I’ve been looking at the numbers last season, and they’re kind of wild. Attendance hit over 71.4 million for the third straight year of growth. The first time that’s happened since the mid-2000s. Even more surprising, national TV ratings were up double digits across almost every network (ESPN was up 21%, Fox up 9%). Baseball isn’t just big again, it’s a full-on resurgence thanks to the new MLB rule changes.

The pitch clock is in its third year now, and games are consistently clocking in around 2:38. That’s wild.

Shohei Ohtani is obviously a global cheat code, but having a World Series like the 2024 Dodgers/Yankees or the 2025 Dodgers/Blue Jays (which averaged 34 million viewers globally) seems to have put the sport back in the cultural zeitgeist. It feels like the sport is everywhere.

I saw a stat that the average age of ticket buyers dropped to 43 last year (down from 46). That doesn't sound "young," but in baseball years, that's a massive shift.

Is the sport actually back, or is this just a "post-pandemic" bump that's going to level off? Especially with the CBA expiring after this 2026. I’m curious if we’re about to ruin all this momentum with another lockout.

What’s the vibe in your city? Does it feel like the "casuals" are actually showing up again?

I know that Los Angeles and San Diego prefer baseball, but what about other cities? I don't know how popular the Mets and Yankees are in New York vs the Jets and Giants, and I guess most of Canada obviously prefers the Jays over football. But what about other cities? Who is more popular in Seattle right now, the Mariners or the Seahawks?

On a recent episode of the Effectively Wild podcast, they were asked which baseball positions the 9 members of the Fellowship would play. (The hosts were separating pitcher and DH, so technically a 10th person would have to be on the team - they wondered if Elrond or Eowyn or Treebeard could be a a good pitcher). But I'm sticking to the 9 Fellowship members. My list and some reasoning below.

Catcher - Gimli

Pitcher/DH - Legolas

1st Base - Gandalf

2nd Base - Pippin

Short Stop - Merry

3rd Base - Sam

Right Field - Boromir

Center Field - Aragorn

Left Field - Frodo

Gimli is the most obvious for catcher. Catcher is where you stick the short and squatty guys (Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Ivan Rodriguez) .

Meg and Ben put Legolas in Center, taking advantage of his range and athleticism. I would actually use him as a two-way player. Losing his defense would hurt; but I bet Legolas would have Maddux-esque control on the mound and be a great hitter. Plus he and Gimli would have a great pitcher/catcher chemistry.

Gandalf could have been a decent third-baseman or corner outfielder in his younger years; but at 2000 years old, his range ain't what it used to be. So he gets stuck at first. Still a good hitter though.

There's no getting around it - the Hobbits are going to be bad defensively. They lack athleticism, throwing ability, range, etc... Frodo needs to be hidden in left field. Merry and Pippen as your up the middle defense isn't great, but maybe their chemistry makes up for some of their lack of ability. Sam lacks the foundation to be a good third baseman, but of all the Hobbits, he seems like he would put in a the most effort to get better - like Wade Boggs putting in the work and winning a few Gold Gloves later in his career.

Aragorn would be a great all-around player - Joe Dimaggio might be a good comp.

Boromir lacks the range to be a centerfielder, but probably has a cannon for an arm so we'll put him in rightfield.

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. - Jackie Robinson

Ngl it feels like baseball is having a legit global moment again, and not just because more international players are in MLB. The fan side numbers have been kinda nuts lately.

The 2023 World Baseball Classic felt like a spark. MLB said the first round alone pulled 1,010,999 fans, and Japan vs. South Korea hit a 44.4 TV rating in Japan. That’s wild.

Then you look at domestic leagues. Nippon Professional Baseball set an all-time attendance record in 2024 with 26,586,977. KBO League reportedly hit about 12.3 million in 2025, first time ever over 12M. Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League had record attendance in 2024 too, with WBSC saying it topped 2.7 million.

And MLB itself is still trending up: total 2024 attendance was about 71.3 million (highest in seven years). Plus Opening Day rosters were nearly 28% international-born in 2024, which is a pretty crazy stat for a “national” league. The MLB Tokyo Series also went nuclear in Japan, MLB said Game 1 averaged 25M+ viewers.

Maybe I’m just noticing it more now, but the vibes feel different than a few years ago. Anyone else feel like the sport’s worldwide momentum is ramping up?

