Sports journalists are jockeying to declare baseball's impending death. None of these doomsayers knows exactly when America's pastime will cease to be (the Mayan calendar proves remiss in this regard), but rest assured, it will occur sometime in the future. Realistically, the death of Major League Baseball is a long way off. Despite the breadth of criticism baseball receives, the sport thrives off the support of diehard fans, corporate sponsorships, and regional popularity.