Or is it pro football? I think baseball suffers from incredibly long seasons, as compared to football. thoughts?

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

football has definitely become the more popular sport, i think. and i agree that the baseball seasons are too long.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

Football is only more popular because it is only 3 months long. Baseball is forever...

Long live baseball!!

Also what a move by the TIGERS today!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

NBA should be America's favorite pastime

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

why do you think that, nikoa?

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

I prefer the NHL

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

^ same, but its market is smaller, and not as many superstars as in the nfl. college hockey being small doesn't help.

the # of people who pack football stadiums each week is incredible, then add the peeps watching on tv. ridic.

i too prefer the nhl though. but its hard to really love it since most of the players are coming from the ussr, etc.... hmmm

actually, rugby is better than nhl.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

i think baseball will always be US of America's favorite pasttime. baseball is associated with america's history more than any other sport and i think the growth of baseball kind of symoblizes the growth of the united states in some respect... whether or not it is our favorite present time sport is up for debate, though. definitely do not think it's our favorite these days.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

^pretty much truth right there.

I guess maybe some rule and schedule changes would do it well. Such a long season...are all those games necessary?

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

I like the long season. This city pretty much revolves around Cardinal baseball though. In a lot of businesses, it's completely acceptable to miss work for a cards v cubs game. Opening day? Work in St. Louis? Forget about it.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

[QUOTE=Jenks;1018821]I like the long season. This city pretty much revolves around Cardinal baseball though. In a lot of businesses, it's completely acceptable to miss work for a cards v cubs game. Opening day? Work in St. Louis? Forget about it.[/QUOTE]

I feel that. I don't presently live in a city with a major league baseball team, so it might be different for you (especially a team with a strong chain of winning seasons over the last decade). I feel like the only way to really enjoy MLB is to actually go to the games - i think it's easier to watch football on tv. hmmm.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

[QUOTE=88Mariner;1018973]I feel that. I don't presently live in a city with a major league baseball team, so it might be different for you (especially a team with a strong chain of winning seasons over the last decade). I feel like the only way to really enjoy MLB is to actually go to the games - i think it's easier to watch football on tv. hmmm.[/QUOTE]

agreed. When i lived in San Diego it was great, in Orlando, whatever.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

[quote]ROGER GOODELL: This Sunday on 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft interviews Roger Goodell, commissioner of the most successful entertainment organization in the country: the NFL.

Goodell oversees the NFL’s 32 member teams in an organization whose players compete on [url="http://www.mercuryserver.com/forums/djdb.php?id=419"]the field[/url], but cooperate in the business of keeping America’s favorite pastime profitable. And it’s working – NFL revenues are soaring and television ratings are through the roof. [/quote]

Preview Steve’s report: [URL]http://bit.ly/xOypSu[/URL]

[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/428723_10150565829229395_31543029394_8631751_586368062_n.jpg[/img]

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

Anoyone seen this yet:

[video=youtube;AiAHlZVgXjk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiAHlZVgXjk[/video]

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

America is pretty funny. You guys sure do love your sports.

Ditto on Nikoa thinking Basketball is the preferred sport. Or maybe that's just the overstated figure of rap culture.

But then again packed out Colosseums spectating padding protected rhinos run at each other is big. Just judging by the crowds...

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

i saw moneyball last weekend, illuminate. really good movie.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

Nice one mate.

Will check it out.

So that's how the cookie crumbles in real life? In terms of MLB etc.?

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

Jumping in late on this discussion here...happy to see Sports threads alive :D

Garrick mentioned that MLB will always be the pastime of America due to its long history and link to many memorable events its history. that's spot on thinking right there. couldn't agree more!

however, from a pure number of fans standpoint it has to be the NFL and sadly NASCAR.

another big plus for football is the rarity of it as you guys have been discussing --- 16 games a season vs. 162 --- that's a massive difference. most people I know that aren't fans of baseball just can't tolerate baseball for its pace plus the daunting length of the season. I will admit though once Target Field got built we all of the sudden had a bandwagon full of new fans. its not for everyone.

Lastly...if you haven't seen Moneyball I highly recommend it.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

[quote]If you have ever had any doubt that baseball is a slow paced, boring sport that withers in comparison to football, basketball, and hockey, then this book is definitely for you.[/quote]

[url]http://www.amazon.com/Men-at-Work-Craft-Baseball/dp/0061999814/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1[/url]

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

^looks like an interesting read

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

Having played baseball for 10 years when i was younger I may buy this book to see how much I don't know. :)

relevant:

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/djmarkfarina/fall-ball-9-2009[/soundcloud]

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

Def not.....you had one of the greatest WS ever played last season....[B]and noone watched it[/B]

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

[QUOTE=da hype;1022389]Def not.....you had one of the greatest WS ever played last season....[B]and noone watched it[/B][/QUOTE]

Actually, 25.4 million people watched game 7, and the series average was 18.9 million...which is just a smidgen higher than "noone watched it"

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

:lol:

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

I would like to congratulate the Detroit Tigers for their 2012 World Series championship. Good work guys!

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

Too many red sox and Yankees games on tv here.

