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Baseball Vs. Other Sports
March 17, 2004 This just in: Baseball America readers like baseball. February and March are two of the most enjoyable months on the sports calendar, with a lot going on: Basketball and hockey are building toward their playoffs, NASCAR is just getting cranked up, golf is in full swing, and football is in the midst of its latest hypefest as it builds toward the draft. And of course, spring training opens in baseball, giving us all a reason to peek our heads outside again. We thought it would be interesting this year, as we kick off the major league season, to look at baseball through the prism of other sports, examining the relative strengths and weaknesses of each and what baseball could learn from things other sports do well. We're 10 years removed from what was arguably baseball's darkest year, so it seemed like a good time to see where baseball stands in the sports firmament. We have our own views on this subject, of course, and when we're not trying to guess Darin Erstad's overall OPS for the last three seasons, we often discuss things we like and dislike about other sports. But we also wanted to find out what other people thought. So we sought your thoughts, as well as those of baseball players and people who have covered baseball and other sports. We weren't surprised to find that of the hundreds of you who responded to our survey, an overwhelming number of you chose baseball as your favorite sport. We got responses from all over North America, including Phillies minor league righthander Brad Ziegler, a longtime BA reader. "I love games/sports that challenge a person mentally, and baseball definitely does that," Ziegler wrote. "It's a mind game between you (as a pitcher) and the hitter, and every pitch can mean the difference between winning and losing." But we also asked you to tell us what you liked and disliked about other sports, and which other sport was your favorite. Ziegler picked college basketball, but again not surprisingly, most of you picked football. Of about 200 people who expressed a preference, 96 chose football as their favorite sport besides baseball. Basketball was a distant second, with 45 votes, followed by hockey with 20. Reflecting the diverse interests of BA readers, other sports mentioned at least once were fishing, rugby, Formula One racing, cricket, lacrosse, track and field, curling, cross country, boxing and bowling. One area in particular where BA readers are going sharply against an overall national trend is in their acceptance of NASCAR. While it seems to be the hot sport for many people, BA readers almost universally reviled it. While many of you had harsh words for other sports, you also had some negative things to say about the way baseball is run. The overriding sentiment seemed to be that while baseball is the best game, other sports are doing a better job at just about everything that goes on off the field. "If God was to create a sport, it would be baseball," wrote William Galloway of St. Marys, Ontario. "Granted, the people who run it and play it are unfortunately mortal, but the game survives notwithstanding. No sport has the history and tradition that baseball has." And when it comes down to baseball in comparison with every other sport, fans are willing to look past the flaws to the essence of the game, which in the minds of baseball fans remains perfect. "Despite all its problems, it is still the most intriguing game around," wrote Jim Burwitz of Peoria, Ill. "What other sport produces arguments about a Devil Rays free-agent signing?" PLAYING FAVORITES The Harris Poll has been asking people about their favorite sports since 1985. Pro football has always been the top choice, and baseball has always been second, but baseball continues to lose ground to football, while pro basketball and auto racing gain ground on baseball. Here are the results for the top sports over the last two decades when people were asked, "If you had to choose, which one of these sports would you say is your favorite?" The numbers are the percentage of people who chose a sport as their favorite:
Source: Harris Interactive
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