Is Baseball Still the National Pasttime?

[Nome]

When I was younger, there was no need to even discuss this topic. Baseball was the top sport. Football was OK during the winter. Basketball was a distant third. Hockey was an also ran with soccer nonexistant, Lacrosse played in the Ivy schools and golf and tennis being played for recreation but hardly followed by the average sports fan.

Today there is much more focus on other sports and the number of sports has proliferated. What are your opinions as to the top five sports from a participation point of view and from a fan point of view. What can be done, if anything to inprove the game of baseball.

As far as myself is concerned.

Participation

Baseball
Golf
Fishing (yes it is a sport)
Tennis
Swimming

Spectator
Baseball
Nascar
Football
Soccer
Track

Comments

[JimF]

I have noticed this in the past few years. What were once baseball fields are now soccer fields. Instead of seeing kids with their Ballcaps and spikes, you now see them with shin guards.

Though I would say Baseball is still alive and well. When a team like Cleveland can have a complete revival, it must be a good thing. Ultimately, I think the strike had a huge negative impact on the state of the game. Then again, in the record-breaking year 1998 we saw a Miracle Team, and two heroes chase an almost 40 year old record. The profound impact of these (plus other) things swayed baseball back into positive light.

Part of the reason kids don't play baseball as much, is because it is becoming increasingly hard to get into the bigs. And with computer games, Wrestling, Nascar, etc., there are a lot of other things that can attribute to this. Mac and Sosa also gave us heroes; the kind that are larger than life. On a phone call with my good friend from Southern California, we got talking about how in any given city, kids will be wearing either a Sosa or Mac shirt or a Yankees hat. That's the way it goes.

Baseball will always be around, but I think there are so many other distractions, that it doesn't seem like it is as big of a passtime.

Personally, what makes me sick to my stomach, is when someone from the WWF says that Wrestling is the new National Passtime. I guess it's much easier to get a Pay-Per-View Wrestling Match and bag of Doritos than it is to go to a ballgame.

Also, with the ever-growing popularity of the internet, everybody wants things yesterday. People are less likely to sit through an entire baseball game; their attention spans are too short. Even I am guilty of channel surfing around the 7th or 8th inning on occasion .

I think MLB sensed this, and have tried to make more action for the fans by (allegedly) juicing the balls. I think Baseball's been fine all thses years, fix the people not the game. That's my opinion though. Baseball is the perfect game, it doesn't need changing. They already took away the inside of the plate.

As for my activities, I don't really participate in any; Though I really should. I watch every single possible baseball game I can. I couldn't care less about any other sports. I mean, I'll watch Hoops, or Football, or Hockey, but only during the playoffs or big games. Though I love College Hoops.

Great topic Nomes!!!

[WindRavenX]

baseball is certinly not dead, popularity is still there, but loyalty is something I'm not sure is going to be around all the time. People want winning teams to boast to friends, 'yah, MY team won last night!' hence the Yankee and BigMac shirts..people want attention and to be assosiated with winners. I don't see many hard-core Expos fans, most want a team with history and winnings. Hell, Dodger fans are becomming a rare breed.
However..it's sad to see games that are nowhere near as intelligent as baseball become more popular. I watch football with my dad, but football....is so stupid. It rewards agression, which, in baseball, is almost a death wish. The key is patience, but people don't have patience anymore. Perhaps the saddest thing I have witnessed is WWF, or any professional (i.e, fake) wrestling(high school wrestling is different because it's toally different;but I still don't like it). It isn't real, and it just gives into stupidy and pointless(that's the key) violence, just to see violence. Football seems much more popular , I don't see Monday Night Baseball anywhere Hockey is still pretty popular, and so is golf (however boring may be). I don't consider racing a sport. You just DRIVE..sheesh.....
andwayz, baseball is still the pastime by historical observations, but if things continue, I'd say football is unfortunatly taking over.....
baseball is a game that requires patience. not fast paced action all the time.

[Ansky39]

i dunno nomes...

i guess it depends on where your located... i mean for me personally, I LOVE baseball more than life it self... i follow it 365 1/4 days a year religiously... NOTHING comes before the game... and I see it increasing in popularity around the world... I mean I went to the caribbena, and got into conversations w/ peoplef from all over the world about baseball, cause of my yankees tattoo...

but where i come from, it's non existent... i mean until we're in the playoffs or sopmething... that's fine w/ me cause i could care less if no one else liked baseball, i'm gonna still love it... to me, it's as much fun solo as it is w/ friends being a baseball fan... I love to talk about it and all, but before the net, it was just me and my boxscores cause all my friends are either football or hoops fanatics... i could care less... before the net, i knew exactly one what i'd call good friend that was also a baseball man... i probably know more tennis fans than i do baseball fans...

but that being said, i think it's still popular... i mean NOTHING can compete w/ the crappy wwf, but other than that I think it's holding it's own... the yanks are a main reason... go anywhere on this earth and you're guaranteed to see at least one Yankees cap... when we do well, everyone becomes a baseball fan...

it may not be as popular as it was back in the day, and really nothing is w/ everything else there is to do now... but as sports go, I'd say baseball is holding it's own...

for me, it's baseball first and breathing second... that's where i rank baseball nomes... it's in my blood man...

later