Sophomores Mikey Jarrell, Wiley Spears and Matt Glatt, who also broadcast Bowdoin sports live for WBOR and have a weekly radio show, muse on sports at Bowdoin and beyond.
Mikey Jarrell (while watching the Mariners vs. Astros Spring Training game): Baseball has become really exciting over the past few years, huh guys?
Matt Glatt: I'd rather be watching Cougar Town.
Wiley Spears: Okay, for one, this is a spring training game, and, for another, it's probably the worst teams in baseball squaring off. What did you expect?
MJ: Baseball is on the decline. All Americans care about these days is excitement. Face it, Wiley: Since the steroid era of the early 2000's ended, games are lower scoring and baseball has lost its vigor.
MG: With sports like NASCAR and Major League Soccer heating up, who needs baseball anymore?
WS: I think Americans have grown too NFL-obsessed.
MJ: Of course they have, and with good reason. There are violent collisions on every single play! Baseball's most exciting play—the homerun—only lasts about five seconds and happens twice a game if we're lucky.
WS: Baseball is still America's pastime. Also, it looks like baseball is actually growing internationally. The World Baseball Classic created an opportunity for the entire globe to showcase their best baseball talent, and over 28 percent of all Major League Baseball players were born outside the US.
MG: There is a reason why baseball isn't played in the Olympics anymore, and the World Baseball Classic is about as popular as express dinner.
WS: You can't argue with baseball's long and storied history. Also, attendance was over 25,000 per game for 19 of the 30 MLB teams in 2011. That doesn't sound like a dying sport to me.
MJ: What I think is a more telling number is the World Series TV rating. In the '90s, not a single game one of the World Series had less than 20 million viewers. But since 2001, that has only happened twice. If people aren't watching baseball's most important and exciting games, it's doomed.
MG: Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love baseball. But I think a lot of people watch baseball because football and basketball aren't in season in the summer. If it was played any other time of the year, I think it would be in trouble.
MJ: I predict that Major League Baseball will have the lowest television ratings of any professional sport by 2030.
MG: Whoa whoa, Mikey! Save it for our No-Fail Predictions of the Week! Speaking of which...
MJ: Ozzie Guillen will be fired before the end of the season.
WS: Are we really going to let that baseball failure prediction stand? Fine. I predict that Mikey will break the world-record for terrible predictions.
MG: Stoned Clown will play Frisbee sectionals this week completely sober. Ninety percent of readers will laugh while watching "Best of Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole" on YouTube.
Tune in to the columnists' show, "Mike and Wiley in the Morning," from 2 to 3 p.m. on Wednesday afternoons on WBOR 91.1 FM and wbor.org.