Baseball Is Still The USA's National Pasttime

[ThomasTomasz]

A man buys two tickets. On a beautiful weekend afternoon, this man takes his son to the ballpark. They walk inside, and purchase two hotdogs, two sodas, and a box of Cracker Jacks for the boy. They take their seats. A famous celebrity comes out to throw the first pitch, and a little girl will sing the National Anthem. After that, the players take the field, and the only sounds are cheering, the sound of a small ball colliding with leather, and the sweet sound of the same ball sometimes striking a bat.

The father remembered to bring his glove, and sometime during the second inning, a pop up flies foul into the seat, and the father catches the ball; then hands it to his son as a souvenir.

Baseball is still the past-time of the United States. The tradition mentioned above is a rite of passage, passed down from a father to his son. Baseball games can be found across the country, at all different levels.

Most important in our day and age of saving and making money: baseball games are more affordable than football games. Lets take a look at some prices locally for some teams in Maryland (seats are comparable)

Baltimore Orioles Left-Field Upper Deck: $15
Bowie Baysox (Orioles AA team) General Admission: $9
Baltimore Ravens Upper Level Midfield: $75
Naval Academy Upper Level Sideline: $30

Baseball games are cheaper to attend than football games. You can attend five Orioles games for the price of one Ravens games. You can attend three Baysox games for one Naval Academy game. For the working class family, it is difficult to afford a football game, especially when tickets sell out faster, and the only source that remains are scalpers. With baseball, you can attend multiple games for the price of a football game, reliving the experience over and over.

Not to mention, baseball games are much better environments to take kids. With less fans, there is less drinking. When you get fans drinking in large numbers, swear words start flying. Fans from two different teams start to go at it. Food flies, and sometimes, food hit’s the kid(s) your taking to the games. The atmosphere is much better at baseball games, especially minor league games. These teams really build their image to attract kids, and with very small stadiums, encourage large families to show up, and there are less obnoxious people to detract from a great experience.

There is nothing that can match high school football. There is nothing better, nothing more pure, than watching teenagers play the game. Many of them will not have a chance at a Division I school, or a shot at an NFL career. Many are playing football because they can hit people, and are driven just to play. High school baseball just can not compete, as the statistics are just so unreal to the higher levels of competition, and the games are much slower moving.

College football is much better than college baseball. There is really no contest between the two, due to media coverage. College football games are broadcast every week. College baseball games are rarely, if ever, broadcast on television, save for the College World Series. Even then, it is hard to be interested in the CWS, because you haven’t heard of many (if any) players beforehand; whereas college football analysts discuss their new rankings after every game, and predict the new Heisman trophy winner.

Therefore, the best comparison to college football is not college baseball, but minor league baseball. With this comparison, it is consider it a draw. The NFL does not have a development system like MLB, but college football is where players are prepared for an NFL career. With college football, there is the national exposure of all of the players and games. With minor league baseball, the only games really broadcast are the All-Star games, and unless you have a cable network like the Yankees or Orioles, you won’t see minor league games on TV.

However, we go back to atmosphere. The minor league players are largely pure. There is little national media attention paid to the minor league players, and no egos are driven by how many headlines they make. Minor leaguers do not fly around like college football players, instead, they take extremely long bus trips, and have to play games sometimes after arriving just an hour before. The fans are much more behaved than college football fans (save for the exception of small colleges and the service academies,) leading to a better atmosphere to bring children.

The MLB has its share of controversy, with steroids and amphetamines. The NFL is not avoiding controversy, either. Just this season, we saw the Minnesota Vikings (four players in particular,) take the time to rent ships, and have a sex party out on one of the Great Lakes, despite being in the midst of a season going down the drain. You have criminals like Chris Henry, arrested four times in a year, and players like Terrell Owens, Ray Lewis, and LaVar Arrington destroying teams because of their contract, and not getting their own way.

In college football, many schools are found guilty of recruiting violations, and giving players extra benefits. The Alabama Crimson Tide is one prominent school guilty of this, and two players come to mind when you think of extra benefits given: Maurice Clarett and Reggie Bush. And, another sex scandal rocked college football over the past year or so, where charges of players raping a female kicker ultimately caused University of Colorado’s head coach, Gary Barnett, to lose his job.

Major League Baseball has made its fair share of mistakes and scandals, and so have the National Football League, and college football teams. Baseball is not at risk of losing its place as the United States past-time, because the games are affordable, the tradition is there, and the atmosphere to bring kids to pro games absolutely trumps that of football.

[riverdunesrat]

Nice story TT. Where did you get it?

[General]

Yeah, all this forum needs is copyright infringements.

That being said, I think he wrote it.

[redsrbetter]

Very well done Thomas. I like how you brought in the atmosphere versus that of America's most popular sport. The cost is much greater at a football game as well and that was nicely pointed out.

