We tend to think of baseball as the American national pastime, but is this sport still worthy of the title? Baseball hasn't been the most popular sport in the US for quite some time now and even though it is undeniably an important piece of our national heritage, it doesn't occupy the same place of prominence in the American consciousness which it once did. Baseball has largely been replaced both as a form of entertainment and as a shared cultural experience by different sports and activities.
One of the things that made baseball the American pastime was that it translated so easily into our culture of the past. It was a bunch of young men, boys even, who played a sport in a field or open street by their house. All you needed was a ball and a bat, or even a rock and a stick to learn how to play.
The game had a casual, easy going pace for a society which was much more casual itself. Each pitch is separated by a pause, each moment of intensity is broken up by a break. It matched our society which, without the internet or even television, had a much longer attention span.
The game was a perfect fit for the medium of radio. Baseball's slower pace could translate to radio with the work of gifted broadcasters who could describe the action as it happened; if you've ever listened to baseball on the radio, you already understand how well the medium pairs with the game. When television came along, baseball came to the small screen, but the rhythms of baseball are not a natural fit for television. Football however proved to be an excellent fit for the new medium and came to overshadow baseball's popularity in a few short decades.
When you saw football on the television, you could see the size, strength and speed of the players. You could see how hard the hits were, how devastating the impact was. You could almost feel the hits yourself. The plays happened quickly and the game as a whole moved rapidly. None of these qualities were easily described on the radio, which had hindered the growth of the sport.
Football isn't the only reason baseball has ceased to be America's national pastime. Other sports came into vogue and cable television became available, offering television audiences more than a handful of channels to choose from. With the arrival of home video gaming systems in the late 1970s followed soon after by personal computers, baseball lost the attention of young people, traditionally the core of its fan base. The sport is now more important to the citizens of other nations than it is in the country where it was first played and teams from Latin America and Asia regularly trounce US teams in international games. It's a reminder that while baseball's status as our favorite pastime may be very much in doubt, the sport itself is very much alive and well.
Baseball has suffered some serious self-inflicted injuries as well. A strike caused the World Series to be cancelled in 1994 and the league has regularly handled steroid use scandals poorly, refusing to accept any responsibility for a culture of performance enhancing drug use. Football has had its own steroid scandal, something the NFL quickly handled and has not recurred since.
Sadly, baseball is no longer America's favorite pastime. Baseball will always be an iconic American sport and a part of our culture, but it certainly seems that the heyday of professional baseball is behind us now.
One of the things that made baseball the American pastime was that it translated so easily into our culture of the past. It was a bunch of young men, boys even, who played a sport in a field or open street by their house. All you needed was a ball and a bat, or even a rock and a stick to learn how to play.
The game had a casual, easy going pace for a society which was much more casual itself. Each pitch is separated by a pause, each moment of intensity is broken up by a break. It matched our society which, without the internet or even television, had a much longer attention span.
The game was a perfect fit for the medium of radio. Baseball's slower pace could translate to radio with the work of gifted broadcasters who could describe the action as it happened; if you've ever listened to baseball on the radio, you already understand how well the medium pairs with the game. When television came along, baseball came to the small screen, but the rhythms of baseball are not a natural fit for television. Football however proved to be an excellent fit for the new medium and came to overshadow baseball's popularity in a few short decades.
When you saw football on the television, you could see the size, strength and speed of the players. You could see how hard the hits were, how devastating the impact was. You could almost feel the hits yourself. The plays happened quickly and the game as a whole moved rapidly. None of these qualities were easily described on the radio, which had hindered the growth of the sport.
Football isn't the only reason baseball has ceased to be America's national pastime. Other sports came into vogue and cable television became available, offering television audiences more than a handful of channels to choose from. With the arrival of home video gaming systems in the late 1970s followed soon after by personal computers, baseball lost the attention of young people, traditionally the core of its fan base. The sport is now more important to the citizens of other nations than it is in the country where it was first played and teams from Latin America and Asia regularly trounce US teams in international games. It's a reminder that while baseball's status as our favorite pastime may be very much in doubt, the sport itself is very much alive and well.
Baseball has suffered some serious self-inflicted injuries as well. A strike caused the World Series to be cancelled in 1994 and the league has regularly handled steroid use scandals poorly, refusing to accept any responsibility for a culture of performance enhancing drug use. Football has had its own steroid scandal, something the NFL quickly handled and has not recurred since.
Sadly, baseball is no longer America's favorite pastime. Baseball will always be an iconic American sport and a part of our culture, but it certainly seems that the heyday of professional baseball is behind us now.
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