What is your national sport?

[Pogo]

Baseball hasn't been the most popular sport in the US in decades. Calling it the national pastime is one of those "that's the way it's always been done" things you seem to hate.

That's a common aphorism. I've never heard anything else called the national pastime, but that's not "doing" something.

I don't know what's "most popular", or how one would measure that, but the OP asked what the "national sport" is, not what's the "most popular". Anyway I don't think the fact that ESPN is obsessed with it makes it the "most popular" anyway.

Having no idea what I'd find I looked up Major League Baseball and National Football League total attendance figures for the last available year, 2017. Pro sports only, understanding these do not represent "all" of the sports.

A bit over 17.2 million people attended NFL games last year, while
a bit over 72.6 million attended MLB games.

So I'm still a bit unclear where y'all get this idea that "football has eclipsed baseball decades ago".

Even ignoring things like revenue and television viewership, baseball has 100x as many games as football, so they get quite a bit fewer people at each game based on those numbers.

Actually it's ten times. Even I can do that math. 162 vs. 16, almost exactly ten.

Baseball has a longer season, but then again it's arguable that if football were the "national sport", IT would have the longer season. They'd be playing into January and February and the Stupor Bowl would coincide with Spring Training. And baseball has been stretched to such an early point in the year, if football predominated MLB could wait for better weather, as it used to.

It's a nebulous concept that has no concrete answer but I was just looking for some basis for this belief that "it used to be baseball, now it's football". I didn't find one.

LOL, I sure did add an extra 0.

Football has the most watched event, the Super Bowl, by far. Football has the most revenues, although baseball does surprisingly well. Top Professional Sports Leagues by Revenue

In 2016, the top 10 most watch sports events in the US were all NFL games. What The 10 Most Viewed Sports Events Tells Us About Our Bond With The NFL, NBA And College Sports

The most money brought in, the most people watching per game, both in the stands and on television, the most watched sports event in the country every year for years. Football is clearly more popular than the other major sports in the US by most metrics.

On the other hand, if you want to judge national pastime by what game people play most often, that's different. It might be baseball, although Wiki (the only place I found numbers in a quick search) puts basketball slightly ahead of baseball: Sports in the United States - Wikipedia

Baseball is still surprisingly popular, but it is not at the level of the NFL as far as professional sports go.

We are dealing with a nebulous definition -- the "national sport". There really isn't an official such title. But the closest match know of is the "national pastime", which has always been attached to baseball.

Again that's not the same question as "most popular", which is also vague and undefinable. Does it mean how many games are watched? How could we even measure that? My comparative numbers were between NFL and MLB only -- that doesn't figure in MiLB, college football, semipro leagues, Little League, or the aforementioned informal neighborhood kids squaring off of an afternoon in any sport. They all count toward 'popularity' as soon as people engage in it.

Or does it mean how many people play at any level of a given sport? No way to know that either.

And to turn the disparity between MLB and NFL games on the other side of its coin, baseball is played every day of the week including traditional workdays while football is reserved for Sundays, holidays and only an occasional evening, which sets it up with an availability advantage.

Or does it perhaps mean to what degree a given game is understood enough to follow with interest? The traditional father and son playing catch?

And does the fact that baseball is also popular in Latin America and Asia while (American) football is not, tilt the scale to football? Or is baseball "our" sport that we let "them" play? It's always a bit disingenuous to call the last stage the "World Series" when there are no teams from Cuba or Japan...

No real answer because many answers.

 

[Montrovant]

That's a common aphorism. I've never heard anything else called the national pastime, but that's not "doing" something.

I don't know what's "most popular", or how one would measure that, but the OP asked what the "national sport" is, not what's the "most popular". Anyway I don't think the fact that ESPN is obsessed with it makes it the "most popular" anyway.

Having no idea what I'd find I looked up Major League Baseball and National Football League total attendance figures for the last available year, 2017. Pro sports only, understanding these do not represent "all" of the sports.

A bit over 17.2 million people attended NFL games last year, while
a bit over 72.6 million attended MLB games.

So I'm still a bit unclear where y'all get this idea that "football has eclipsed baseball decades ago".

Even ignoring things like revenue and television viewership, baseball has 100x as many games as football, so they get quite a bit fewer people at each game based on those numbers.

Actually it's ten times. Even I can do that math. 162 vs. 16, almost exactly ten.

Baseball has a longer season, but then again it's arguable that if football were the "national sport", IT would have the longer season. They'd be playing into January and February and the Stupor Bowl would coincide with Spring Training. And baseball has been stretched to such an early point in the year, if football predominated MLB could wait for better weather, as it used to.

It's a nebulous concept that has no concrete answer but I was just looking for some basis for this belief that "it used to be baseball, now it's football". I didn't find one.

