Jan 4, 2020
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A Baby Boomer Looks into “The 20s”…
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Baby Boomer = anyone born between The 40s and mid-60s. It is an “attitude” as much as it is a birth date.
For about 75% of you reading this, The 2020s will be a unique decade. The Last Decade many of us might be around. YIKES!
Actuarially speaking… many of us have reached that age where the phrase “but he/she was so young” will NOT be included in our eulogies. We’re not “playing with house money” YET but another 10 years … well, who knows.
Three members of my high school class (’65) have diagnosed Alzheimers. The first one scared the bejeebers outta me several years ago. The most recent two convinced me I better get started on a more lasting legacy than “He nicknamed Carol Folt ‘Chancellor Chihuahua’ and asked “Did Carolina Marry A Stripper?”. … OK, there were all those incredible commentaries about “growing up in a small town” … “being a dad” … and, of course, “Pretty DownEast Women”.
Not to diminish those lofty achievements but do they guarantee me a first ballot induction in the Internet Hall of SmartAlecks?
A Shout-out to those BLBuddies who are well into octogenarianism and the special few who are sailing beyond even that channel marker. Continued Fair Winds & Smooth Seas My Well-Seasoned Friends!
The reason for this allusion to The Grim Reaper relative to today’s topic IS…
After 60+ years as The Darlings of Madison Avenue / America’s All-Time Consumer Targets … we ain’t any more.
What ever-decreasing number of us left are more into “downsizing” than “consumering”. I’m down to four pair of jeans… three pair of Dockers… and one navy blue “Funeral Suit”. My goal is no more than 20 hangars in my closet.
We Boomers still have opinions as Right /Wrong as they ever have been… BUT the Gen Zs and Gen Xers and those Millennials aren’t paying us the rapt attention they oughta. We didn’t pay attention to our elders either but there were so gosh darn many of us BBoomers we overwhelmed’em.
Two Factors I predict will dominate the Decade of The 20s are…
- Our on-going generational irrelevance as BBoomers. “Old Man Used-to” is approaching the 18th green.
- Technology… there are no indication that “technology” intends to slow down. How we receive information and how we impart it is headed towards Sci-Fi levels. Issac Asimov and Ray Bradbury saw our future. A “technology generation” is about 18 months now. It WILL speed up…. 2001 A Space Odyssey was 19 years ago. Orwell’s 1984 was 36 years ago. YIKES!
- There is always that Third Factor … End of Days / Rapture / Apocalypse / Armageddon / A Rogue Asteroid / etc. I COULD drop a few socio-political what-ifs in here, but I’m not gonna. You’re welcome.
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Predictions for Sports in general…
More and More options for everyone’s discretionary time and $$$. But still only 24 hours in a day.
The Internet / Social Media influence in Sports will grow like malignant kudzu. Several dozen leather-lunged howler monkeys raging away in ALLCAPS will continue to scare ADs and Trustees into costly knee-jerk decisions. The rampant incivility among Hated Rivals will get scarier as The Great Unhinged feed off of “fan-site porn”.
“Most” fans are still solid citizens who can recite The Golden Rule and sincerely try to follow IT in their daily lives.
Alas, the Lunatic Fringe, which is in every fan base (except Wheaton’s!), is growing more Lunaticy (?) by the game. Removing the CapsLock key on their keyboards MIGHT help, but I doubt it. This is all predicted in Revelation By John. I forget the specific chapter.
Spectator “interest” might stay at current levels but how that interest manifests itself is ever-changing. No one is going to be expanding stadiums or arenas. How many ways can the experience be delivered?
I will watch 140+ baseball games for the 4th year in a row… without “going to” a single game. My personal disdain for NFL and NBA is not the tip of any iceberg but neither am I alone in my choices.
Salaries in Pro Sports will keep escalating… until the owners writing the big checks don’t have $$$ in the bank to cover them. TV Contracts will be a bigger bigger % of sports revenues. Those will downsize ONLY if fans in significant numbers stop watching or streaming or whatever …
Sports Betting will become easily accessible 24/7 to every fan. IMO… Anything that fuels human frailties / addictions tends to have negative impact on society. I can’t do anything about it. … sigh.
Sports Journalism will descend deeper and deeper into “woke”. Whatever that is. There ARE legitimate issues when 300,000,000 people try to co-exist. But holier-than-thou pinheads employed by failing media platforms are more of “a problem” than “a solution”.
Pro Soccer – for men at least – is finally getting a foothold across America only 50 years after Kyle Rote Jr and the Cosmos. Another option for spectators eyes and time.
The Future of Women’s Sports ?? The foolishness with transgenders is going to piss in that punch bowl before too long. What A Mess!
NOTE: I do not say the following just to be provocative …
The LGBTQ is THE Most Formidable Minority Activist Group EVER in America. Much more so than the Civil Rights Activists ever were. The LGBTQs are heavily financed, deeply entrenched and utterly ruthless in pursuit of their objective – To Turn American Society Upside Down. Potty-mouthed Soccer Lesbians are just one aspect of their overall strategy. … as a fan of Chaos, THIS is gonna be a Category-5 Humdinger.
Football … is in for a sea-change. Participation in Youth Football is declining each year due to safety concerns and “many other options” for youth participation. “Pop Warner” feeds the high schools which feed the colleges which feed The NFL. … Most of you don’t know this… BUT …
There is a very real problem with finding “officials” for Youth and High School FB… due in large part to parental hostility… verbal abuse and threats of violence. Year-round “Select Teams” in all sports will grow… which creates other issues. The % of AfAm FB/MBBers in high school / college will increase as “pro sports” are still seen as their best route for “success”. The Gladiator / Spectator Divide will further divide.
Fat Cats’ addiction to Bragging Rights will keep them anting up for the college sports “arms race” into the 2020s. Coaching salaries / buy-outs et al have no ceiling so long as Fat Cat boosters will “ante up”. The NCAA can’t stop it if they even wanted to. The College FB Playoffs WILL expand to 8 teams within three years. NOT if I had a say-so but… I don’t.
Some sort of “pay the AfAm College FB and MBB players” is inevitable sooner than later. It will be fun to watch if one enjoys administrative train wrecks and bureaucratic buck-passing. Who doesn’t?
My sport – Baseball – will see “the DH” in the NL within two years. Blah blah yadda yadda … it’s inevitable. Latin-American players will become a majority in MLB within five years or sooner. They are already over 35%. MLB clubhouses are adapting to the reality. An odd form of “Baseball-ese” is spoken between teammates. Will Joe Fan care if most of “his team” doesn’t speak English? Some will care … The Game will survive.
By 2025 both Ol’ Roy and Coach K … and Mack2.0 and maybe even Dave Cutcliffe will all be retired and off-the-stage. Their successors? No clue. You pick’em. Oh… DDoeren will be gone before Mack2.0.
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FYI: There is an awesome “gone viral” column over on SaidWhat about the Satire Site – Babylon Bee. – CLICK!
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More BobLeeSays … CLICK HERE
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