Many beautiful things accompany the emergence of spring. Flowers explode, birds rejoice and a long-awaited end of the school year looms closer. But for any red-blooded American, these trivialities are just minor blips on the radar as the arrival of spring means only one thing: baseball.
More than just sunflower seeds and Cracker Jack, America’s favorite pastime brings us camaraderie, a hometown team to cheer and channels upon channels of games to choose from almost every night. No doubt the experience of a baseball game is wholesome and enjoyable — “fun for the whole family” if you will. However, in recent years, a new player (excuse the pun) has emerged to challenge baseball as America’s favorite pastime. Unless you’ve been under a rock the past few years, you know what I’m talking about: football.
Beer-drinking fanatics operate on an entirely different level in the arena of football as program ratings have certainly shown. While this year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched ever with 111 million viewers, the last World Series only reined in an average 14.3 million viewers. This statistic alone is a huge check in football’s box, and it is hard to disregard as trivial when comparing the two sports. So why is it that football is threatening to take the title of favorite pastime? Perhaps it has to do with season length. The National Football League’s regular season has only 16 games while Major League Baseball’s extends to 162. As the saying goes, perhaps quality — not quantity — has begun to prevail and spectators enjoy the week-long buildup of smack talk and tailgate-planning for a glutinous Sunday of football over the scattering of baseball games available every night. Baseball is played for more than a third of the year, and perhaps for some viewers it has lost the excitement football retains in its short, intensive season. A silly comparison would be Girl Scout cookies, which wouldn’t be nearly as popular if available year-round. Baseball is less anticipated due to the lengthy season and therefore less exciting. Or perhaps it’s the rising ticket prices due to rising player salaries. Everyone expects to pay an arm and leg to attend a football game, but baseball is supposed to be fairly cheap. As I can say from my experiences at Turner Field, $8.50 each for a hot dog and pretzel isn’t cheap — it’s outrageous. And if you want a cold beer, you’d better hope you picked your money tree this morning as it’ll easily run you $10. These novelties on top of the actual ticket price crush the picturesque afternoon-at-the-ballpark nostalgia. And then there’s the kicker (pun again intended). The real reason football has pulled so far ahead comes in such forms as the Big Ten, Pac 10 and, of course, the SEC. That’s right — college football. The atmosphere surrounding college football is intoxicating, and people are thrilled with supporting a team they can associate with. Sure, you may wear a Browns hat on Sunday because you’re from Cleveland, but when your alma mater THE Ohio State University plays, you’ve got your face painted and banner flying in the front yard. You fondly remember your school days, or perhaps you’re still a student. Either way, it’s with a fiery passion that you cheer your boys.
So, is baseball still America’s favorite pastime? Technically yes, but its grip is slowly slipping. Not many fans are still interested in the season after their team has clinched the division with 20 games left, so excitement wanes and soon “Have the playoffs started yet?” fills the air. Once the center of American culture, baseball has taken a step back as football moves in and captures minds and hearts. Don’t fret, baseball, you had a good run, but you may have finally fouled out.
Laura Ellermeyer is a first-year finance major. Her column appear on Tuesdays.
