The battle for the favorite sport

The National Pastime, “America’s Game”, and how each as “most popular” reflects society in these United States

“Football is America’s Favorite Sport.”

Some iteration of that phrase is repeated time and time again nowadays by members of the mass media, most times with the assured confidence of the issue being a very lopsided discussion. They likewise would place baseball in its undisputed high place, behind football and miles ahead of the rest.

Of course, there was a time when baseball was the sport of kings in this country. Professional football was still getting its growing feet under it, while baseball was something that permeated the culture. Name a town, and you probably had somebody from there playing in a professional league, ranging from the smallest independent league all the way up to the Big Show.

In looking back at how American society evolved, the lenses of these two sports reflects some of the fundamental shifts in behavior and thought. Two aspects worthy of focus here are the approach to reasoned thought and the increasing demand for perfection.

Many associated baseball as the thinking man’s sport, a game where thought and reason within the game play as much of a role as wrist strength and speed. You can take in a large amount of information about the situation before having to act on it. Perhaps not coincidentally, baseball seemed to come into prominance with the newspaper, with full articles that could inspire thought and discussion on the issues of the day. This also allows time for understanding, a necessity in a game where failure happens 70% of the time at the plate and an adage starts by saying “You’ll win 60 [games], you’ll lose 60 [games].”

Football, by its nature, is more reactionary. While there is thought in the preparation beforehand, a game is very much a reaction to what happens on the field, most notably due to the play clock and to the amount of action going on at a given time. 22 different moving pieces is a lot, if not impossible, for any single person to keep tabs on. Thus, a fan must resort to watching a football game like he or she intakes television: react and move on to the next show. This then sets up the need for a binary, polarized thinking system that can quickly say “Good” or “Bad” in reaction. Thus, it is more natural in football to demand perfection by chiding people for overcoming all their human flaws.

It appears, perhaps as a reflection, that the thought processes in baseball and football have also taken shape in society as a whole when each has been claimed as the “most popular” sport. Reason has yielded its place at the fore to reactions. Understanding that one’s humanity is flawed has yielded to the demand for perfection regardless of if the flaw can be overcome. These may be subtle things, but they have made a world of difference.

Long live the thinkers, the baseball fan, and the National Pastime. The world needs them more than ever to filter through the noise.