Re:

Hockey is fast moving. Any sport where the participants can skate on ice, move a puck at lightening speeds & still beat the sh#t out of each other has my vote. Football is too technical, baseball games are too long, & basketball players have lost the plot a long time ago.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

nfl as us is undisputed world champions...in aus, afl.

How dominant are national teams in other sports where other countries play? Seems to be decent amount of competition running about. I can't remember seeing us baseball winning anything.

World series should be renamed, only two countries in that thing, neither national team ranked #1 neither...ok marlins playing some games in puerto rico, no team in the mlb though.

Baseball world classics is a bit of a joke...Olympics too...does usa ever send its strongest team? Is the classics the equivalent of a world championship?

Didnt they get done by Dominican Republic or Panama?

Teams like Holland and Italy at world classics, how far back is ancestry allowed? Or do you have to be able to have see it on a map to be eligible?

College sport (basketball and american football) is great to watch..passionate crowds chanting songs other than de-fence even!

Re:

[QUOTE=Michael^Heaven;1093073]Hockey is fast moving. Any sport where the participants can skate on ice, move a puck at lightening speeds & still beat the sh#t out of each other has my vote. Football is too technical, baseball games are too long, & basketball players have lost the plot a long time ago.[/QUOTE]

Ice Hockey is decent to watch actually.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

Is there anything more boring than baseball ??

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

[QUOTE=unkle;1094938]Is there anything more boring than baseball ??[/QUOTE]

cricket?

Test cricket in particular. 4 days per game

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

^^^^ I dont even know the rules of cricket. But, yes, is boring. :lol:

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

Heroin addicts think the game moves to slow.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

soccer is one of the few sports where I would rather watch someone playing FIFA than watch a match.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

Your commentators don't help the experience....

"we are live at the soccer world championship play off series* and Eye-tally** will have an apex restart***"

*world cup *Italy not Eye-Tally ***Corner kick not apex restart

presented with the cheesiest Californian surf's up dude accent.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

[url="http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/football-baseball-and-the-evolving-tastes-of-fans/?_r=0"]http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/football-baseball-and-the-evolving-tastes-of-fans/?_r=0[/url]

declining viewership for sure.

