Why is Football More Popular Than Baseball in America

[@pete2199]

Very similar history in Mexico. Baseball dominated the country until the 1960s. There were several key factors, including Chivas, an all-Mexican team, winning several championships, Mexico hosting two world cups, and increased TV coverage of the domestic football league. Today, baseball is seeing a resurgence after Mexico’s crazy run in the WBC

[@rocknrallsoul94rockero4]

I'm Mexican American and a Doyers fan but I always was always fascinated with Mexican beisbol but finally last year now that I got a stable job and streaming and a car I was to go to see Mexican baseball live Toros de Tijuana in the summer and Aguilas de Mexicali in the winter. But I also like Tomateros Naranjeros Diablos Rojos Sultanes Tecos also I really dgaf about futbol puro beisbol

[@theathletearchives]

Nice video. I had some ideas about why baseball's popularity slipped but I think your supposition about the friendliness of football for TV makes sense. Now, of course, the current fiasco of regional sports networks and blackouts is absolutely destroying baseball. It's a damn shame.

[@sternshadowdude2]

The part about baseball being a regional sport is definitely true. Baseball's strongholds are cities like Boston, New York, Chicago, and St. Louis. Everywhere else in the country, football is the most popular sport.

[@skalty9868]

It’s weird they compete considering you can easily follow both. They don’t overlap

[@aaronstreitenberger6012]

This was interesting. MLB and the NFL don't really compete in terms of viewing either, so it really just comes down to viewing preferences. I will always prefer baseball, in fact, it's the only sport I really follow these days. The NBA and NFL have become downright unwatchable for me and none of my colleges had football teams but the JuCo. So it's kinda fascinating seeing it all go so differently for the general populace. Great video!

[@javiojeda521]

I’m 24 (as of today lol) and my favorite sport has always been Baseball. But of all my friends I’ve made who are also big sports fans only one of them also liked baseball. The other friends/people in general I’d interact with hardly knew anything about the league other than their favorite team. If the team made the playoffs they would pay attention, but other than that no. My closest friend has gotten into Baseball in the last year, he’s primarily only been a Bears fan but I would talk to him about Baseball. He would say things like “I don’t want to watch 162 games, it’s too much to follow”. And I would tell him that, I, a Baseball fan don’t watch that many games on TV. Because 100 years ago the way people followed Baseball was by buying a newspaper and checking scores, stats, and standings. Then when they didn’t have work they’d catch a game. I also elaborated by saying that while 162 games is a lot, it also means that almost any night during the season your team is playing, so if you’re bored and have nothing to do you can turn the game on (assuming it’s not blacked out). Today just replace newspapers with the MLB app. I told him I check the scores and maybe watch 1 game a week on TV. And I try and go to as many games as possible in person. I think this aspect of how different it is to follow each sport is a key factor in mainstream sports fans being turned off by Baseball. The scheduling and pace of play was developed so long ago that within a few generations people lost touch with following Baseball in favor of the “event” of NFL Sunday. I also think generally Baseballs culture of being “traditional” hurts it in some cases, it’s great to have historic rivalries and so much history to look back on. But the sport needs to be able to evolve with the times. I think people forget just how much Baseball has changed over its lifetime. But if we get so attached the myth that Baseball is the same sport as it was 100 years ago as the biggest draw then most kids will get turned off. Overall, I agree that Baseball likely will never retake the top spot in American sport culture which makes me sad. But I also don’t think that Baseball needs to, it just needs to stay relevant and remain one of the top 5 sports so that kids keep playing and fans keep coming through the turnstiles, even if it’s not their favorite sport.

[@fist406]

Happy birthday!

[@jayball820]

Agreed so much that football being played less often is why it's more popular now. Who has the time to watch 162 games in a few months? Most people have the time to watch a 3 hour game per week. If you don't at least you can watch the 10 minute recap

[@gbalph4]

As a viewer I’ve definitely enjoyed both on TV and in person and have no problems, it also helps that I live in LA where both sports get a lot of love. That being said my family from Boston did watch every team on TV and in person and generally preferred football and other fast action sports like basketball, hockey, and soccer over baseball.

[@HoshizakiYoshimasa]

Baseball is thriving globally. It's never been more popular in Asia and Latin America than right now. Japan arguably loves baseball more than the US now

[@perceivedvelocity9914]

I personally love watching the NFL on TV but hate football in person. A NFL game is constant whistle's and TV timeouts. You cannot see much of that when your watching TV. I don't really enjoy watching baseball on TV but I love attending games. The networks haven't changed the way that they film a baseball game in 50 years and it shows.