When I become a father, I will much rather bring my kid to a baseball game because of the expense and the better atmosphere. Although I am more of a baseball fan, I can be proud that baseball has not sold itself short on this front. But it does strike an interest in how things may be if baseball were as popular as football in America. Would the fans be more prone to creating mayhem if there were more fans in the seats?

Look at the Yankees and Red Sox home games. There have been many instances where someone gets hurt or a major league player states that the fans are simply "crazy." If baseball were more popular, then more stadiums would have that atmosphere. There likely wouldn't be a place where the fans are the craziest. But isn't this what we all would rather?

We make the argument very often that baseball is the better sport. We love the game so much that we argue with people who hate it because we wish they would share our passion. But if they did, would it be harder for our kids to enjoy the game?

Its a catch 22 situation. But if baseball became the number one sport in America again, the ticket prices will go up, the memorabilia would go up, and the number of drunken fans creating havoc would go up.

What about the other good part of this whole thing? With revenue going up, then the owners will see more money. A good owner would then be able to afford a superstar to add to their franchise. So business would be fine, the fans would continue to gather and America would have its natural pasttime back at full throttle. But is this all at the expense of what we can enjoy now? It may cost our kids the chance of seeing it how we do right now. Then again, is this what happened to our fathers? Did it get so crazy that it eventually became too much to handle?

All great thoughts here and I am glad you brought it up Thomas. +rep!

[redsrbetter]

Nice story TT. Where did you get it?

Haha, I am glad you guys see this as quality. Thomas wrote this himself. And yes it is a very good article indeed.

[Molina00]

Yep, a very nice article. An enjoyable read. I don't know if I could write anything like that. lol Very nice job and a little extra rep for you.

[ThomasTomasz]

Hah, thanks guys. I did write this myself, as part of a Point/Counterpoint article on a football forum I am staff on. Needless to say, my points were debated more, but I thought I did a good job.

All sports have their scandals, but baseball has few criminals among their ranks.

The atmosphere is a big part in my opinion. I attend Redskins games, about 4 times a year now, and I am throughly disgusted with some of the behavior of the drunks. When you get 92000 people though, I would venture to say close to half are drunk, or intoxicated. I would take my kids to a baseball game, cheaper, and a much better atmosphere (especially minor leagues) than a football game.

The big gripe I have in baseball is the playoff length. While it is not the boring contests in the NBA or NHL (why I didnt watch either) I really like the NFL's one game, which makes for real excitement. Although, I can't really complain, since MLB's playoffs are shorter than NBA and NHL.

[GiantsFanatic]

very nice nice story there

one football game is equivalent to 10 baseball, so its generally going to be more expensive

[Lennon_Marx]

from the point of view of someone outside the America's, and after many years of discussing similar things with locals, both about american sports; and the Australian equivalents (cricket, and AFL/rugby) it's very interesting the similarities. Football is the brutes game where the crowd gets rowdy (and often downright ugly) where as cricket is more laid back, a better atmosphere for kids (excepting the five days of sunburn) and generally significantly cheaper (about half an AFL ticket).

People here seem to be more interested in football (the hype, the violence, the wardrobe malfunctions) which is hardly surprising. But almost all the Yank expats like myself I know agree that the one thing they miss about America is the inability to sit back on a given day and watch a good game of baseball. For those who remember it, it seems nothing quite compares to it...

[Dam8610]

One thing to point out here: If you can go to 5 baseball games for the price of one football game, then football is half price in comparison. 1 football game should cost the same price as 10 baseball games. Why, you ask? Because a baseball team has 81 home games per year, whereas a football team has 8. For all practical purposes, that's 10 baseball games:1 football game, yet the pricing ratio is only half of that. People just see $75 and think "That's outrageous", when for all practical purposes, it's actually a steal comparatively.

[Element]

Yeah, but who goes to all 81 games? Much easier to go to all 8 games.

[Nolan_Ryan]

I give the aticle 2 thumbs up

Yeah, but who goes to all 81 games? Much easier to go to all 8 games.

Obviously it's easier to go to all 8 games, but I bet there are people that go to all 81 baseball home games. If you have a job that's only weekdays and doesn't end too late, then it's able to be done. Say for example you live in Boston, and you only live 10 minutes or so away from Fenway Park, and you get out of work at like 3:00 PM. You can easily make it to the games and people with season tickets have their own parking spaces I think. For the weekend games, you can go to those too. As for the rare day games on weekdays (opening day and stuff) just take the day off from work. Sure, it's not exactly that simple, but it's possible.

[Jim Colyer]

Baseball is the greatest sport and the greatest game, full of history and great memories.

[taylor204]

Don't forget it's Japan's national pasttime too! The fans there are definitely way intense: http://www.hudsonent.com/feature.php?feature_id=34.

[ATLien]

I was about to rip this post apart when I saw the title, but then I read the piece. And took a different spin on it than I thought you would, so I can't really say nuttin.