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NEWS > SPORTS > FOR SOME REASON BASEBALL SPRING TRAINING BEGINS
FOR SOME REASON BASEBALL SPRING TRAINING BEGINS
February 16 2010
Mesa, AZ – For more than a century Baseball has been one of the most beloved sports in the United States. The growth of the sport from a regional hobby to an international sport has been one of the more remarkable success stories in American 
history. With leagues in South America, Japan, Korea, and hosts of other nations that sport that America built stands alongside other great exports such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola as one the greatest contributions to global culture ever created by the United States.
Of course, at home the sport has taken a beating, at least amongst professionals. Steroids, out of control egos, and a financial set-up that allows only a handful of teams to succeed have all contributed to an erosion of faith in the sport that, in its purest form, is one of the most innocent of games. With cities like Kansas City, Milwaukee, and San Diego likely to never see a championship and only occasionally seeing a winning season, much of the love that Americans once held for the sport has largely died out in those areas. The rise in popularity of other sports such as 
basketball, football, and auto racing has also shifted the attention from America’s past time. Despite that, the league intends to push on and will play a full season this year just as they have so many times before.
“Spring training is a special thing. It sets the tone for a championship season. We're going to concentrate on our baseball team winning as many games as possible, and that'll be enough to keep everybody satisfied this summer,” said Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella, whose team hasn’t won a championship since 1908. “We have a really strong team this year and I’m sure we will be able to get back to our winning ways. As far as my personal situation goes, it should not be and will not be a focus, and will not be a hindrance to the success of the team.”
Piniella, one of the winningest managers in the history of the league, was not asked about his tenure with the team and it’s believed even Cubs fans are only marginally interested.
“A team like the Cubs are a great example of where baseball has gone. It is one of the
few teams in the league that has seen very little erosion of their fan base. They play in a wealthy city, they should really have won a championship or two over the last hundred years but have not. Despite that, fans still show up,” said Scrape TV Sports analyst Mark Marvins. “That is one of the odd things about baseball. A team like Kansas City for example plays in a lower income area, has no star players, and really no chance but enough people still show up to support them. It’s as people don’t realize that if they keep showing up, the teams will keep playing and we end up with this spring training thing every year.”
The Seattle Mariners, Piniella’s former team, owned by super wealthy company Nintendo, has never even played in World Series but continues to field teams year after year.
“We have been going through a recession which is leaving people without homes yet still we see teams like this continuing to play season in and season out as though nothing ever affects them. It’s really a strange situation and is something totally unique to baseball,” continued Marvins. “Leagues like the NHL prop up their teams, but the MLB has somehow managed to continue to draw revenue from those handfuls of people that actually go to the games. I’m sure many other companies would like the same type of business model. Oh well, here we go again. Play ball I guess.”
The San Francisco Giants, who haven’t won a championship since 1954 despite having all-time home run leader Barry Bonds for fourteen years, have integrated fan indifference into their games by placing cardboard cutouts in empty seats.
Alexi Orton, Sports Correspondent
NEWS > SPORTS > FOR SOME REASON BASEBALL SPRING TRAINING BEGINS
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