Reese Kaplan -- Why Some of Us Love Baseball

If you polled many youngsters today and asked them their favorite sport the answer could very well come back basketball.  The game rose to its apex during the Michael Jordan era that’s long passed.  However, the basketball answer is somewhat easy to understand given the limited amount of equipment needed, the confined space required and the fact you can even enjoy practicing the game alone if no one else is available to join you.  If you did play the requisite game it would only necessitate finding 9 others to join you and you could have a simulation of a professional contest.

One of the reasons soccer is so popular world wide is the minimal equipment necessary with the added benefit to many participants that physical size is not necessarily an attribute that portends success on the field.

The numbers don’t lie either.  Basketball has surpassed baseball in popularity with fewer than 10% of people citing baseball as their favorite spectator sport.  Part of it is age – the median age of baseball fans is 57.  That means half of the fan base is even older than that (including me).  Contrast that with soccer whose fan base median age is just 40 and who now trails baseball by just two points in popularity for that entertainment dollar.

Football remains the number of spectator sport even after the various controversies from kneeling in protest at the playing of the national anthem as well as the various players involved in incidents of domestic violence and other criminal activities.  The median age of football fans skews younger than baseball at 50, but higher than basketball’s 42.

It can’t be the sheer number of players required to start a game (assuming a field is available) because football actually demands at least 22 players for a regulation type game (and that’s if the folks are willing to assume the roles of both offense and defense).  I bring that up because many immediately point to the 18 players necessary to play baseball, so that’s not the issue at hand with football being more popular. 

The sheer number of people is one of the issues brought up when comedian Bob Newhart once suggested how difficult it was to pitch the idea of the game of baseball were it to evolve nowadays vs back in Abner Doubleday’s era.

The other issue with baseball is the pace of the game.  It is indeed a slower experience than the many “up and down” games like soccer, basketball and football.  In these sports there are rigid time limits, a constant (and defined) type of action that must take place.  Comedian George Carlin suggested that the pastoral and relaxed pace of baseball is a positive compared to the militaristic tone of professional football.   

Without getting political, I often quote the famous conservative columnist and TV personality George Will who had two notable thoughts about the game we love.

“Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.”

But perhaps his most cogent observation was his take on the difference between football and baseball that resonates best with me:

“Football is a mistake. It combines the two worst elements of American life. Violence and committee meetings.”