One of the more encouraging aspects of baseball’s postseason is the signs that the game is beginning to loosen up, that the posse that polices decorum is giving into, or being overtaken by, the public’s appetite for personality and emotion.
Just in time for the 21st century, baseball has arrived.
Baseball has lagged behind basketball and football in popularity for a number of reasons, but primarily because the game is too buttoned down. In many ways, baseball has been the team version of golf.
This generation of young fans — the selfie generation of multiple interests and impatience — likes the raw emotion of sports, the exhilaration when players make the right play at the right time: celebrating a decisive home run, a timely base hit, a great defensive play, a rally-ending strikeout.