It’s no secret Major League Baseball has had a rough go of it lately. As the facilitator for the sport that was once considered “America’s pastime” before we all wised up and realized football was way cooler, MLB isn’t doing itself any favors amid the young 2024 season.
Most teams are only nine games in to this 162-game slog. Trust, though, that this here is worth covering amid the waking slumber that glazes over baseball from Opening Day and shortly thereafter through to the All-Star break.
Wayne Randazzo is the Los Angeles Angels’ — team name translation: The Angels Angels — play-by-play announcer. Poor guy has only been with the Angels since January 2023, and already seems to have reached his breaking point with not just the perpetually floundering franchise he covers, but the entirety of MLB.
In an instant-classic rant, Randazzo delivers a succinct summary of all the woes plaguing baseball at the minute. From ex-Angel Shohei Ohtani’s gambling scandal, to the “fiasco” he describes the Oakland A’s to be, to the recent controversy about frequent pitcher injuries that has the players’ association challenging the pitch clock rule, there’s a lot of territory covered.
What really chapped Randazzo’s a** (and rightfully so) was MLB eviscerating what should be a rare positive storyline for the Angels, when they decided more than week later to retroactively end first baseman Nolan Schanuel’s on-base streak with a scoring change. You’re gonna want to read/hear this bit in particular:
“You have a young player trying to make a name for himself, who has come up and reached base safely in every single game that he has played, and the league allows this scoring change.
To go on to end his streak, kill this story — a positive story that’s happening in Major League Baseball — it is an absurdity.”
Here’s the fuller context of the change to Schanuel’s would-be infield single that should’ve extended the streak, which meanwhile, the 22-year-old rising star extended for an additional six games.
Not to be a David Downer, but yeah, there’s evidently a reason — nay, myriad reasons — why most casual sports fans in the U.S. and even those of us who grew up playing or liking baseball won’t even take a passing interest in MLB for the vast majority of its marathon season. The league is poorly run. The struggle to effectively market its biggest stars is baffling. Very few people save for the most diehard of baseball lovers have the attention span to consistently care for 162 games before the playoffs get underway. Having a one-game playoff to decide who advances after 162 games is absurd on its face, too.
Hey MLBPA, here’s a novel f*cking idea: Instead of complaining about the pitch clock, how about, you know, playing fewer games so that pitchers don’t have to overexert themselves for such a feloniously long period of time before games truly matter.
Or just keep doing your thing, MLB. I’m sure all is well and dandy. Wayne Randazzo is a champ for laying all the issues out in plain view like this. What a speech.
Since the Angels let Ohtani get away, let’s pray that they finally free Mike Trout from baseball purgatory by trading him before the deadline (whatever distant date that is, who cares). Trout is a generational player. I can’t believe he’s turning 33 in August already. Where does the time go? He has absolutely nothing to show for his career beyond individual accolades. What a damn shame. All due respect to the young man, I don’t think Nolan Schanuel will be enough to save Trout from the Angels’ ineptitude.
