MLB says Yankees’ new “torpedo bats” are legal and likely coming

Good. Baseball isn't a serious spectator sport. It's only interesting to statisticians. Now there will be more work for them to do, adjusting for bat type in addition to stadium dimensions, rule changes, etc. to compare players across eras. And more HRs might make it a little more interesting to spectators as long as the OBP doesn't increase to prolong an already too long game.

> Good. Baseball isn't a serious spectator sport. It's only interesting to statisticians

What makes a spectator sport "serious"?

The average MLB game had almost 30,000 spectators in the 2024 season[1]. That's a lot of statisticians.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2024/10/01/mlb-atten...

You can put a basketball game on anywhere in the world, and people will watch it, even if they haven't watched basketball before. People only watch baseball out of tradition. MLB didn't even have a play clock until 2023, letting batters step out of the box at whim and create even longer periods with no action.

> You can put a basketball game on anywhere in the world, and people will watch it, even if they haven't watched basketball before

What the heck is this confident assertion based on?

From showing basketball to people who haven't watched a basketball game before.

But what if I have watched basketball and I don't watch it. Basketball is a boring game until there's 5 minutes left.