Is it any wonder that football has long surpassed baseball as America's pastime? In the last twenty years, ratings for Major League Baseball on TV have plummeted 66%. MLB's "Game of the Week" gets a wimpy 2.5 rating/6 share vs. what an NFL games gets (10.5/22)-- and even then, the broadcast is suspended in the face of competition from college football. Furthermore, the largest event of the baseball season-- the World Series-- grabbed only a 8.4 rating/14 share last season. Compare that with the whopping 41.6/62 pulled down by the Steelers/Cardinals face off.
And it should be obvious why Americans have shown such disdain for baseball-- steroids. The MLB players' union fought tooth and nail against true, random, verifiable drug testing over the years-- and now scandal and fan indifference is what they have gotten in return.
The sports' biggest names have been implicated in taking steroids and other performance-enhancing substances-- Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Grimsley, Jose Guillen, Barry Bonds, Ken Caminiti, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and now Alex Rodriguez.
On top of all that, the players' union (and to some extent, the owners) refuse to adopt a meaningful revenue sharing and salary cap system-- so if steroid use doesn't kill baseball off, ticket prices surely will.
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