Yes, we all know the National Football League is the king of sports in America, with billions of dollars in revenue, a dominate spot on national television and an event – the Super Bowl – that has become kind of a national holiday.
Doesn’t matter. It’s still not better than baseball.
Here’s something that often gets overlooked about baseball. The popularity of the game is higher than ever. The 13 highest annual attendance years all took place between 2004 and 2016. More than 73 million tickets were sold to Major League Baseball games in 2016.
Even at 114 years old (older, if you count just the National League), MLB still captivates millions each year. There’s a reason for that. It’s one of the best games ever invented.
MLB is Better than the NFL: Here’s Proof
So while it runs against conventional wisdom, Major League Baseball is actually still the National Past Time. It’s also better than the NFL. Here are a few reasons why.
27 Outs
It’s so fun to watch a quarterback kneel and let the clock run out, isn’t it? Or to watch an offense go into the ground game with the lead, grinding out the clock, sometimes for an entire quarter? Yawn. Everything in the NFL is about the clock- two minute warnings, sudden deaths, overtime, the “four-minute offense” and so forth. What rarely gets mentioned is that it’s hardly fair to have one team have the ball for more time than the other team. What’s fun about that?
In baseball, you have to get 27 outs to win. There’s no cheating – you have to get every single one of them. And you can’t get ahead and then run out the clock. That’s what can make even a blowout exciting. Teams come from behind in the late innings quite often in baseball. That’s because they actually get the chance. As the saying goes, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”
Size Doesn’t Matter
When an announcer in an NFL game says something about a football team really moving the ball well on the ground, we all know what that means: they’ve got a bunch of 300-pound road graders on the offense line beating up the other guys. In baseball, the smallest, skinniest player – or the most rotund – can hit the ball or rob a much bigger player of a big hit. Size simply doesn’t matter. Skill does. Great hitters come in all shapes and sizes, so do pitchers and position players. That makes the game much more relatable.
Bonus reason: Speaking of offensive linemen, in what sport does a player play a position designed so that they are never even supposed to touch the ball? Their entire purpose is to block someone or, in the case of the center, snap the ball. No other major American sport does this. It’s weird when you think about it.
The Summer Game
The majority of the baseball season happens in the summer, making it the perfect place for getting out in the sun and enjoying the day, or kicking back on a long summer evening. It’s a “park,” remember? Football in the fall often means rain, snow and cold weather. No comparison.
No Concussions
The violent nature of football is causing it a lot of problems. The prevalence of concussion-related issues among NFL players is a sad story, and it’s making the game harder to watch. For every violent hit, you wonder how much that player might have to pay, health-wise, later in life. It’s also leading some parents to keep their children out of the game.
Musical Cities
The NFL has really broken some hearts in the past 35 years or so.
The Oakland Raiders won’t be playing in Oakland after 2019 (at the latest), moving to Las Vegas. The Rams left St. Louis for Los Angeles, 21 years after leaving L.A. for St. Louis. The Chargers left San Diego. And that’s just in the last year or so.
In the years before that, the Baltimore Colts literally left for Indianapolis in the middle of the night. The Browns left Cleveland for Baltimore. The Houston Oilers moved to Nashville and became the Tennessee Titans. The St. Louis Cardinals left for Phoenix. Prior to that, the Raiders had moved to L.A. and then back to Oakland again.
That’s all since 1982. Here’s how many MLB teams moved in that time: one. The Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals in 2005. They are the only MLB team to move since 1972.
There’s more. Between 1903 and 1952, no MLB team relocated. Zero. In the 20 years after, 10 teams moved. However, that was about spreading MLB to the West (Dodgers to L.A., Giants to San Francisco, Athletics to Oakland) and nearly every city they left had two teams, which at least gave the city fans someone left to support.
Also, places like Milwaukee and Kansas City got new teams after their teams left (the Brewers and Royals replacing the Braves and Athletics). Even New York got a new team when the Dodgers left (the Mets).
So, these are not the only reasons MLB is better than the NFL, but these are some of them. Keep them in mind the next time your football-loving friend tries to tell you how much better his favorite sport is than baseball. He’s wrong. You just need to educate him.
