Understanding Baseball: America's Favorite Pastime

Baseball is hugely popular in America. It has been known as America's pastime. The reason behind this is that the game was hugely popular in the country during the end of the 19^th century. People used to play this game in their free time and thus it came to be known as America's pastime. Baseball has it origin from Rounders which was an Irish and British game. The game gained huge popularity during the civil war. The National league came into existence in 1876 and the American League in 1901. The game kept on dominating the sports scenario in America till the 70's. It was only in 1970's that football started to become popular. This was largely due to the introduction of television.

Baseball v/s Football

Baseball is still quite popular in USA though not as much as it used to be before. Football has emerged as a strong contender for the number one slot. It won't be wrong to say that as of now football is ahead of baseball in popularity. This is evident from the recent polls where football has outshone baseball by quite a comfortable margin of 3-1. Gallup poll conducted in 2006, further add to this belief. People were asked about their favorite sport and 43% votes went to football while baseball was a distant third, even behind basketball. Baseball and basketball have always been neck to neck but in the latest poll, basketball clinched the second spot, beating baseball by 1%.

The baseball fans will say that the timing of the Gallup poll wasn't right. It was conducted during baseball's yearly hiatus. But they cannot deny the fact that football is America's favorite sport right now. But is it America's favorite pastime too? Football fans cannot be sure about that.

Every year, the major league organizes baseball sessions from the spring to the fall. So basically baseball is played mostly in summers. The game is quite interesting. It has a unique style that requires attention. The fights between the hitter and pitcher can be quite entertaining and interesting. Action rewards keep the players on their toes and that is one thing which the viewers love too.

Baseball is not as challenging as football and that is the reason why football surged ahead while baseball was left behind. Baseball lost to football in the Gallup poll by 3-1. However the loss margin narrowed down in the Harris poll. People were asked as if they still loved baseball or in other words are they still baseball fans? 47% answered in affirmative. The figure was 59% in favor of football. Though football won here also but it wasn't a washout for baseball as in the Gallup poll. This poll proved that though football has become country's favorite sport, people still like playing baseball.

The attendance statistics tell a different story altogether. According to them, Major League Baseball is way ahead of National Football League as far as pastime entertainment goes. In 2006, around 76 million people attended Major League Baseball games where only 17 million attended the National Football League games. This huge difference in numbers is due to the fact that baseball serves lots of games every year (162 per year) as compared to football where the number is just 16. Football doesn't match up to the baseball attendance even when the college football attendance is added to it. So baseball beats football here by a clear margin and here the college baseball games are not taken into account.

People may love to watch football more on TV, but when it comes to playing, baseball still remains America's favorite pastime!