Will Tigers Pony up for Skubal

[Shelton]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

well, i was mostly kidding.  to each their own with sports.  hockey is definitely more niche than baseball.

basketball is becoming more popular than baseball nowadays.

i could sit here and describe how soccer is the best sport to watch.  none of you would believe me but the rest of the world would...

::raises hand::

[Tiger337]

On 1/26/2026 at 6:35 PM, AlaskanTigersFan said:

I guess I wasn't really clear. I think with MLB players now making $60 mil/year and Hockey players maxing out at $10 mil per year, how do we get MLB to be reasonable? $25-35 mil is a lot of money and should be superstar per year money, but not $60. But how do we go back from this? 

 

2 million (or any big number you choose) would be "reasonable", but reasonable has nothing to do with it.  There is a ton of money flowing into the game.  Somebody has to get that money, so I think it's good that the players (who are the employees fans are paying to see) are getting a large share.   The only way to make it "reasonable" is for fans to stop going to games and purchasing tv packages.  

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

i could sit here and describe how soccer is the best sport to watch.  none of you would believe me but the rest of the world would...

I won’t argue against that, in terms of what the world prefers. But the fact that a 15-year-old is able to play in the Premier League—and not just as a one-shot Joe Nuxhall deal, but for multiple games while maintaining an active roster spot with the team at the top of the table—tells me everything I need to know about how difficult it is to earn a spot in the best soccer league in the world.

[Shelton]

4 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I won’t argue against that, in terms of what the world prefers. But the fact that a 15-year-old is able to play in the Premier League—and not just as a one-shot Joe Nuxhall deal, but for multiple games while maintaining an active roster spot with the team at the top of the table—tells me everything I need to know about how difficult it is to earn a spot in the best soccer league in the world.

Everything?

[gehringer_2]

16 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

 The only way to make it "reasonable" is for fans to stop going to games and purchasing tv packages. 

the latter has already happened to the degree we see the RSN's failing.

[Tiger337]

Remember the Superstars competition back in the 1970s?  Kyle Rote Jr dominated and the baseball players usually embarrassed themselves.  That tells me everything I need to know.  

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

Remember the Superstars competition back in the 1970s?  Kyle Rote Jr dominated and the baseball players usually embarrassed themselves.  That tells me everything I need to know.  

LOL - it's nice for baseball players to be athletic - it means they will run and field much better, but athleticism is only marginally connected to whether a guy can figure out where a baseball coming at him at 98mph is going so he can put his bat there.

Edited 2 hours ago by gehringer_2

[CMRivdogs]

3 hours ago, oblong said:

When I visit family in TN, even with the Predators, I'm amazing at how little hockey is prevalent.  I've been down there the last few Aprils at at parties at my cousin's house I always find a wings game b/c of the playoff pushes. They've never watched.  It really is a niche sport nationally, the contracts with TV networks confirm that.  In my own family we watched hockey over football.  It was hockey, baseball, and nascar.

That said, in Detroit for my lifetime I'd say the biggest captures of this town's attention for sports were the '97 Wings and the Lions of a few years ago.  Nothing topped those for broad appeal and intensity.

 

Hockey was a niche sport around here (especially near Roanoke and Norfolk, Va Beach in the '70s). The Eastern Hockey League team in Roanoke was a decent draw, when the league and it's successor folded not as much. I think it was more because it basically the only game in town outside of college football and basketball. Minor league baseball still has some appeal in the Valley as well.  

[Shinzaki]

Torres faded down the stretch because he was injured and playing through it

[buddha]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

I won’t argue against that, in terms of what the world prefers. But the fact that a 15-year-old is able to play in the Premier League—and not just as a one-shot Joe Nuxhall deal, but for multiple games while maintaining an active roster spot with the team at the top of the table—tells me everything I need to know about how difficult it is to earn a spot in the best soccer league in the world.

if you think that tells you everything i would question your curiosity.

i also question just how much you actually know about soccer

[gehringer_2]

3 minutes ago, buddha said:

if you think that tells you everything i would question your curiosity.

i also question just how much you actually know about soccer

My objection to soccer is purely philosophical. It's the fact that we have our arms available instead of tied to our locomotion with hands with opposable thumbs at their ends that makes us what we are. Any activity that denies the use of the arms strikes me as being somewhat sub-human.....😉

[lordstanley]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

Remember the Superstars competition back in the 1970s?  Kyle Rote Jr dominated and the baseball players usually embarrassed themselves.  That tells me everything I need to know.  

 

[Tiger337]

Quickest tug of war ever: 1976 Big Red Machine versus the Steel Curtain

 

[lordstanley]

2 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

Hockey was a niche sport around here (especially near Roanoke and Norfolk, Va Beach in the '70s). The Eastern Hockey League team in Roanoke was a decent draw, when the league and it's successor folded not as much. I think it was more because it basically the only game in town outside of college football and basketball. Minor league baseball still has some appeal in the Valley as well.  

There was an old line from Larry King or someone that went something like this: "There are 20,000 hockey fans in New York City and 18,000 of them go to MSG several times a year to watch the Rangers".