LOL, I sure did add an extra 0.

Football has the most watched event, the Super Bowl, by far. Football has the most revenues, although baseball does surprisingly well. Top Professional Sports Leagues by Revenue

In 2016, the top 10 most watch sports events in the US were all NFL games. What The 10 Most Viewed Sports Events Tells Us About Our Bond With The NFL, NBA And College Sports

The most money brought in, the most people watching per game, both in the stands and on television, the most watched sports event in the country every year for years. Football is clearly more popular than the other major sports in the US by most metrics.

On the other hand, if you want to judge national pastime by what game people play most often, that's different. It might be baseball, although Wiki (the only place I found numbers in a quick search) puts basketball slightly ahead of baseball: Sports in the United States - Wikipedia

Baseball is still surprisingly popular, but it is not at the level of the NFL as far as professional sports go.

We are dealing with a nebulous definition -- the "national sport". There really isn't an official such title. But the closest match know of is the "national pastime", which has always been attached to baseball.

Again that's not the same question as "most popular", which is also vague and undefinable. Does it mean how many games are watched? How could we even measure that? My comparative numbers were between NFL and MLB only -- that doesn't figure in MiLB, college football, semipro leagues, Little League, or the aforementioned informal neighborhood kids squaring off of an afternoon in any sport. They all count toward 'popularity' as soon as people engage in it.

Or does it mean how many people play at any level of a given sport? No way to know that either.

And to turn the disparity between MLB and NFL games on the other side of its coin, baseball is played every day of the week including traditional workdays while football is reserved for Sundays, holidays and only an occasional evening, which sets it up with an availability advantage.

Or does it perhaps mean to what degree a given game is understood enough to follow with interest? The traditional father and son playing catch?

And does the fact that baseball is also popular in Latin America and Asia while (American) football is not, tilt the scale to football? Or is baseball "our" sport that we let "them" play? It's always a bit disingenuous to call the last stage the "World Series" when there are no teams from Cuba or Japan...

No real answer because many answers.

I think of calling baseball the national pastime as a similar thing to calling the Cowboys America's team. You can do it, and there may be arguments in favor of it, but it seems kind of silly.

 

[dblack]

Baseball is the national sport. Football is the nationalist sport.

 

[Pogo]

Having no idea what I'd find I looked up Major League Baseball and National Football League total attendance figures for the last available year, 2017. Pro sports only, understanding these do not represent "all" of the sports.

A bit over 17.2 million people attended NFL games last year, while
a bit over 72.6 million attended MLB games.

So I'm still a bit unclear where y'all get this idea that "football has eclipsed baseball decades ago".

Even ignoring things like revenue and television viewership, baseball has 100x as many games as football, so they get quite a bit fewer people at each game based on those numbers.

Actually it's ten times. Even I can do that math. 162 vs. 16, almost exactly ten.

Baseball has a longer season, but then again it's arguable that if football were the "national sport", IT would have the longer season. They'd be playing into January and February and the Stupor Bowl would coincide with Spring Training. And baseball has been stretched to such an early point in the year, if football predominated MLB could wait for better weather, as it used to.

It's a nebulous concept that has no concrete answer but I was just looking for some basis for this belief that "it used to be baseball, now it's football". I didn't find one.

LOL, I sure did add an extra 0.

Football has the most watched event, the Super Bowl, by far. Football has the most revenues, although baseball does surprisingly well. Top Professional Sports Leagues by Revenue

In 2016, the top 10 most watch sports events in the US were all NFL games. What The 10 Most Viewed Sports Events Tells Us About Our Bond With The NFL, NBA And College Sports

The most money brought in, the most people watching per game, both in the stands and on television, the most watched sports event in the country every year for years. Football is clearly more popular than the other major sports in the US by most metrics.

On the other hand, if you want to judge national pastime by what game people play most often, that's different. It might be baseball, although Wiki (the only place I found numbers in a quick search) puts basketball slightly ahead of baseball: Sports in the United States - Wikipedia

Baseball is still surprisingly popular, but it is not at the level of the NFL as far as professional sports go.

We are dealing with a nebulous definition -- the "national sport". There really isn't an official such title. But the closest match know of is the "national pastime", which has always been attached to baseball.

Again that's not the same question as "most popular", which is also vague and undefinable. Does it mean how many games are watched? How could we even measure that? My comparative numbers were between NFL and MLB only -- that doesn't figure in MiLB, college football, semipro leagues, Little League, or the aforementioned informal neighborhood kids squaring off of an afternoon in any sport. They all count toward 'popularity' as soon as people engage in it.

Or does it mean how many people play at any level of a given sport? No way to know that either.

