Banning the shift isn't the answer to MLB's drop in attendance and scoring
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At a time when attendance across baseball is in a steep decline, everyone around the sport wants solutions. Quite often, the finger is pointed at a lack of scoring and limited entertainment for fans.According to Baseball Reference, the league-wide batting aveBanning the shift isn't the answer to MLB's drop in attendance and scoring
At a time when attendance across baseball is in a steep decline, everyone around the sport wants solutions. Quite often, the finger is pointed at a lack of scoring and limited entertainment for fans.According to Baseball Reference, the league-wide batting average in 2018 is .245. It would be the first time since 1972 the league hit sub.-250 in a season. Additionally, MLB’s 4.35 runs per game is down from last season.Those numbers are concerning for fans who love to see a lot of runs on the scoreboard. It’s a big reason why there are calls for the league to limit shifts in baseball or ban them altogether. People in support of outlawing the shift want the game to go back to how it used to be played.It’s an interesting request. A closer look at the numbers shows things aren’t all that different across the history of baseball. Yes, runs are down by 0.3 runs per game from last season and gone are the days when MLB averaged five-plus runs per game.Yet from 1963-1976, MLB’s average runs per game consistently sat sub Read more