My view on professional sport in the United States....

[PVVikings2006]

Of all the major sports in the United States: NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL.....which is truly an all american sport? By far and away, it is the NFL.

The NBA is a great league with some great stars: LeBron James, Dwayne Wade....and so on. But what about Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzi, Tim Duncan, Vlade Divac, Yao Ming, Peja Stojakovic and Hedo Turkoglu? These are not the only ones either. The NBA is taking on an international flavor... much like MLB has already done from places such as Cuba, Dominican Republic, etc. The United States still has its star power... but I feel that soon in the next few years, the days of when the NBA teams will play for its World Championship... and the days when MLB will have its World Series... a 7 game series to determine which team wins the "World Championship" will take on a whole new meaning. The world is shrinking and so are the number of Americans who are making their name on the professional scene.

I feel that for many years, Americans have become spoiled by the fact that we dont really have to work hard to be the best. It is something that we are. To be the best naturally is not a given which I believe is something that the Olympics has taught us in basketball. Even if we had put our best players on the field for the World Baseball Classic, I feel that it would have been a struggle. I could see why some players would not choose to play. Why would you want to go into spring training... getting ready to play your professional career for a chance to go to the World Series when in the back of your mind... you lose the World Baseball Classic and realize that you arent the best in the world. What does being a world champion mean then? That you are the best in the world in your own mind?

The Dream Team of 1992 will always be a team that set the bar for what American wants to be perceived as in terms of winning. They were a collection of classic competitors. They were a collection of people who had basketball iq's that were off the chart They were our very best. I believe that the Dream Team established something else that summer of 1992. I believe they established a dream in many youngsters overseas.....who wanted to be like Mike, or who wanted to bring their own version of Showtime to the arena. Of all the sports that has shown one of the more rapid rises in the international world, basketball has taken huge leaps in the past few years.

I have never been a huge baseball fan, but last night... I watched the Japan - Korea final in the World Baseball Classic. It had all the things that you look for in a game.... it had drama, it has passion by the fans, it had two of the nations best going at it to be called the world's best baseball country. You couldn't pay me to watch a regular season MLB game and yet here I was flipping between a game between Japan and Korea and Stephen Curry vs. Patrick Mills.... an Australian if I may add.

Watch a MLB game sometime this year.... you aren't going to see fans standing up... blowing horns, beating drums... beating thunder sticks with great fervor. No.. thats too uncivilized for us Americans. We're too good for that. We dont get up and make fools of ourselves because that looks stupid to do things like that to support your team. We sit on our behinds and we clap and talk to the person next to us about the economy and oh there's a pop fly.. oh...in play... and yeah.. what about those bailouts? Socializing is good.... but being in an atmosphere like that.... I'd just about be tempted to pick up a glove and a bat and go play some baseball again... something I thought I'd never say in my life.

American will be the best in anything it wants to be again and again.......but ONLY when it has the passion, the excitement and the true love it once had when it invented all these great sports.

By the way.......there was a quote made by a former professional football player who is a Hall of Famer... who summed it up pretty much in a short sentence a few years ago if I may add......"Baseball...it is and always will be America's great past time... but football... is America's passion." And I will have to agree.... and why? Because of all the professional sports around today.....football is the one sport where you will find fans standing up screaming, dressed up with wigs on their heads and paiint on their face, beating drums and going nuts.... because football is the one sport that is by far truly American.

[7teen]

Football teams play 8 home games.
Basketball teams play 41 home games
Baseball teams play 81 home games.

Fans don't dress up in wigs and go insane for 81 home games. I have been to plenty of baseball games over the years and at nearly every game, there is a pocket of young fans with their shirts off, letters painted on their chest, doing what they can to be insane.

I also went to Yankee stadium 2 years back and those fans were definitely passionate. I went to a mid summers game, on a Wednesday, at 12:30. The place was packed. I despise the Yankees, but it was the best atmosphere for a baseball game I have ever attended. Did they have drums and thunder sticks? No, but they were definitely passionate.

Football definitely rules the American passion it seems, but I wouldn't just discount the other sports as fading out.

[R13]

The other sports are more exciting and that's just a fact. Baseball is a slow game and not really too exciting IMO. A game like basketball is fast pace and more thrilling. More scoring = chance for more spectacular plays = more reason to stand up and cheer or yell at the TV.

[steer]

Baseball is a great way to spend some summer days. Nothing beats going to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, for an all day game.

But football is the true American game... Why? because no other country in the world really has football. There is that NFL Europe (or did they end that?), then the Canadian football league..
so yeah, football is the true american sport... because, no other country really has it...

[7teen]

Baseball is a great way to spend some summer days. Nothing beats going to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, for an all day game.

But football is the true American game... Why? because no other country in the world really has football. There is that NFL Europe (or did they end that?), then the Canadian football league..
so yeah, football is the true american sport... because, no other country really has it...

But with the NFL playing games in London, Mexico, and Canada every year, how much longer can you say that?

