WBOB Original Reads

Why Baseball is Still America's Pastime

4/1/2017

Ryan L. Fox

Sports fans have pretty much have heard the old cliché that the sport of baseball is America’s pastime. But why is that? Why does it have that moniker of 'America's pastime?" What makes the MLB different than the NFL, NBA, and NHL? Well if you ask anybody, they will give you a multitude of reasons. Reasons such as...

Fenway Park has been around since 1912, making it the oldest ballpark in the MLB

Baseball Teams Rarely Relocate

Compared to the other major sports organizations (i.e. NFL, NHL, NBA), very rarely do you see an MLB team relocate from one city to another. In fact, the last time that has happened was back in 2005 when the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington D.C. to become the Nationals. Before that, the last time an MLB team relocated was the Washington Senators moving from the D.C. area to Fort Worth, Texas, to become the Texas Rangers back in 1972.

So since 1972, MLB only had 2 teams relocate whereas the NBA had 11 teams relocate and the NHL and NFL each had 10 teams relocate (the 10th NFL team being the Oakland Raiders relocating to Las Vegas for the 2019 season). With MLB teams barely needing to relocate to another city, generations of fans can follow their teams for many years to come.

Baseball Fans Can Easily Go See a Game Anywhere

Most people don’t realize how vast and how many baseball parks there are in America. In baseball, there is the professional level of the MLB, but then there are a series of minor league levels (5 to be exact) with teams scattered across the country. They can be located in big cities, suburbia, or even in the country side. The best part is that you still get the same baseball experience at a minor league ballpark that you can get at a major league one. So if you are a Red Sox fan living in southern New England and don’t want to make the trek and investment in going to Fenway, you can swing on down to Pawtucket to see the PawSox play and still get that same experience.

The Timeless Rivalries

If there is one thing that American's love in sports are good rivalries and baseball has tons of them. No other rivalry in American professional sports can compare to the rivalries in baseball. Rivalries such as the Los Angeles Dodgers-San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals-Chicago Cubs, and New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox (arguably the most famous and historic rivalry in all of professional sports) have defined city cultures as well as fan bases for generations and withstood the test of time.

Even today’s modern day rivalries have some flare in them, including like crosstown rivalries like the Subway Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, or the south side Chicago White Sox versus the north side Chicago Cubs, or even the battle for I-70 between the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals. You can't find these same kinds of rivalries like you do in other sports.

Baseball Has Been There From the Beginning of America

Let's take a brief course in history, shall we. The United States of America was formed in 1776. The first football game wasn’t played until 1869 (93 years later), basketball didn’t come around until 1891 (115 years later), and the first recorded hockey game in America was in 1893 (117 years later). When was baseball founded in America? Surprisingly enough, the earliest recording of baseball activity was in 1791 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 15 years after the birth of America (one could say that after America gained its independence, the founding fathers decided to celebrate with a game of baseball). So when football, basketball, and hockey each came around, baseball had already been full entrenched into American society, having both professional and minor league clubs.

Best On-Sight Sports Venue to Watch

Out of all the sports, baseball is by far the best to watch in person. You can soak up all the sights and sounds of the game as well as appreciate the tradition of the game with some fun activities for a young audience to appreciate (i.e. the wave, singing ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’/ “Sweet Caroline’). Plus there’s always a chance to see a historic moment in each game whether it be somebody hitting for the cycle or a pitcher going for a perfect game/no-hitter. Best part of seeing a live action game is the easy-to-follow pace of the game. even if fans go to the concessions or restrooms, they can come back and easily get caught up on the action.