The Sports Grouch

Ihave a confession. You may not know it by looking at me. But I’m a member of a dwindling, maybe soon to become extinct minority group.

Yep. I’m a baseball fan.

There are fewer and fewer of us these days. And Major League Baseball isn’t making it any easier for us ... or our grandchildren.

On a school night let them stay up until midnight to watch the MLB playoffs and World Series? You gotta be kidding. Their mothers will not allow it. And most old walruses like me are nodding off by the 3rd inning.

For anyone involved in what was once the great American pastime, this is suicide. If kids can’t stay up to watch the playoffs starting on TV in Lexington County until after 8 pm, how are they going to build fan loyalty among the next generation? That could determine their future.

A bummer

Take former Sports Ilustrated writer Joanna Cohen.

Joanna and her daughter Bee, age 9, are diehard New York Yankee fans.

They’re fired up to watch the playoffs but the starting times for postseason are late on the East Coast. Yet most games and the World Series will start after 8 pm.

“That’s a bummer for any fan who has to get up early to go to work, but baseball should be concerned about kids,” Joanna said.

The average viewer of nationally televised major-league games rose from age 52 in 2000 to age 57 in 2016. That’s among the oldest in professional sports.

And only 7% of the audience is under 18.

Magnificent obsession

This year, Joanna and Bee went to more than a dozen major-league games.

They traveled to Wrigley Field, Fenway Park and the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Bee has baseball books, baseball cards, jerseys and caps. Joanna taught her how to keep score and their fellow fans at Yankee Stadium taught her about the visiting players’ mamas.

Joanna tells Bee about covering baseball for Sports Illustrated, especially the Yankees’ 1996 season.

“Her eyes light up when I tell her about interviewing Derek Jeter, flying out of my seat to find the 12-year-old who reached over the fence to catch a ball Jeter hit,” she said, “and being in Atlanta when Jim Leyritz hit the home run that turned the World Series around.”

It’s not enough

The league tried to fix the problem by proposing rule changes, allowing intentional walks without pitches and capping time between pitches. But that won’t prevent games that start at 8 pm from ending long after kids’ bedtimes ... and mine.

Starting playoff games an hour earlier would make a big difference for kids and us old walruses. Never mind us. If baseball can’t build loyalty with kids, its survival looks pretty gloomy.

The Sports Grouch welcomes emails at ChronicleSports@yahoo.com .