Sad day in America, Baseball is no longer America's national pastime.

[flyingillini]

Football surpasses baseball as America's national pastime, survey says

A new survey has found that people of the United States believe "America's sport" is football, not baseball, as it has been considered for decades.

www.foxnews.com

 

[jjgold]

Baseball died out with influx of non English speaking players

 

[lekidecincinnati]

been like that for a while

 

[wwurmeier]

I blame Taylor Swift

 

[Jrgum3]

Football has always been king but I'll always love baseball. I played it growing up from the time I was 6 until I was in High School. It will always be my national pastime but unfortunately I'm a dying breed because baseball is too slow for most people.

 

[kidcudi92]

Baseball was ruined when they fukked up traditional baseball rules

 

[djefferis]

So many reasons why

- Labor issues/strikes
- Large number of games
- High relative cost of attendance to the number of empty seats at every game
- Slow moving games
- diluted product - too many teams and lack of dominate teams

Football is a nicely compact scheduled - every win and loss counts. Baseball with 162 games a series win means significantly less.

Need to cut spring training to 3 weeks - 4 for pitchers and catchers. Week of intra squad games - then week of playing local college talent/former MLB players and minor leaguers before 6 game card of spring training games. We don’t need a month of pre season if starting on April 1.

Too many teams - could easily contract 2-4 teams - but don’t see that happening. Some changes for the better - but overall need to make the games more important to boost interest. Also bring back day-night double headers and introduce a $5 standing room ticket for every game.

Cleveland does a nice offer of $50 monthly SRO pass - average person can go to any game for $50 - show up early and grab a seat at one of the many bars/outdoor food stands. Work with local communities to make games more accessible and commuter friendly.

 

[sharpsquare]

Baseball also does a horrible job of promoting the sport. they fell behind football in this way years ago and have never found a way to catch back up.

I am a lifelong baseball fan but for the fringe and just common fan, 162 games is exhausting especially in today's give it to me quick world.

 

[BMR Genie]

I thought Football was always the favorite pastime. Well, except for the off-season where no other choice to watch, that's the baseball comes in.

 

[jjgold]

Baseball has only a few called stars also which really hurts
Most people cannot name 3 people any roster

 

[Tanko]

The younger generations don't see baseball as Americas sport so they lost their audience as it literally died off over the decades.

Sure, my adult kids would love to go to MLB games but there are better options for them to have fun and they are less expensive. Last Astros game we went to a year ago, it cost ~$300 for the tickets (~20 rows up along 1st base line), parking, and food for 4.

 

[djefferis]

Baseball tries - but short of Ohtani and Judge- not a huge amount of marketable stars.

There are no Griffey Jr/Jeter types out there - guys that the casual fan followed and knew on site.

Steroid publicity hurt - Bonds is still a lightning rod for all that’s wrong with the game - fact is he was far from the only one and made the game watchable. Ditto Sosa/McGwire - Clemens.

No one wants to watch a guy hit 40 HR or win 20 - it’s nice - but it’s been done many times. Strikeout 300 while hitting 50 HR - that catches our interest. Hit a ball 600 feet - again - that’s something we don’t see ever other year.

Give it time - football will fall too. It’s got its own issues. Basketball seemed to have our attention a decade ago - now it’s backsliding a bit - too many unfamily friendly players and you can only root for Lebron so many years until your to a point where you just think retire man - it’s been great but we are ready for a new star for this generation.

We have watched golf nose dive post Tiger, boxing become a shell of what it was in the heyday and without a star heavyweight like Ali / Tyson to captivate our attention we turned to MMA. Baseball even managing to stay relevant is an accomplishment in itself. Imagine where we’d be without Ohtani and big market teams contending for the WS.

 

[KVB]

Give it time - football will fall too.

Better give it a lot of time.

They can saturate the market and still come out on top.

They are just starting to go worldwide on a more regular basis.

It's crazy what the NFL can do but their downfall could be the arrogance that comes with that. They area already taking it for granted.

 

[carolinakid]

the nfl is cult life today