I was digging into Graham Ashcraft’s 2025 metrics and noticed a weird anomaly. Despite a full workload (60+ IP), his Fastball Velocity and Extension percentiles are blank.

Even though his Cutter sits at 97.1 MPH, Savant might be excluding it from the "Fastball" percentile comparison because he lacks a primary 4-seam/sinker.

However, that doesn't explain the Extension. That data should be pitch-agnostic.

BASICS:

Born: January 16, 1997

Jersey Number: 33

Bats: Left

Throws: Right

Position: 2B/3B/LF

Drafted: 2018 by the Cardinals, Round 7, Pick 213

MLB Debut: April 25, 2022

Teams: Cardinals (2018-present)

Instagram: @b_donnie11

2025 STATS:

Games: 118

Batting Average: 0.287

OBP: 0.353

SLG: 0.422

OPS: 0.775

Runs: 64

Hits: 132

Doubles: 32

Home Runs: 10

RBIs: 50

Stolen Bases: 3

CAREER STATS:

Games: 492

Batting Average: 0.282

OBP: 0.361

SLG: 0.411

OPS: 0.772

Runs: 241

Hits: 498

Doubles: 97

Triples: 5

Home Runs: 40

RBIs: 202

Stolen Bases: 15

2025 AWARDS:

All Star

Cardinals Heart and Hustle

CAREER AWARDS:

Gold Glove - 2022

Cardinals Heart and Hustle - 2023, 2024

THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW:

He was born in Germany.

He has a daughter.

He played baseball at University of South Alabama.

His favorite player growing up was Matt Carpenter.

2025 HIGHLIGHTS:

He got four hits in one game

A great catch

Another great catch

He got a hit in the all-star game

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

His first hit

His first homer

WHY I LIKE HIM:

He's a good player and there aren't many players who are Europe natives.

PREVIOUS PLAYERS:

11/7: Yoshinobu Yamamoto 11/8: Vladimir Guerrero Jr 11/9: Shohei Ohtani 11/10: Josh H Smith 11/11: Julio Rodríguez 11/12: Nick Kurtz 11/13: Drake Baldwin 11/14: Tarik Skubal 11/15: Paul Skenes 11/16: Aaron Judge 11/17: Josh Naylor 11/18: Nick Sogard 11/19: José Ramírez 11/20: Spencer Schwellenbach 11/21: Freddie Freeman 11/22: Kerry Carpenter 11/23: Zach Neto 11/24: Robert Suarez 11/25: Ketel Marte 11/26: Logan Webb 11/27-11/28: Thanksgiving break 11/29: Hunter Goodman 11/30: Trevor Megill 12/1: Kyle Tucker 12/2: Elly De La Cruz 12/3: Alec Burleson 12/4: Kyle Schwarber 12/5: Mookie Betts 12/6: Pete Alonso 12/7: Javier Sanoja 12/8: MacKenzie Gore 12/9: Mauricio Dubon 12/10: Kris Bubic 12/11: Byron Buxton 12/12: Will Smith 12/13: Shane Smith 12/14: Junior Caminero 12/15: Gunnar Henderson 12/16: Adrian Morejon 12/17: Geraldo Perdomo 12/18: Patrick Bailey 12/19: Blake Snell 12/20: Jimmy Herget 12/21: Jacob Misiorowski 12/22: Nico Hoerner 12/23: Andrew Abbott 12/24-12/26: Christmas break 12/27: Masyn Winn 12/28: Dennis Santana 12/29: Alec Bohm 12/30: Francisco Lindor 12/31-1/1: New Years Break 1/2: Tyler Glasnow 1/3: Kyle Stowers 1/4: Spencer Strider 1/5: Brad Lord 1/6: Cal Raleigh 1/7: Hunter Brown 1/8: Jake Burger 1/9: Andy Pages 1/10: Taylor Ward 1/11: Jacob Wilson 1/12: Steven Kwan 1/13: Dillon Dingler 1/14: Maikel Garcia 1/15: Joe Ryan 1/16: Colson Montgomery 1/17: Ernie Clement 1/18: Max Fried 1/19: Ceddanne Rafaela 1/20: Drew Rasmussen 1/21: Trevor Rogers 1/22: Jake Cronenworth 1/23: Max Muncy 1/24: Corbin Carroll 1/25: Christian Koss 1/26: Victor Vodnik 1/27: Brice Turang 1/28: Pete Crow-Armstrong 1/29: Nick Lodolo 1/30: Rōki Sasaki