Football is over. Basketball is in full swing, and for a Kentucky native like me, that’s big. March Madness will have me in front of my television again this year.

But baseball is what claims my heart. When spring training begins in less than three weeks, the world will seem a slightly better place.

We have some baseball issues to resolve here in south Alabama. It’s about the BayBears. This season will be the 19th for the Mobile BayBears, the AA Southern League affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Fewer people are attending BayBears’ games every year.

After a peak of 4,249 fans per game in 1999, the BayBears have steadily slipped in attendance, drawing only 1,687 fans per game last year, despite a .577 winning percentage.

By comparison, the Birmingham Barons drew an average of 6,252 fans in 2014 and the Pensacola Blue Wahoos an average of 4,453 fans. Astonishingly, the Jackson Generals drew 2,019 per game, playing in Jackson, Tennessee, with a population of just 131,000, compared to 414,000 for the Mobile metro area (610,000 if you include Baldwin County).

Mobile’s attendance was the second lowest in the Southern League, trailing only the Huntsville Stars, who will relocate to Biloxi for the 2015 season.

The BayBears aren’t going anywhere, at least not soon. The franchise has a contract with the city of Mobile to play here through the 2018 season. But what accounts for their declining attendance?

Having the oldest ballpark in the league (now that Huntsville’s Joe W. Davis Stadium is out of play) may be part of the problem. Pensacola’s and Biloxi’s new ballparks are more attractive and congenial than Mobile’s Hank Aaron Stadium, aka “the Hank.”

The city of Mobile owns the Hank, and the City Council will install better lighting, a better public address system, and padding on the outfield walls before the BayBears’ first home game on April 15. That should help. Further renovations will be needed before the 2016 season.

The team’s management could also do more to market the team and offer family-friendly amenities available at other minor league parks.

The BayBears’ struggles to maintain fan interest are surprising, given Mobile’s baseball history.

Five Mobile natives---Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Satchel Paige, Ozzie Smith, and Billy Williams---are in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Only New York City and Chicago have more. Many other major leaguers either played minor league or collegiate baseball in Mobile. The University of South Alabama runs one of the nation’s best collegiate baseball programs.

Minor league baseball began in Mobile in 1886 with a team called the Acid Iron Earths of the Gulf League. The name was changed the following year to the Mobile Swamp Angels. Mobile’s minor league teams have been called the Blackbirds, the Bluebirds, the Sea Gulls, the Red Warriors, the Shippers, the Baysharks, and (most often) the Bears.

If I were naming the Mobile team, I’d go back to the Swamp Angels. That name has cachet---like the Toledo Mud Hens, the Lansing Lugnuts, and the Batavia Muckdogs.

But why would anyone want to watch a baseball game at all? Football and basketball offer more action, with people banging into each other and falling down all the time. Those sports have you jumping out of your seat.

Slowness is fine with me. After football and basketball are over, I’m exhausted. I’m ready for a game that pours like molasses, where I can sit quietly and talk with my companion. I like knowing that I can leave my seat to go beneath the grandstand for some nachos and a drink without missing anything on the field.

When my wife and I lived in Cincinnati, we attended 15 or 20 Reds’ games a year (we lived within walking distance of their ballpark). We enjoyed those games, but minor league baseball has its own charms. There’s less hype. It’s more intimate. You’re closer to the field. It’s relaxing, something you’d never say about football or basketball.

More of life should be that way. Too many of us are in such a rush that we forget what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Slow down. Catch your breath. Take in a baseball game.

Richard H. Schmidt is a retired Episcopal priest, editor and author who lives in Fairhope. He can be reached at courier@gulfcoastnewspapers.com.