The Decline of America's Favorite Pastime

​Article by: Peter Caceci

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Baseball’s popularity amongst the American population is dwindling with each younger generation. It seems to be extremely upsetting, since the sport has been identified as a social vehicle for our society. Helping by entertaining children during the great depression, to generating a winning feeling in such cities that no one would think of obtaining.  As time continues to advance, there are many factors that have diminished the excitement for the sport.

It seems with the rise of sports icons in different sports such as Lebron James or Tom Brady in comparison to baseball, and the decreasing physicality of the sport itself have taken its toll on the MLB.  If you were to go to any social media account on Instagram and search a certain baseball player, only a handful would currently have a large following.  That would be all-stars like Mike Trout or Bryce Harper, who are again, part of a handful of players that are in the headlines for baseball news.  

Nowadays, viewers are looking for a game that is rough, tough, and fast-paced like running down the court to go for a layup or to throw a game winning touchdown in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.  Even sports like hockey, which have a specific group of fans, can generate more appeal than a regular season baseball game. Sports writers from all around the country have expressed similar concerns, as their children’s baseball teams are having trouble trying to recruit.  

The bulk of people who are around 22 years old or younger also tend to have a low attention span.  If you would like to debate with me on that point, try reading at least two books without being assigned by a teacher.  Most would rather have some type of risk behind the game to give it more appeal, like a playoff or World Series game.  The average baseball game can take up to, if not over, 3 and a half hours.  Other sports like basketball only last half of that length, depending if the game goes into overtime.  The factors that add to the length are the commercial breaks, time in between batters going to the plate, the revolving door of pitchers, and time in between innings. 

From my own experience, the people that I know that watch baseball typically do not watch the entire game, unless there is an exciting factor behind it as I mentioned before.  The highlight reel that is later shown on major sports news sites is what most would watch.  It is also upsetting to see an American classic like baseball, which has spread its popularity to the far areas of the globe, disappear like an old building in its own country of origin.  Will the viewership change in the future? I do not know.  I hope that we acknowledge what is being lost, and as a result push ourselves to watch and teach young ones about the sport of baseball.

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