“The most important thing, watching sports, is to have the feeling that you’re experiencing it with a fan base,” he said. “I have suggested to two professional leagues that they show fans in their own environment. When a home run is hit, you can see people all over the country reacting to what just happened. It would be easy to do. You do an inset box.”

Fans used to multi-tasking might enjoy split-screen viewing of a game with live game action on one side and edgy short films on players — or their parents, or wives, or kids, or mentors — on the other. The point is to appeal to both hard-core and casual fans and especially to younger viewers by highlighting baseball’s natural propensity for unforeseen twists and turns and the human reactions they inspire.

People turn to baseball because they want to feel a connection — to the players, to the suspense. “Sports is always somewhat fresh,” Stewart O’Nan, a novelist, said. “The great thing about baseball is, most games you’re going to see something that you’ve never seen before. It’s also a way to forget about the world. It’s a release from the things that are weighing on you.”