Video games, computers, cell phones, lack of kids being involved in sports, banks accepting wages from both spouses for mortgages, the cost of packs of baseball cards (if kids can even find packs for sale), the cost of a ticket to see a ball game, and on and on, have all contributed to the drop in the popularity of baseball among the younger generations. The defining term today is "soccer moms" not "baseball moms". The baby boomer generation marked the end of an era and way of life and thinking in this country. Baseball popularity is just one of the victims. It will never completely die, just as things like bowling, softball, and pool halls will never completely die, and still exist today, just not even close to the levels of popularity they once had.
MLB is too big a business, with currently too much money behind it, to just go away overnight. But in the coming decades they may be forced to make more and more cutbacks and changes to stem the drops in interest and popularity that are appearing on the horizon. Baseball popularity and support seems to be stronger than ever in the Latin and Caribbean countries/islands though. For example, I'll bet you can name a lot more Dominican players in MLB than you can in either the NFL or NBA.
Baseball is good for now. The owners and players have to stop being so greedy and become ambassadors of the game to the youth of America again. Babe Ruth was known for his interacting with fans and signing autographs for free whenever asked, especially for kids. Today's players seem to be worried a lot more about how much they're getting paid for the next singing they'll attend.
Heck, even the Black Sox scandal is relevant. The MLB owners realized that the public seeing the ugly side of baseball, and the means to which ballplayers and/or others might go to make money, revealed to many fans that baseball was really just a business and a way to make money off of them. But fans themselves don't look at their favorite teams and sports as businesses. They often view them through rose colored glasses and have a love and loyalty for the game itself, not the often unfeeling and disloyal business behind it all. People aren't entirely stupid (at least not all of them) and do understand there are for profit businesses behind all professional sports. But the fans still like to believe in the facade of baseball being s true sport played solely for the love of the game and support and loyalty of the fans more than anything else. As professional sports become more and more about the money and the business, the facade is slowly chipped away and fans become more disillusioned and lose interest. How many times have I heard our own fearless leader Leon (Hi Leon!) say how he quit watching baseball after the MLB strike in 1994. That strike represents how the greed and business side of baseball overshadowed the game itself, and exemplifies how a one-time fan can be exposed to too much of that, foreving changing the way they think and feel about the game they used to unconditionally love. Greed, power, fame, and control are powerful factors and forces that can corrupt even the strongest and most intelligent of minds. We'll see if the minds involved in MLB can effectively fight off those factors and forces, and not entirely succumb to them.
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