On March 20, Major League Baseball will be back and celebrating its 150th anniversary, making it the oldest sports league out of the main four sports in America. While many say baseball is a dying sport, the numbers state otherwise. The MLB saw a record revenue of $10.3 billion in 2018, which is the most out of America’s top four sporting leagues. Last year culminated in the Boston Red Sox beating the Los Angeles Dodgers four games to one in a best of seven in the World Series.

One of the most popular conversations in recent years revolving around baseball has been whether or not baseball is a dying sport. The students of Issaquah High School that were surveyed generally believed that it is not fading away, but those that did had some interesting thoughts about it. Freshman Brooke Byers believes that baseball is a dying sport because it “is a complicated sport, and people believe it to be boring.” Freshman Henry Hess has a bit of a different theory regarding the death of baseball. He believes that “lacrosse is stealing many little league baseball players,” and blames the slowly diminishing amount of little league players as the reason baseball is dying.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, the people who believed that baseball was not dying had interesting reasons of their own. Sophomore Avery Taylor says that “baseball has been around for so long and has still managed to be prevalent. There are so many new players with new talents. It is still a major sport for kids when they are young.” Junior Cora Erickson says, “It may not be as popular as it used to be, but baseball is still one of the most popular sports in America for good reason, and people have played it since the 19th century, so it has been around for a while.”

The idea that baseball is a dying sport has been around for the past 10 years or so, but little do people know, baseball has never been more profitable. The MLB is the most profitable sports organization in the United States and it really is not very close. Last year the MLB reported profits upwards of $10.2 Billion while the NBA was second to them with a profit of $8.5 Billion. So while people may believe the sport is dying, it is quite the opposite of that, and the revenue that the league turns allows them to hand out some pretty lucrative deals to their superstar players.

Some of the biggest news this offseason was where two superstars Manny Machado and Bryce Harper would land after their stints with the Dodgers and Nationals respectively. Anticipation was in the air as people waited for Machado and Harper to announce their next teams.

On Feb. 19, Manny Machado signed the third largest contract in MLB History, a 10 year, $300 million deal with the San Diego Padres, essentially sealing his fate of never winning a World Series in his career. Sophomore Sam Hawk believes that Machado “was asking for way too much money,” whereas Junior Ryan Baker believes the opposite, stating, “It was a lot of money, and he deserves it.”

Eager to get his contract done and join his new team in Spring Training, Bryce Harper then inked a 13 year, $330 million deal with a No-Trade clause with the Philadelphia Phillies, making him a resident of Philadelphia until he is at least 39 years old. Senior Grace Stretz believes that Harper signed “mostly for money reasons,” and senior Diego Dorta agreed, stating that the Phillies “offered him the most amount of money for the longest amount of time.”

On March 19 Mike Trout signed a 12 year $430 million extension with the Los Angeles Angels, making him the highest yearly paid baseball player in MLB history. And that is deservedly so; Trout has been the best baseball player since 2010, and the Angels paid him accordingly.

One of the more unsung contracts of the MLB Offseason was Nolan Arenado’s massive extension of eight years, $260 million with the Colorado Rockies. Arenado has been the best third baseman in baseball since 2013, being a six time Gold Glover, four time All-Star, and a four time Silver-Slugger, so this mega deal should come as no surprise.

The MLB Season opened up a week early this year, where the Seattle Mariners played the Oakland Athletics in Japan for a two game series. The Mariners took game one of the series with a score of 9-7, with ace pitcher Marco Gonzales getting the win. A total of five home runs were hit between the two teams, including a grand slam from Mariners’ right fielder Domingo Santana. Before game two of the series the news broke that baseball legend Ichiro Suzuki would retire at the end of the game, which turned a loud Tokyo Dome into a deafening one. Ichiro was subbed off in the bottom of the eighth inning to a standing ovation and roars from the crowd. The Mariners legend walked off the field for the last time, and five years time into Cooperstown, the site of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. The game was a nailbiter, tied 4-4 heading into the 12th inning. A walk by Edwin Encarnacion got the bases loaded and Domingo Santana stepped up to the plate. Santana grounded into what should been a double play, but a poor flip by the shortstop and a worse throw by the second baseman resulted in Santana being safe, and second baseman Dee Gordon scored the winning run.

One team to lookout for is the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies look poised to win the NL East and challenge for a World Series with a bolstered 2019 roster. The mega signing of All-Star and Home Run Derby champion Bryce Harper overlooks some of their other key acquisitions heading into the 2019 season. In trades involving the tanking Mariners and Marlins, the Phillies acquired All-Star shortstop Jean Segura and All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto. These two will look to lead the ballclub both defensively and at the plate, and hope to propel the Phillies to their first World Series since 2008.

Every season, at least one player in the MLB goes from a minor league player the previous year, and turns into an all star at the next level. This season that player will be Vladimir Guerrero Jr. son of recently inducted Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr.. Jr. spent most of his time last season in the Minor Leagues before being called up to the Toronto Blue Jays at the end of the 2018 season. Guerrero Jr. looks to become a key player in the middle of the Blue Jays lineup, and hopes to propel the Jays to an AL East title.

The MLB season is technically underway, but it really does not kick off until March 28th. Another exciting year of baseball is in store for fans across the country. It is that time of the year again. PLAY BALL!