Dear Editor:
To Brandon Foster/PRESSBOX Author: You and MLB commissioner/Rob Manfred are wrong in what will improve the game of baseball, by increasing the likelihood of more fans. Based on your support in shortening the MLB games, when you signed out of your article "Hurry Up" (Feb. 22 edition), it is clear your insight was lacking basic knowledge of supply and demand.
Anyone that has gone to a baseball game is always excited about the length of the game; especially if it goes into extra innings. I have sat at many a lunch room conversation that not once mentioned the length of game as a bad thing, (except on rare occasions when their team lost in extra innings.) More frequently we might discuss the cost of going to the game, and the cost of satisfying the hunger of our family members who got to come along.
I used to go to more games with my family. I enjoyed the longer games. I have not been to the stadium since the bleacher seats exceeded $8 per person. If you want to draw people back to baseball fandom; make it affordable for a parents to take all the kids to the same game, without having to sacrifice a vacation.
You will always have the upper class taking their family members; but the lower and middle class cannot afford the expense of parking; admission; concessions; and the return trip home at today's prices. Parents have been leaving the kids behind (sitter), limiting the seats available (via chore rewards / family lottery), or visiting less often. Without the kids, your fans are dying faster than you can replace them.
The last big strike your sport experienced has led to the decline in fan numbers. By not limiting the salaries of the players. the cost to those that sit in those seats have been increasing. You can confirm my suspicions by comparing the average age of the ballpark participants in 1975 to 2015, or any year in between.
A good reporter would research and print an article about the cost of going to the games; and, how it affects the youngest fans, before it affects the die hard fans of major league baseball.