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.
Baseball was the American pastime since it was emblematic of broader American culture at the time. It was children or young people playing in an open field or perhaps in the street. A ball and bat or any reasonable substitutes which were at hand and you could 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.
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.
But baseball's perch as the American national pastime was hindered by more than football. While football overtook it as the most popular sport in the country, an ever increasing list of distractions emerged to take its place. New sports to play and watch, more television channels, video games, the Internet and many other factors as well. At the same time, in international competitions, America is routinely destroyed by other countries. Baseball is no longer necessarily the strongest and most beloved in the country of its origin.
Some of baseball's wounds have come at its own hand. The 1994 World Series was cancelled due to a player strike. Major League Baseball has done an incredibly poor job of dealing with steroid use in the league, claiming it bears no responsibility for the problem every time a scandal hits the news. The NFL on the other hand provided an example baseball would do well to follow when a steroid scandal came to light in the league. The NFL took responsibility, acted immediately and has not been plagued by recurrences as has Major League Baseball.
The answer to the question is no, baseball is not America's pastime anymore. Purists may lament that fact, but it's truth. Baseball used to be the pastime, but now it's just largely living in the past.
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