Baseball is the American national pastime. At least, we all think of it as holding that lofty perch, don’t we? But the truth of the matter is that it has been a very long time since baseball was the most popular sport in the country. While it has firm roots as once being a sport of huge social and cultural importance, that is not the case anymore. It has been replaced by a variety of things, including other sports and other forms of entertainment and activity.
Baseball became America’s favorite pastime in an era which it served as a fitting symbol of American culture. Children with a bat and ball (or anything which could stand in for a bat and ball in a pinch) playing in a field or on a city street seemed to be emblematic of the United States in the days before television beckoned us to spend our leisure time indoors.
The slower pace of baseball made it the right sport for its time. Baseball is a sport where no matter how fast things may move for a moment, it is only for a moment and a break in the action is always shortly ahead. Baseball is a game tailored for longer attention spans than many of us possess today or so it would seem, a perfect game for those times before the internet or television found their way into our lives.
Baseball translated perfectly to the radio. The slower rhythms of the game were easily described by talented broadcasters who described game after game, night after night. However, baseball with its slower pace did not translate as well to the world of television. Football is the sport that translated excellent to the world of television, and TV is the reason that football was able to become the most popular sport in the country, in fact replacing baseball as America’s favored national pastime.
When you saw football on the television, you could see the size, strength and speed of the players. You could see how hard the hits were, how devastating the impact was. You could almost feel the hits yourself. The plays happened quickly and the game as a whole moved rapidly. None of these qualities were easily described on the radio, which had hindered the growth of the sport.
But baseball’s perch as the American national pastime was hindered by more than football. While football overtook it as the most popular sport in the country, an ever increasing list of distractions emerged to take its place. New sports to play and watch, more television channels, video games, the Internet and many other factors as well. At the same time, in international competitions, America is routinely destroyed by other countries. Baseball is no longer necessarily the strongest and most beloved in the country of its origin.
Baseball has suffered some serious self-inflicted injuries as well. A strike caused the World Series to be cancelled in 1994 and the league has regularly handled steroid use scandals poorly, refusing to accept any responsibility for a culture of performance enhancing drug use. Football has had its own steroid scandal, something the NFL quickly handled and has not recurred since.
Sadly, baseball is no longer America’s favorite pastime. Baseball will always be an iconic American sport and a part of our culture, but it certainly seems that the heyday of professional baseball is behind us now.
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