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 slower pace of baseball made it the right sport for its time. Baseball is a sport where no matter how fast things may move for a moment, it is only for a moment and a break in the action is always shortly ahead. Baseball is a game tailored for longer attention spans than many of us possess today or so it would seem, a perfect game for those times before the internet or television found their way into our lives.
Baseball translated perfectly to the radio. The slower rhythms of the game were easily described by talented broadcasters who described game after game, night after night. However, baseball with its slower pace did not translate as well to the world of television. Football is the sport that translated excellent to the world of television, and TV is the reason that football was able to become the most popular sport in the country, in fact replacing baseball as America's favored national pastime.
The speed and the raw physicality of football seem tailor made for the medium of television. Watching a football game on television, you can see every play and admire the speed and skill of the players and almost feel the force of players colliding on the field yourself. Compared to football, baseball seemed to be a little lacking as a televised sport. Football had been held back before since it didn't translate well to radio while baseball ruled the roost. Now, the roles had been reversed.
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. - 24585
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 slower pace of baseball made it the right sport for its time. Baseball is a sport where no matter how fast things may move for a moment, it is only for a moment and a break in the action is always shortly ahead. Baseball is a game tailored for longer attention spans than many of us possess today or so it would seem, a perfect game for those times before the internet or television found their way into our lives.
Baseball translated perfectly to the radio. The slower rhythms of the game were easily described by talented broadcasters who described game after game, night after night. However, baseball with its slower pace did not translate as well to the world of television. Football is the sport that translated excellent to the world of television, and TV is the reason that football was able to become the most popular sport in the country, in fact replacing baseball as America's favored national pastime.
The speed and the raw physicality of football seem tailor made for the medium of television. Watching a football game on television, you can see every play and admire the speed and skill of the players and almost feel the force of players colliding on the field yourself. Compared to football, baseball seemed to be a little lacking as a televised sport. Football had been held back before since it didn't translate well to radio while baseball ruled the roost. Now, the roles had been reversed.
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. - 24585
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