And to turn the disparity between MLB and NFL games on the other side of its coin, baseball is played every day of the week including traditional workdays while football is reserved for Sundays, holidays and only an occasional evening, which sets it up with an availability advantage.

Or does it perhaps mean to what degree a given game is understood enough to follow with interest? The traditional father and son playing catch?

And does the fact that baseball is also popular in Latin America and Asia while (American) football is not, tilt the scale to football? Or is baseball "our" sport that we let "them" play? It's always a bit disingenuous to call the last stage the "World Series" when there are no teams from Cuba or Japan...

No real answer because many answers.

I think of calling baseball the national pastime as a similar thing to calling the Cowboys America's team. You can do it, and there may be arguments in favor of it, but it seems kind of silly.

That's not the same thing at all because the latter is partisan marketing born of a superiority complex.

And it's exactly the reason everybody except fbj despises the Cowgirls.

 

[Pogo]

I do not know if you often get this kind of interruption at the baseball game?

Advertising??

 

[Dalia]

I do not know if you often get this kind of interruption at the baseball game?



Advertising??

I took out my post, no problem, you should take out the video in your post by editing

 

[Pogo]

I do not know if you often get this kind of interruption at the baseball game?



Advertising??

I took out my post, no problem, you should take out the video in your post by editing

I played it again and saw it's a real video that has advertising on it. I'm not used to that, sorry I have no patience for ads. It appears to be a video about a goose on the field?

There have been multiple incidences of wildlife or insects on the field, especially birds, also squirrels, bats, cats -- it's sad to watch because the animal (like this one) is usually trapped and in a panic as it's being chased. We hope they are taken to freedom outside. In one unfortunate incident a bird happened to fly in front of a pitch moving at probably a hundred miles an hour (160 km). The bird was destroyed instantly. I won't post it, it's too hard to watch.

In some fields that are near the ocean the seagulls descend on a regular basis and sometimes cause interruptions. Then there are swarms of gnats or even bees.

What we always say about baseball is that no matter how many games you watch you will always see something you've never seen before.

 

[Dalia]

I do not know if you often get this kind of interruption at the baseball game?



Advertising??

I took out my post, no problem, you should take out the video in your post by editing

I played it again and saw it's a real video that has advertising on it. I'm not used to that, sorry I have no patience for ads. It appears to be a video about a goose on the field?

There have been multiple incidences of wildlife or insects on the field, especially birds, also squirrels, bats, cats -- it's sad to watch because the animal (like this one) is usually trapped and in a panic as it's being chased. We hope they are taken to freedom outside. In one unfortunate incident a bird happened to fly in front of a pitch moving at probably a hundred miles an hour (160 km). The bird was destroyed instantly. I won't post it, it's too hard to watch.

In some fields that are near the ocean the seagulls descend on a regular basis and sometimes cause interruptions. Then there are swarms of gnats or even bees.

What we always say about baseball is that no matter how many games you watch you will always see something you've never seen before.

Pogo,That is weird i have no ads in it when i Watch the video

 

[Dalia]

I do not know if you often get this kind of interruption at the baseball game?



Advertising??

I took out my post, no problem, you should take out the video in your post by editing

I played it again and saw it's a real video that has advertising on it. I'm not used to that, sorry I have no patience for ads. It appears to be a video about a goose on the field?

There have been multiple incidences of wildlife or insects on the field, especially birds, also squirrels, bats, cats -- it's sad to watch because the animal (like this one) is usually trapped and in a panic as it's being chased. We hope they are taken to freedom outside. In one unfortunate incident a bird happened to fly in front of a pitch moving at probably a hundred miles an hour (160 km). The bird was destroyed instantly. I won't post it, it's too hard to watch.

In some fields that are near the ocean the seagulls descend on a regular basis and sometimes cause interruptions. Then there are swarms of gnats or even bees.

What we always say about baseball is that no matter how many games you watch you will always see something you've never seen before.

Dangerous animals I hope that do not come on the ground especially those who crawl

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

Soccer is very boring
Football has strategy and tension

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

Baseball is the national sport. Football is the nationalist sport.

Yep, a Spring sport and then a Fall sport

 

[Pogo]

I do not know if you often get this kind of interruption at the baseball game?



Advertising??

I took out my post, no problem, you should take out the video in your post by editing

I played it again and saw it's a real video that has advertising on it. I'm not used to that, sorry I have no patience for ads. It appears to be a video about a goose on the field?

There have been multiple incidences of wildlife or insects on the field, especially birds, also squirrels, bats, cats -- it's sad to watch because the animal (like this one) is usually trapped and in a panic as it's being chased. We hope they are taken to freedom outside. In one unfortunate incident a bird happened to fly in front of a pitch moving at probably a hundred miles an hour (160 km). The bird was destroyed instantly. I won't post it, it's too hard to watch.