[@MIKEDOMO]

That happened in Dominican Republic until 1980s when the TV cables providers, baseball was the only sport to watch. Another sports are growing in popularity like NBA, soccer and NFL, but the gap is so huge. Maybe in three decades could soccer bypass baseball when the young athletes can play in Europe leagues.

[@HungNguyen-qr7bt]

I can’t count how many times movies from the 1980’s depicted people playing baseball… I don’t care that football surpassed baseball, if baseball can get back to the same level of popularity like those days, I’m already happy.

[@stevefish3124]

A big factor was the transfer of the Giants and the Dodgers from New York and Brooklyn to San Francisco and Los Angeles. And then the NFL Championship Game between the Football Giants and Baltimore Colts at the 11:11 Yankee Stadium in 1958 Baseball was televised differently in the 50,s and early 60's than it is today. The predominant angle was from behind home plate from the upper deck of a 2 tiered ballpark.The kinoscopes of the 6th ans 7th games of the 1952 World Series are on You Tube. Another factor is time. Even back in the 60's people were complaining that games took too long. That's why they started having night games moved up from around 8:15 to around 7:15 or even earlier. By the way, the longest game in history as far as innings is concerned is the 26 inning game on May 1, 1920 at Braves Field between Boston and Brooklyn. It started about an hour later than scheduled due to rain, ended in a tie due to darkness, took 3 hours and 50 minutes to play. Another interesting fact: back in the old days the Giants home games started late, at 4, because the Stock Market closed at 3. And the fans who worked at the Market could still get home in time for dinner!

[@RobSmith-ye3rk]

MLB is always slow to react. Pitching clocks should have been added a decade ago and for some reason MLB is unable to promote players

[@wizardoferror9942]

Baseball I prefer over football. Don’t get me wrong, I like football as much as the next person, but it’s so annoying with how much people won’t stop talking about it. Despite football handling TV broadcast better than baseball, both sports never intended to compete with each other. Ratings isn’t competition.

[@eleazarloyo8473]

In Venezuela, I think the reason baseball has been the most popular sport is that, like in Japan, other sports, such as football and basketball, developed relatively late. The LVBP was the first baseball league in South America back in the 1940s; meanwhile, basketball was not professionalized until the 70s. As for football, while the Venezuelan league was professionalized only 12 years after the foundation of the baseball league, the sport was contained for a couple of decades in only the areas around the capital. It is also a factor that Venezuela was the last country to develop football in South America, so when Venezuelan teams went to play against other South American teams, they usually got beaten badly. In contrast, Venezuelan baseball teams were internationally competitive because baseball was introduced relatively early compared to other countries in Latin America (especially South America). Having said that, baseball in recent years has been losing ground over football; I would not be surprised if football did not become the most popular sport in the country within 20 years.

[@RobSmith-ye3rk]

I also think the season is tooo long making the playoffs seemingly anticlimactic, the college game should be developed to make a more exiting draft because most people don’t know who the amateur players are

[@Marylandbrony]

I actually think Baseball can make a comeback, Daily games means more chance for gambling/betting on games. Which is now a huge experience and better in an explicitly turn based format. While the NFL has turned much more into an “Entertainment” product relatively. Think Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcy. That might turn off traditional sports fans and might find a more “Prue” sport. I doubt the MLB will ever over take the NFL and I am not counting college which has its own advantages and disadvantages. But I feel good about the sport in the long term.

[@elintocable0072]

In my country 🇵🇷 right now basketball is the number one and baseball is second.

[@44song]

NFL: Wild celebrations after touch downs. MLB: You are not allowed to flip the bat after HR, nor show your true emotion. Otherwise the opposing pitcher will hit the batter because you don't care about his feeling.

[@anthonytitone]

Because nobody cares about a 162 game season, when I turn on an NFL game I care about the result, I literally don’t care if my Giants win a game unless it’s in the playoffs

[@elyfel1183]

I miss the CPBL updates...

[@sootchh4055]

It's great that you briefly mentioned the popularity of baseball in Japan... TV in the 1950s was what made professional baseball biggest national pastime there, along with televised sumo and wrestling. Before that the most popular sport among the Japanese masses was college and high school baseball (Koshien).

[@jimmybananahamok6903]

Video killed the radio star

[@aliensyndrome4280]

Is baseball second most popular or is it basketball or hockey?