[QUOTE][h=1][SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]Football, Baseball and the Evolving Tastes of Fans[/COLOR][/SIZE][/h][SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]By [/COLOR][URL="http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/author/andy-benoit/"][COLOR=#d3d3d3]ANDY BENOIT[/COLOR][/URL][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]Major League Baseball is under way, and its Saturday afternoon ratings are down slightly from last year. That’s nothing new. In October, the sensational Cardinals and Rangers’ seven-game World Series drew an average of 16.6 million viewers a night. Before that, the last time a Cardinals World Series went seven games was 1987; the average nightly audience was 35 million.[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]Over the years, you have heard myriad explanations for baseball’s declining ratings: cable and satellite TV have given viewers a panoply of channels; much of media has migrated to the Web; the increasing sophistication of video game consoles has created a more appealing form of home entertainment. All are valid explanations. But they have not seemed to detract from America’s new favorite pastime, pro football.[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]The rating for this year’s first Saturday afternoon M.L.B. on FOX was 2.3. That’s about 10 percent of the audience that Fox’s Sunday afternoon N.F.L. Week 1 telecast attracted. Obviously, a regular-season baseball game and a regular-season N.F.L. game do not make an apples-to-apples comparison (there are 10 times more regular-season M.L.B. games, 162 per team, than N.F.L. games, 16 per team). But if they were apples, one would be rotten and the other perfectly ripe. Another example of lopsided numbers: the TV audience for Game 7 of the Cardinals-Rangers series drew two million fewer viewers than the N.F.L.’s Packers-Saints Thursday night opener last fall. So, essentially, baseball’s Super Bowl equals football’s season opener.[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3][/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]Fifty years ago, no one would have predicted that football would trump baseball in a popularity (non)contest. But they probably should have. Baseball’s declining allure has nothing to do with performance-enhancing drug scandals, big and small market inequality or even the natural ebb and flow of popular entertainment. It has to do with the sport itself. There’s no room for progressive change in baseball. Literally. There’s not enough space.[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]Including end zones, a football field is 120 yards long and 53 yards wide, giving it a playing-surface area of 8,242,560 square inches. Eight million-plus square inches is a lot of space in which to mobilize participants. Thus, as players become more athletic and skilled, and as schemes become more creative and intricate, there is room to accommodate the advancements.[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]Baseball, on the other hand, has a playing surface area of 216 square inches. That’s the area of home plate. Yes, baseball fields are about the same overall size as football fields, but the field does not become relevant until someone hits one of the pitches thrown to home plate. The sport hinges on what takes place near those 216 square inches. There are only so many things an athlete can do when confined to such tight parameters. Or, as we’ve found out, there are only four things: throw a strike or a ball and swing the bat or don’t.[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]Granted, this is an oversimplification of a long-lived sport. But it is a clear explanation for why baseball has always been married to the past. By its very nature, baseball’s past is its present. You cannot centralize a sport around 216 square inches and ever expect it to significantly change. Consequently, baseball players today cannot really show off the fact that they are faster and stronger than those of yesterday. Even when they get past those 216 square inches by putting the ball in play, the batter still has to run to the exact same place that the players from yesterday ran to. There’s just no chance for new displays of physical ability.[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]This is largely why there is so much monotony and downtime in baseball, and why so much emphasis has been placed on peripheral nonsense known as the unwritten rules. In baseball, if a guy hits a monster home run and stares at it for an extra second and a half, he has committed a blatant violation of etiquette and could be subject to a beanball next time at the plate. A pitcher yelling at a batter who is jogging to first base? Such disrespect can be grounds for a bench-clearing brawl. Or, as Dallas Braden reminded everyone two years ago, a base runner jogging back to the dugout after a third out had better not cut across the mound and step on the rubber. If he does, he is showing up the pitcher. Or the home team. Or the grounds crew. Or whoever it was that simply decided such short cuts aren’t cool.[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]Can you imagine anyone in the N.F.L. even batting an eye (let alone fighting) at such inconsequential stuff? Of course not – everyone in football is too busy trying to figure out new strategies to take advantage of all that luscious field space.[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]Another, and more recognized, reason for baseball and football’s widening popularity gap is that baseball is really an individual sport that happens to be played by teams. The battle in that 216-square-inch area involves only a pitcher and batter (sorry Johnny Bench fans, but at the end of the day a catcher can only be as effective as the pitcher he is catching for). One-on-one sports do not have a lot of inherent room for natural growth (see the rise and fall of boxing; or America’s relative indifference to tennis, a sport in which the signature domestic event – the United States Open – has, over the last 20 years, attracted a television audience of two million to three million).[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]Is baseball dying? The ratings, the sport’s own natural evolutionary limitations and the history of similar sports say yes. It’s just a matter of how quickly. The rate of baseball’s demise can easily turn into something of a mathematical argument based on presumption and perspective (two things that do not mix well with numbers). Major League Baseball came about in 1869. The sport’s golden age – its teenage years, if you will – was the 1920s to 1960s. So perhaps baseball hasn’t even reached its midlife crisis yet.[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]The problem with this timing and perspective is it does not consider that society’s taste for entertainment evolves much faster now than it did in the 1790s, 1870s or even 1960s. A sport could once thrive or just survive by mastering the art of [I]not evolving[/I], but inevitably there comes an era where you pay the bill for that. There’s enough pageantry at an M.L.B. park to persuade even non-sports fans to attend games, so filling 50,000-seat stadiums should not become a problem any time soon. But the real sports money comes from mass viewership. Right now, mass viewership occurs primarily via TV; down the road it may be via tablets, mobile devices or some other form of technology that is yet to be invented. It does not matter; whatever the viewing platform, baseball will still be boring in comparison to other sports that have the physical space and healthy number of live-action participants necessary to evolve.[/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]There’s no one to blame for this. Bud Selig, or whomever the next commissioner will be, can alter baseball’s rules or business model, but because he has only 216 square inches to work with, he cannot significantly alter the sport itself. In comparison, football, if evolution ever dictated, could change to the point that tackling no longer existed. Some might argue that it would then no longer be football. That’s irrelevant; the point is the National Football League would still exist. Football is malleable enough to become whatever its audience wants it to be. This is why the N.F.L. is here to stay. Baseball isn’t malleable. The only way baseball would have a chance at catching up to the N.F.L. is if Major League Baseball were Major League Something Else.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[SIZE=2][COLOR=#d3d3d3]Baseball might be back in full swing, but in the big scheme of things, fewer people are watching. Meanwhile, the N.F.L. draft is just a little over a week away and new ratings record will probably be set. Evolution at work.[/QUOTE][/COLOR][/SIZE]

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

pretty good article. i agree with most of it. i guess the question is 'what is one's definition of pasttime?" i still think that baseball stands as America's foundational sport. it meant much more to this nation over the course of it's history than just a game. but football is much more exciting and the dynamics are far more diverse.

having said that, baseball is boring to many people, but i still enjoy it. i do think the regular season is a bit ridiculous. 164 games just gets to be monotonous. you get more bang for your buck with football... it is definitely this nation's favorite sport now. college and pro. i just wish tickets were reasonable to actually GO to a game and not have to fork over my fucking pension to get tickets.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

lol. that article is garbage, baseball is better than ever!! my perception might be skewed though because I live in baseball mecca.

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

[URL="http://www.forbes.com/sites/prishe/2013/06/01/reality-check-regarding-downward-trends-for-2013-mlb-attendance/"]Reality Check Regarding Downward Trends For 2013 MLB Attendance - Forbes[/URL]

Re: Is baseball still America's favorite pasttime?

Attendance is down for NFL too. Two things:

1. HDTV - my setup at home is way better than my seat at the game

2. $$$$ - it's fucking expensive to go to professional sports games. Ticket, beer, hotdog - assrape. I can sit on my couch with a 55" plasma, all the awesome beer I want, home made food, room full of buddies, and have a way better time than going to a pro event. I say pro, because college football is a ridiculously fun environment to witness live.