[pvfan]

Baseball>All. For people who really and I mean really love sports I can't figure why baseball isn't more popular among younger people. It's everyday, if the Skins lose I have to wait til next Sunday, with the Reds sometimes the game is over at 10:30 and they are back on the diamond by 1:00 the next day. Maybe thats the problem, I'm obsessed, I treat baseball season like most around here treat football. Few years ago when I first started dating my girlfirend we went down to Lee County, I was showing here where my grandmother used to live, on the way home (before I had XM Radio and btw if you don't have it get it) I was listening to 700 WLW on the radio, it was fading in and out bad during the 8th inning, I pulled over and drove slowy til I found a spot that it would come in clearly, parked and listened to the rest of the game. Til this day we still have problems about going out in the summer, I'd rather sit on my couch in front of a tv or my computer screen and watch the Reds than anything in the world.

[R13]

You just explained the problem IMO. People aren't that excited about baseball because there are so many games, look how important one game is with 16 as opposed 162 games. One, two, three, ten losses means nothing in the MLB...look in the NFL...lose 6/7 games and you could possibly be sitting home come playoff time. NBA has half of the games and 10 times the pace, even if you're watching the spurs "Hey if I miss a yankee game tonight, i can still catch 4 more this week", that would be the problem IMO with why people don't get into it as much as other sports. The game is slow, the season is slow and the game is clouded with things like steroids these days...the NFL has nowheres near as many and you never hear of a juiced NBA player. To each his own though, people just are into different things. Hell I can't sit through 2 sec of golf or a race, but a lot never miss one...haven't figured that out yet. I love sports...football, basketball, hockey, baseball, mma and even tennis sometimes...but baseball IMO is the least exciting out of the mainstream sports.

[duckmeat]

I don't think the length of the baseball season holds it back at all. And people who don't think baseball is exciting and think it is slow don't fully get the strategy of it. I do think MLB is killing itself though. Steroids makes the last era either literally or theoretically have an asterisk beside it, the best hitter and the best pitcher I've ever seen were both cheating. How often do you turn on the TV and see baseball talk when steroids aren't mentioned? The lack of a salary cap means that the Yankees can go out and spend more money this off season than the entire NL, while small market teams like my reds bring up great talent only to see them go make their millions somewhere else.

The NFL just plain dominates. The games are played when most people aren't working, the season is nice, short and easy to follow. Every team has a chance to be shitty one year then go to the Superbowl the next or make the playoffs(Dolphins, Falcons, Cards). Even their freakin draft is a bigger event than alot of other sports playoff games. Fantasy football(more popular than baseball IMO) also helps the NFL tremendously. People tune into awful teams like the Lions because Calvin Johnson is on their team. Betting is also really popular in the NFL. Jersey sells are greater than any other sport. I could go on and on and on...but like I said, the NFL just dominates.

[R13]

I understand the strategy completely and things can be exciting, but not nearly as much as football or basketball. I can watch a NBA Finals or Superbowl that doesn't have the cowboys or suns in it and that is every year, but i can't do that with the World Series or any other baseball game that doesn't have my team in it.100 times worse. The salary cap means squat, the Yankees spent hundreds of millions last year and were sitting at home with the Reds come October. The Yankees sale tickets, they sure sold a lot last year with the last year of the old Stadium and they'll sale a lot with the new one this year...but most of all they usually win and have a lonnnnnnnng history of winning, that sales tickets year in and year out. A lot of teams have chances to bring in good players but back out, how many times have those braves did that? These teams can win games, sale tickets/merchandise and you'll have money. Look at a Marlins game, see how many fans are in the stands? It'd be different if the Yankees won it all every year, but its been almost ten years since they have and they've outspent every team in those years...it hasn't made a difference. Look at the Rays, the Yanks and the sox outspent them by miles last year..but they mopped up the floor with both of them.


It doesn't reallt hurt them, but compared to 16 games it definitely makes a difference. I know you love the NFL and the boys duckmeat, but if it were 160 Cowboy games a year..would you geet into every game like you do now? Would you care as much if we just lost one game in a 16 game season or one where you have dozens and dozens more to make it up? Would you be more likely to miss some games if you had that many chances to watch more? You hit the nail on the head with the Sundays though, I think the dramatically shorter season then baseball or basketball for that matter helps the popularity insanely...wait longer for the season, the games are more important /costly etc. The anticipation is far greater, which means the popularity and excitement will be high too.

[duckmeat]

I disagree. The lack of a salary cap hurts. When Boston, NYY, NYM and the usual suspects are always the only teams in the hunt for marquee free agents that can turn a franchise around, be the guy on the front of the media guide, and give them some identity. Why would you stay with the Reds when they only offer you five mil, and the Yankees give you twenty? Not only do teams like this get one or two of these top tier guys, they build their whole roster with them. Small market teams can't keep their players, it's just disheartening to watch a player come up through the minors and watch him grow into a superstar only to know his contract is up and your team has no chance to keep him. The Rays this year were a result of being constantly awful, and building their team the right way. They won't stay on top though, their best players will be gone in a few years. The Yankees and the rest will stay at the top or near the top, because they will just keep buying what other people built, it really is like the majority of the MLB is a farm team for these big time teams.

I couldn't deal with a 160 game Cowboys season. I couldn't take having to play the rest of the NFC East that many times a year, I'd go crazy. I still would probably watch them all though. I stay on Cowboys forums every day I'm near a computer, and do it even more in the offseason.

Random trivia for you R13, and proof that I guess these studies people do don't mean squat. In a poll that was about sports fans and their tendencies, it was proven that with Liberal and far left leaning people that baseball is their favorite sport. Pretty interesting stuff though, I'll see if I can find the whole poll and the results. Heard it on Colin Cowherd's show.