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Originally Posted by UMP25
You cannot compare baseball to other sports in terms of ratings, JR, without tweaking numbers. Baseball plays 162 games a year for 6-7 months. They play every day of the week except for two specific dates (two dates on which no major pro sport plays, BTW). Football plays, for the most part, on one day a week--Sundays (I'm not including Monday Night Football here because that's one game and not most/all of the NFL).
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Obviously we are talking about pro football as it relates to ratings. If some small conference in college plays on some Wednesday, the average public are not watching those games.
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Originally Posted by UMP25
I absolutely love the NFL, but I can assure you of this: if they played 7 days a week, I'd tune out. As it is now, I hate it when they play on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday during a given week. This overexposure or oversaturation results in lower viewing ratings, but that doesn't mean its popularity has declined. For another year, MLB recorded record attendance. I believe that's the third or fourth year in a row, too. Hardly the sign of a sport in which "most Americans" have little interest.
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Attendance is different than who is watching at home. There are college games that have more attendance than they ever had in 100 years of football, but the there are millions at home watching those games in many cases. And I am not talking about post season games where the champion will be determined by the end of the game. And I bet that more people watched the New Orleans Saints (0-5 going into the game) and the Seattle Seahawks than the game we are discussing here.
Also I have worked Freshman basketball games that had more people in attendance than almost every HS varsity (and do not get me started about college games from JUCO to D-1) that I worked this past spring and that includes a Saturday or Sunday game when there is nothing else going on.
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Originally Posted by UMP25
You also cannot define its popularity by citing participation among the nation's high schoolers, because, among other reasons, football, for example, has a bigger roster and necessarily requires more participants in order to function. Also, baseball is not considered a big "money sport" for one main reason: baseball parks at high schools and colleges lack the ability to draw fans in the area of 30,000 to 100,000, which is something football can do. Even soccer and basketball can draw more fans. So, financial logistics will determine the apparent "popularity" to which you allude.
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When you compare attendance and the viewing public, baseball is behind the NFL and the NBA. If the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs or maybe even the LA Dodgers are not playing in the post season, the ratings fall drastically. In Colorado there were hardly anyone attending those games about a month ago until they were seriously in the playoff run. If the Red Sox do not win the American League Crown, I can tell you the ratings will fall off big time.
And yes it does matter what kids in this country think because those are who is going to watch and be fans generations from now. When I was a kid we played pick up whiffle ball games and we were always outside playing. I still see kids playing basketball on the playground. And if you want to talk about what kids do much more than play outside, and then you need to start talking about video games. One of the most popular video games is Madden Football. I bet you cannot even tell me what is the equivalent for Major League Baseball which tries to promote the sport? Basketball has become so popular during the summer, I do not see the same level of baseball teams as I do during the summer during these basketball leagues.
Look the guys in their 30s and 40s and above are still watching a lot of baseball because we grew up with that sport. Baseball was my favorite sport as a kid and I played it the longest. When I tried out for my HS baseball teams, there were 40 or 50 kids trying to make it. There was a cut to pick the top 20-25 players. Now I barely see kids at the HS level playing the sport and to get a team with 15 players is an accomplishment for even the big schools. My HS only had about 600 students when I graduated. The schools I am working and seeing on a regular basis hare 1500 to 2500 in many cases. You are telling me they cannot find another 10 kids to fill the varsity squad? I seem 20 kids at summer basketball games that those same HS.
Peace