In some fields that are near the ocean the seagulls descend on a regular basis and sometimes cause interruptions. Then there are swarms of gnats or even bees.

What we always say about baseball is that no matter how many games you watch you will always see something you've never seen before.

Dangerous animals I hope that do not come on the ground especially those who crawl

It is rare to see animals of whatever kind. I don't recall anything dangerous except swarms of bees which I think caused a game to stop temporarily. Most of the danger is to the animals.

Far more often baseball stops because of weather,especially rain and/or high winds. The price of playing outdoors. Football does not stop for weather, and that makes it interesting.

Personally I would like to see baseball played in snow. Just paint the ball orange so it can be seen. That would be fun. But I'm a snow lover.

 

[Pogo]

Dalia, at the moment there are eight major baseball games being played around the country with several more in the later time zones coming up soon.

 

[Dalia]

I do not know if you often get this kind of interruption at the baseball game?



Advertising??

I took out my post, no problem, you should take out the video in your post by editing

I played it again and saw it's a real video that has advertising on it. I'm not used to that, sorry I have no patience for ads. It appears to be a video about a goose on the field?

There have been multiple incidences of wildlife or insects on the field, especially birds, also squirrels, bats, cats -- it's sad to watch because the animal (like this one) is usually trapped and in a panic as it's being chased. We hope they are taken to freedom outside. In one unfortunate incident a bird happened to fly in front of a pitch moving at probably a hundred miles an hour (160 km). The bird was destroyed instantly. I won't post it, it's too hard to watch.

In some fields that are near the ocean the seagulls descend on a regular basis and sometimes cause interruptions. Then there are swarms of gnats or even bees.

What we always say about baseball is that no matter how many games you watch you will always see something you've never seen before.

Dangerous animals I hope that do not come on the ground especially those who crawl

It is rare to see animals of whatever kind. I don't recall anything dangerous except swarms of bees which I think caused a game to stop temporarily. Most of the danger is to the animals.

Far more often baseball stops because of weather,especially rain and/or high winds. The price of playing outdoors. Football does not stop for weather, and that makes it interesting.

Personally I would like to see baseball played in snow. Just paint the ball orange so it can be seen. That would be fun. But I'm a snow lover.

I love snow too here the soccer player play in winter sometime it get pretty cold

 

[Pogo]

Dalia, here is one of our best philosophers on the subject -- hope you can grasp the nuances

​

 

[Dalia]

I understand but a little less some American humor but it's well defined it's the two sports are the opposite and baseball is much better for several points

 

[Pogo]

I understand but a little less some American humor but it's well defined it's the two sports are the opposite and baseball is much better for several points

To some extent the two sports appeal to two different types of people. We call baseball the "thinking man's sport".

Mind you, it's not difficult to shift into either mode.

 

[Dalia]

Ha, Baseball, you have the home runs

 

[Montrovant]

I do not know if you often get this kind of interruption at the baseball game?



Advertising??

I took out my post, no problem, you should take out the video in your post by editing

I played it again and saw it's a real video that has advertising on it. I'm not used to that, sorry I have no patience for ads. It appears to be a video about a goose on the field?

There have been multiple incidences of wildlife or insects on the field, especially birds, also squirrels, bats, cats -- it's sad to watch because the animal (like this one) is usually trapped and in a panic as it's being chased. We hope they are taken to freedom outside. In one unfortunate incident a bird happened to fly in front of a pitch moving at probably a hundred miles an hour (160 km). The bird was destroyed instantly. I won't post it, it's too hard to watch.

In some fields that are near the ocean the seagulls descend on a regular basis and sometimes cause interruptions. Then there are swarms of gnats or even bees.

What we always say about baseball is that no matter how many games you watch you will always see something you've never seen before.

Dangerous animals I hope that do not come on the ground especially those who crawl

It is rare to see animals of whatever kind. I don't recall anything dangerous except swarms of bees which I think caused a game to stop temporarily. Most of the danger is to the animals.

Far more often baseball stops because of weather,especially rain and/or high winds. The price of playing outdoors. Football does not stop for weather, and that makes it interesting.

Personally I would like to see baseball played in snow. Just paint the ball orange so it can be seen. That would be fun. But I'm a snow lover.

Football does stop for weather. There are just different standards for what causes a game to be stopped.

 

[Montrovant]

I understand but a little less some American humor but it's well defined it's the two sports are the opposite and baseball is much better for several points

To some extent the two sports appeal to two different types of people. We call baseball the "thinking man's sport".

Mind you, it's not difficult to shift into either mode.

Dalia by "we" Pogo must mean baseball fans. No one I know calls baseball the "thinking man's sport."

Actually, that includes people who are at least minor baseball fans.