The PBL Roundup Show Finale: Why We Love Baseball

The final edition of the PBL Roundup Show with hosts Thom Brennaman, Joe List, and Bill
Bavasi was centered around why people love baseball. The hosts talked about how their families
raised them to love the sport, and how they have many great memories with the game.

A video montage was put together with various people from actors to current players chiming on
why they love the game. Comedian Sal Vulcano spoke about being a Yankees fan, while current
players Quincy Jones and Jayson Newman talked about loving competition and forming a bond
with their teammates. Rafael Alvarez, the writer of the show “The Wire” spoke about how
baseball was an essential part of his upbringing, and trumpeter Marvin McFadden talked about
how almost every kid in his neighborhood grew up playing baseball.

MLB ballpark architect Janet Marie Smith joined the show, not only to talk about her love of the
game, but to talk about the various projects she’s worked on over the years. Currently, Smith is
the Senior Vice President of Planning and Development for the Los Angeles Dodgers. She spoke
about working on the building of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and the renovation of Fenway
Park that took place between 2002 and 2009. Smith said the Fenway project was especially
important because it helped restore and improve a historic ballpark that people were concerned
about.

Syracuse scholar Mathias Altman-Kurosaki put together a presentation on the popularity of
baseball, which featured a breakdown of attendance numbers and World Series TV ratings.
Attendance has fluctuated a bit over the past decade and World Series ratings took a significant
hit during the shortened 2020 season, but Bavasi pointed out that MLB is setting new highs in
revenue. Altman-Kurosaki noted that the average ticket price in MLB is up to $35.93 and game
times reached an all-time high in 2021, which makes it tough to attract the sport to a younger
audience. He also provided a look around the PBL as the playoffs get set to begin.

Bob Fontaine Jr. from The Baseball Bureau Scout School provided this week’s scouting tip of
the week, which was about baseball instincts. Fontaine mentioned that this isn’t something that
shows in the box score or in advanced analytics, but it’s very important that a player is always
thinking about what the right thing to do is.

The show featured the final segment of “Who’s on Durst?” with Will Durst talking about the
World Series. Durst spoke about some of his favorite memories of watching the World Series,
from the Milwaukee Braves beating the Yankees in 1957, to the earthquake series in 1989.