By: Alex Larsen
Since 1960, baseball has been on a steady decline. Both in television viewership and reported favorite sports. According to a survey done by Gallup, In 1948 39% of people surveyed said baseball was their favorite sport. In 2017 that number fell to 11%.
This decline can be attributed to multiple factors. The foremost of these factors is the increasing game time. The length of an average baseball game has gone from 2 hours 3 minutes to 3 hours 10 minutes. With attention spans at an all time low, the effect of this has been disinterest with the younger generation. In a pool by the Washington post, they found that adults were more likely to like baseball than children. If a sport is not popular with the new generation, it will not be popular for long.
Another reason that could cause this is the increase of 3 outcome bats. This is the tendency for an at-bat to result in a strikeout, walk, or homerun. This makes the game more boring and the already long game appears longer.
Overall, the sport is still incredibly popular. It has fallen from its place as the sport of America. This data does not show that baseball is dead. In fact, in the past couple of years baseball has become slightly more popular. It will be interesting to see where the sport goes in the future, and how the issues are addressed.