I pity the youth who watch ML Baseball today. They are seeing a one-dimensional game; no wonder the Home Run Derby at the Allstar game is getting so much press. It seems we have lost the hit and run, the steal, a well-pitched complete game, the suicide squeeze, the safety squeeze, and the line drive base hit.
We are watching players who cannot slide, sacrifice bunt, run the bases smartly, and most importantly field their position. Infielders deliver terrible defense. Hitters are all upper cut swings from their heels for home runs and strike outs are okay. Especially striking out “looking” with players in scoring position and two outs is just fine. Sharp pitchers are taken out for pitch count with pitching changes based on a formula of whose inning is it.
The brush back pitch is a lost art, so hitters dig in and take mighty cuts.
Infielders simply do not know how to tag out runners anymore. Slap the glove down right in front of the base and let the runner slide into the glove. Today is looks more like pin the tail on the donkey. Infielders no longer try to get in from of the ball, but rather try to backhand everything and all too often do not succeed.
I have watched about 100 games a year since the early sixties and I am getting less and less enjoyment when watching a game. Yet the players are making millions for delivering a one-dimensional game. Now it looks as if the owners have juiced of the baseball where it leaves the bat like a golf ball off a two iron.
Is this the kind of game the fans want or do they not know any better?
You left out the boredom of Quarterback dominance. Yes, the Pitcher is also important but the same guy doesn’t pitch every day and usually not all day when he does. The public has been brainwashed into thinking the NFL is an action-filled game when the ball is only in play for eleven minutes out of the interminable broadcast. Rugby, especially Sevens, is what football ought to be.
how are people still held up over baseball? I was a baseball player and I hated it, I was even on a good team but I finally decided to quit for football best decision of my life. And wasn’t Babe Ruth supposed to be the best baseball player in history, will if a man with double chin can play baseball its a skill not a sport. and i’m not saying that we don’t having big players in football but they are supposed to be big so they can protect the quarter-back its different. but compare someone like Julio Jones to your bet baseball player it isnt comparable, football whoops baseball without a doubt
how do you guys even compare
f*** football baseball is the GOAT
Football and basketball too, at the pro level, have become totally about being Hollywood. Quarterbacks get touched it’s roughing the passer. You can’t win without a good quarterback so let’s protect him. Receivers are over protected and get away with anything all for entertainment of the game. NBA players travel, push off, wine about every foul, and the coaches no longer run the teams. They are there by name only. These two sports are no longer a game. Baseball is still truly a game. You can’t run out the clock, you can’t fake playing the game, just go through the motions. Pitchers are going to embarrass you, you can’t fake 90mph pitches. The dunk is so overrated, compare the dunk to leaping walls and stealing home runs. Diving into the stands. In football and basketball you can hide from the ball and you don’t have to master the whole game. Baseball requires every player to master all of the skills of the game or you will fail. Baseball has the most skilled athletes and they can look the part of basketball and football players without embarrassing themselves. Football and basketball players look embarrassingly non/athletic when swinging a bat and even throwing a ball. They should be ashamed!!! I am a huge fan of the NFL, the NBA is boring but I enjoy college basketball. But baseball is the king of team sports. People play softball and little league and think the game is simple. It looks easy on TV. The average person can’t picture 95 to the plate, or 100 on a hop at 3rd. Or 110 back to the mound. Two sport players of baseball and football and basketball as well have always found those players having a much easier time playing football or basketball as opposed to baseball. Look at the numbers. And those that say you played in little league, even a good little league team but we’re bored and quit. My guess is you sucked and rarely got off the bench.
Hockey goalies are like centers. Blocking the net is their #1 purpose and just pass the puck off. So nfl has 3 mainly blocking defenders on their offensive line. No big deal.
Mlb games don’t mean anything until August. That says a lot. Really fun to watch but just play games that MEAN something to keep me engaged.
The NFL is super unique in that they play less than 20 games in a season! And EVERY game counts. Quality over quantity.