Baseball had a golden opportunity. A captive audience with literally no where to go, nothing else to do. But instead of capitalizing on that opportunity and giving an emotional lift to a country sorely in need of one they struck out. Swung and missed as they squabbled over how much money they would play for and in the process did irreparable harm to the game’s reputation. When and if baseball ever returns, perhaps some time in 2021 at this rate, it will likely return to far less fans.
Of course, the die-hard fans will still be there. Those who came back after the 1994 strike will likely return once again. But everyone else? The younger fans who baseball already had a hard time connecting with as they bemoaned the glacial pace of play? Those fans will likely never come back. Unless of course there was a new way to appeal to them? A way to engage them, even during a pandemic. Especially, during a pandemic. And I think I may know such a way. An interactive card game, modeled after Magic: The Gathering, that would make baseball cards pale in comparison.
Full disclosure: I’ve never played Magic: The Gathering or Dungeons & Dragons. Shocking I know. But I’m familiar with the general concept. With the idea of drawing cards imbued with certain abilities and then strategically playing your hand to inflict damage on your opponents in order to complete your quest. Or something to that effect. And so what I want to do is keep that same general concept but instead of drawing cards based on wizards, goblins, monsters, and dragons you’d be drawing baseball cards based on hitters, pitchers, and fielders. Except that on the back of each card, where a player’s statistics normally appear, would be their new found Sci-Fi abilities.
Since Mike Trout is the best player in the game his card would be the best card, capable of inflicting the most damage. A close second would be the card for Shohei Ohtani, a rare two way player who is a both an ace pitcher and a top level hitter. Other star players would have cards that play to their strengths. For example, the card for Aaron Judge will be off the charts in the power category. Meanwhile there would be cards for every possible skill set from flame throwing relievers and crafty leftys who help you get out of jams to five tool players who do a little bit of everything.
There would even be cards for managers who help you strategize, scouts who help you find new items that you need, trainers who help restore your player’s to full health, evil umpires who throw players out of the game and even the Evil Empire itself – The New York Yankees organization. Stadiums could have cards. As could owners, mascot, super fans, and retired Hall of Famers. Anything and everything even remotely connected to our national pastime from a hot dog vendor to a scoreboard operator to a groundskeeper could be fair game. Which would mean that of course, the Avenging Agent Scott Boras would be represented as well, with untold powers to wreck havoc on the structure of the game itself.
Sounds awesome, right?! To give you an idea of what these cards would actually look like check out the Topps Gypsy Queen series. These cards already look more like Tarot Cards than Baseball Cards:
Could Baseball: The Gathering really save baseball? Bring it back from the brink after a series of self inflicted wounds? Make a younger generation care about it even though Rob Manfred and the owners have made it perfectly clear that they don’t really care about the fans? I’m not sure. The horse may already be out of the barn. But it sure would be fun to try and find out. And at this point, things can’t get much worse.
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