Baseball is America's pastime. Watching baseball is supposed to be as American as eating apple pie and drinking beer.

If this is the case, why are less fans going to the ballparks and looking the games on television?

Overall, there has been a decline in TV ratings for the World Series since 2004 when the Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in a four game sweep. Many many would argue that the only reason for the spike in viewership that year is because it was the Red Sox in their first World Series since the heartbreaking loss to the Mets in 1986. The interest was likely driven from their historic comeback against their archrival New York Yankees in the ALCS. We all know the story; the Red Sox were down 3-0 in the series and became the first team in MLB history to come back and win the series.

So while the interest was definitely there in 2004, was it really genuine or was it more about wanting to see history? Based on the ratings from the two World Series prior to 2004, I would venture to say it was the latter. Fans were not necessarily interested in wanting to see the World Series as they were seeing the Red Sox finally break the "Curse of the Bambino."

Since then we have seen some ups-and-downs in World Series ratings that seem pretty consistent. When the Yankees or Red Sox are in the World Series, people look. When they are not, it takes something pretty spectactular to get "fans" to tune in. For example, according to Baseball Almanac, the 2011 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers had a respectable number of viewers, between 11.2 million and 16.6 million, through the first five games. In Games 6 and 7 you saw a jump to 21.1 million and 25.4 million viewers, respectively. This is most likely due to the heroics of David Freese that brought the Cardinals back to life and eventually help them capture another World Series Championship.

While I know it is naive to expect that type of viewership on a nightly basis or even for just the World Series, what can Major League Baseball do to numbers like this on more consistently?

There has been a lot of talk lately about what the MLB can do bring fans back. I have a few ideas that I think may bring back some longtime fans who are beginning to stray, while also catching the attention of the casual fan. Here are justa a few ideas:

Shorten the Game

This has probably been the biggest argument people have made for why they can't look baseball-the game is just too damn long. Being from Boston, I get to look plenty of Red Sox/Yankees games that would make the die-hard fan pretty jealous. What about the casual fan? How many casual fans want to look a four-hour game that is centered around how many pitches each batter is going to take? I love the game and even I get restless after awhile.

One idea is to put an emphasis on time in between pitches. So from the second the catcher gets the ball they only have a limited amount of time to get it back to the pitcher and throw the next pitch before it is an automatic ball. This could work and get a pitcher motivated to work faster. 

Another idea is to limit the amount of "mound meetings" that teams can have. It's extremely frustrating when a catcher has to go out to the mound four times in one at bat because he can't get on the same page with the pitcher. If there was a limit to say three per game, there would be a lot more strategy involved. 

How about making intentional walks faster? If you are going to intentionally walk a batter, the pitcher can just put up four fingers and the batter gets to just walk to first base and save us the charade of throwing four meaningless pitches.

Eliminate Interleague Play

I know this is difficult now that there are 15 teams in each leagues but if new teams get added it could work. Fans of my generation have been spoiled by interleague play. We get to see many of the teams in the other league every year, many times as much as teams in our own league, that it is no longer a special event. When the Red Sox used to play the Braves every year it was always pretty cool getting to see some of the guys that you only know because you got them on your fantasy team (more on that later). Fans of previous generations had to wait until the All-Star Game or World Series to see players from the other league but now we see it on a nightly basis. It is no longer special to see teams in the other league because MLB has overdone it by giving us constant interleague play, the All Star Game, and the World Series.

Embrace Gambling

Well, sort of. One thing the NFL has done better than any other league is embrace fantasy sports. They realized that this is a great way to help bring in the casual fan (and the gambling addict) by promoting fantasy sports. Just about everyone has a fantasy team with a witty name these days (Master Batters right here). This can get fans to look games more consistently, albeit not for the reason they want, but people would be interested nonetheless. I don't see the MLB promoting fantasy sports nearly as much as they should. The league can promote draft parties, in game updates, and grand prizes. Imagine winning your fantasy league and winning a trip to the World Series? That's definitely a league I'm signing up for.

Market Stars Better

Anyone who has any interest in looking baseball can appreciate the talents of Mike Trout, Yasiel Puig, Clayton Kershaw, and King Felix. What is one thing they all have in common? They all play out West. For someone on the East Coast who doesn't get to see these guys play very often it is hard to appreciate how good these guys really are. While we have our own superstars over here in Giancarlo Stanton, Jose Fernandez, Bryce Harper, and Adam Jones, they just don't have the same appeal as the NL guys. The MLB should really consider more primetime games, like the NBA, that feature the best players, at times that fans can actually look. How great would it be to look an Angels game to see Trout, followed by a pitching matchup of King Felix and Clayton Kershaw? Obviously you can't guarantee that those guys will be playing but this is where MLB could use a flexible scheduling-type rule that ensures fans get to see the best games. I don't think too many fans would be upset with that setup.

Those are just some of the things that I think could help the game that we all love so much. While I'm sure there are plenty of other options, these may be some of the more efficient ways to help bring fans back.

Some of the other ideas I have heard being thrown around include a shorter schedule, lowering the mound, allowing steroids back into the game, and juicing the ball. While I would consider shortening the schedule, I would only back that if MLB wasn't interested in any of the options I mentioned. As far as steroids, you remember the saying, "chicks dig the long ball!"

What do you guys think?