt to the 2011 multi-tasker speed generation. It just moves too slow now. It's probably the biggest threat.
2) Star power: Hard to get up for the game when the players don't. It's an easy thing to say, but sometimes the obvious answer is the right one.
Other than those two simple fixes? ESPN's Bill Simmons weighed in yesterday, with the ultimate idea.
Sounds about perfect to me.
Bobby Loesch is the associate editor of the Chicago sports blog Tremendous Upside Potential and a daily contributor to SB Nation Chicago. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.