[@anthony_rivera4735]

This makes me worried that the mlb will fold in two years.

[@franciscobaez1640]

The story for Mexico is similar, but -at the same time- more complex. Baseball and boxing were more popular than soccer in the 50s. But in the sixties there was a big push by television towards soccer (to the degree that the main private network has owned two teams). Baseball was popular enough in the 60s and 70s that TV aired a couple of Little League games on Saturday mornings, and an LMB game on the afternoon, plus the World Series since 1963. Soccer popularity continued to develop after the World Cup in 1970 (Mexico was host, and the TV network tycoons were among the organizers), helped by another factor: technical evolution allowed to air soccer games outside Mexico City, so the schedule was moved, playing from Friday night to Sunday night, and you could watch several games a week, while Mexican League baseball lost its slot. Then came a brief baseball frenzy, driven by Fernandomania; every one of Valenzuela’s games was televised. In the 70s, NFL was introduced in TV and became popular among the upper-middle class. Boxing popularity faded due to going pay-per-event… until the 2010s. Baseball is making a comeback, due to several things: Mexico’s soccer team is not good, unlike the baseball team in the WBC, the former president of Mexico is a huge baseball and promoted it in different ways, the Mexican League got better and there is enough TV coverage of MLB. All this said, baseball fanship is still much smaller than soccer’s (except in a few Northwestern states and the so-called Southeast (the Yucatán peninsula), and American football is growing in popularity, because of TV.

[@顏大俠-j9u]

棒球一直沒有舉辦過真正的世界盃，過去的世界盃棒球賽1938-2011 npb從未派最強明星，kbo1982之後也一樣，mlb更是。現在wbsc舉辦的12強只有世界排名前12的參加，wbc更是由mlb指定那些對伍能夠參賽，加上資格賽的對伍就只有24支球隊而已，上一屆還有28隊，真正的世界盃棒球賽應該像足球一樣，任何會員國都有資格參賽，想參加就可以報名打資格賽，不用經過mlb同意，跟足球世界盃一樣獨立一個會外賽有200隊參加，wbsc現在有141個會員國，讓大家自由報名最少會超過100隊以上參與，等到棒球世界盃正賽開始，這參加資格賽的100多個國家的國民多多少少都會有人觀注，不會像目前世界的棒球圈只有為數不多的國家為這項運動瘋狂，為什麼世界棒球的主要組織都看不到這點？

[@e.m8817]

I believe baseball is making a come back. More kids now are playing baseball than before.

[@wildsmiley]

I honestly don't like football at all. Baseball is my game. Unfortunately, I live in a state where my MLB team trails the NFL team in popularity, and it so doesn't help that my team usually sucks. There's also NBA and NHL teams here, too. Now, guess what state I live in. There's a few that are like that. I sometimes wonder what it'd be like to live in NYC or Boston, where MLB dominates more.

[@okolo22000]

The 1994 MLB strike didn’t help matters either. At this point in America baseball might not even be #2; basketball (at least how the revenues are structured financially) is right now #2. More people on average watch basketball at home and the TV networks & streaming services are willing to pay more to cover tackle football & basketball than baseball. On that note, if the entire planet (or at least Europe, South America & Africa) are concerned; soccer (futbol) could eventually become a bigger sport financially than ALL the sports but that might still be decades to come. Soccer in the U.S. still isn’t even watched as much as hockey so they have to pass that to even be seen as competitive. Ultimately baseball right now is closer to #4 than they are to obtaining #1.

[@Matt20911985]

I would say it’s going to change in the future. Why because of concussion syndrome. This problem is making football boring to watch. Not to mention the inherent guilt of watching players who could one day lose their minds playing a game not meant for humans. While baseball because of rule changes and streaming opportunities has recaptured their popularity.

[@YourstohaveinLou]

Everything will change, soon!

[@mayquelmiranda6282]

I don’t think is that football 🏈 surpassed baseball I believe is that NFL surpassed MLB because spring football 🏈 does not compete with MLB I believe has nothing to do with the sport it has more to do that NFL is a better product than MLB.

[@DowonLee-hb7mw]

A bit sad As a baseball fan I’ve been admiring MLB for a long time ever since the day I started to watch the game Meanwhile,baseball is really huge in east Asia like Japan,South Korea,Taiwan So as a massive baseball fan I was pretty sad to know that baseball is not the most popular sport in America anymore But I will consider America as birth place of baseball no matter what.

[@RC_928]

Baseball would much rather cater to boomers than younger audiences