Monday, January 07, 2013
Poll finds baseball second-most popular American sport
(www.cbssports.com)
posted on January 07, 2013 at 05:44 PM by Gamingboy to doom and gloom, popularity, statistics
|
157 comment(s)
Of the adults polled, 34 percent said pro football was their favorite sport, not surprisingly making it the top dog in American sports. Actually, I’m surprised the gap wasn’t wider. Baseball checked in at No. 2 with 16 percent of the vote, followed by college football (11 percent), auto racing (eight percent), men’s pro basketball (seven percent), hockey (five percent) and men’s college basketball (three percent).
Now, I found the headline on adage.com a bit odd. It was “Look out, baseball, college football is hot on your cleats.” I found it odd because, last year, baseball and college football were tied for second at 13 percent each. So baseball gained three percentage points, college football lost two and it’s “look out, baseball?”
I was unaware the College Football was a sport. I thought it was a playing level of a sport.
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
Page 2 of 4 pages
< 1 2 3 4 >I like auto racing, mostly road racing, second to baseball, but it is not an athletic activity on the level of football or basketball or tennis. Remember tennis? But auto racing is a lot of fun to actually engage in (I've done so only on the most minor level).
Favorite leagues to watch when my teams aren't involved -
College football (Obviously brings a ton of dud games, but in front of a TV on a Saturday you can find a good one)
NBA playoffs
College basketball (Again, a ton of duds, but the intra-conference games and March are great)
NFL
MLB (I feel like after watching Tigers games religiously for 6 months, I don't have much room for the rest of the league)
I consider the NFL and CFB 'different' -- at least in the sense that I probably watch at most, 2-3 NFL games a year (and that includes the SB) but watch CFB pretty religiously on Saturdays and generally keep abreast of news on it...
I'd rank my preferences as
Baseball
(GAP)
College Football
(Bigger Gap)
Hockey
College Basketball
(GAP)
NFL
NBA
(GAP)
Soccer
(CHASM)
Track/Field/Olympic sports
(MIGHT AS WELL NOT EXIST)
NASCAR/etc
Fun list, though mine is a lot less extensive.
MLB (Toronto, Cleveland)
Minor League Baseball (Indianapolis)
Defunct Canadian Baseball League (Niagara Stars)
WBC Qualifying Tournament (Germany hosting)
Championship Football (Nottingham Forest)
League One Football (Notts County)
English Elite League Hockey (Nottingham Panthers)
WHL (Regina Pats)
CFL (Saskatchewan Rough Riders, Toronto Argonauts, Hamilton Tiger-Cats)
CIS Football (University of Regina Rams, a Vanier Cup between the University of Saskatchewan and...Western? Or maybe McMaster? Would have been early 2000s)
Jays games and a weekend in Cleveland in 1989 are the only top level sports I've seen live.
NHL then MLB. Historically was MLB but the Mets are garbage and the Blackhawks are awesome.
Watch games regularly only because there was no GD hockey and hey all sports should be broadcast at 10am on weekends:
EPL Soccer, KHL
Watch games semi-regularly, even though I'm no longer interested in it but because it is seemingly impossible to avoid being inundated with it:
NFL
I'd watch more CHL and Bundesliga if I had TV coverage of those leagues. But I'm trying to cut down on following sports since I already waste too much of my life with them. MLB and NHL is enough since they cover the whole year more or less.
Not that anyone cares:
MLB - Detroit (old and new), Cleveland (Municipal Stadium), White Sox (new), Cubs, Reds (new), Phillies (new), Montreal
NBA - Detroit
NHL - Detroit, Chicago
NFL - Detroit (old and new), Chicago (pre-renovation)
MiLB - Toledo (old and new), Lansing
OHL - Plymouth Whalers
NCAAB - MSU, Michigan, Big Ten Tournament, NCAA Final Four, NCAA Sweet 16/Regional Final, Detroit Mercy, Oakland University, Eastern Michigan, Northwestern
NCAAF - MSU, Michigan, Tennessee, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt
Soccer - Detroit City FC!
Most fun to attend (home team aside) - Big Ten Tournament, Cincinnati football (cool old stadium, attended a packed/loud night game), any crowded MLB game
Want to attend - Basketball at Palestra, Rose Bowl, pretty much any big SEC football game, something at Madison Square Garden
Since Sports Afield was first published in 1888 and the earliest Sports Illustrated I can remember seeing began in the mid-1930's, what version of Sports Illustrated came before that?
Wickypedia says there was an even earlier version in the 20s. Since I had no desire to do further research than that, I went with the vague but correct 30-plus.
Agreed.
It baffles me that jockeys (appropriately) don't really get any credit for their horses' successes, but NASCAR drivers do. Why don't we celebrate "Jimmie Johnson's Ford/Chevy/whatever" the same way we celebrate Secretariat.
Make the drivers switch cars a few times mid-season and see what happens.
The team owners, Childress, Gibbs, Penske, et al., do get a lot of credit. The cars are mechanically almost identical. NASCAR wants it that way to have extremely close competition. Most of the difference between the top few teams and the backmarkers has to do with the preparation of the car for the given track / weather conditions from week to week. The top teams get a few more horsepower, but have a much larger edge in aerodynamic, suspension and tire prep. In the road racing world, Porsche and Ferrari get to add a big chunk to the price of every street car due to their racing glory.
Excuse me while I sprain my wrist wrestling a rook. It's dangerous to castle one-handed, and I never mastered the deft en passant capture.
I can't think of a friend who would call the NBA his or her favorite sport, although I know plenty who at least casually follow it.
Most people I know who follow hockey would call it their favorite sport.
The difference in casual followers is probably pretty large.
Not until the horses are unionized.
Then again, a successful horse doesn't care about induction to a Hall of Fame. They get put out to stud.
Shawn Kemp and Steve Garvey highly approve of this reward system!
And if baseball had finished as far down this list as basketball, instead of a solid second to the great behemoth, I'm sure we'd be reading how the sport is on death's doorstep.
I've had the opposite experience, every American I know who is a hockey fan was something else first.
I would guess that football is by far the sport with the most single-sport fans, so while it is obviously the most popular, it is probably heavily overrated by this poll. Favorite sport is such a dumb question, they should define what "following" means and then ask people what sports they follow.
0 - I don't
1 - I'll watch the championship
2 - I'll watch my team sometimes
3 - I watch some games/I follow my team
4 - I generally know what's going on with most teams
5 - I follow every team
6 - I can name every player in the league (except Padres).
Back during the 8 team leagues and 5-cent packs of baseball cards, there were more than a few fans in the two team cities who could actually do that. If there's a person alive who can do that today I'd like to know about it.
PRIDE never die!
Some day, Mach Sakurai is going to retire, and on that day, I'll be very sad.
Just covering the last three years or so.
Baseball 4
Test Cricket 2
Northern Hemisphere Rugby Union Internationals 2
Serie A 2
College Basketball 2
NFL 1
Ironically, since I came to Canada my interest in hockey has seriously waned, even before this season's NHL lockout.
I think that a lot of people who play Strat-o-Matic or Diamond Mind can come close to naming every player in the league from the season they're replaying. I always play last year's set, so by about June 2013 I'll be able to name every player from 2012 who got ~30 PAs or who threw 10 innings.
You kids today & your euphemisms.
Probably Canadian.
Wow RTG, we've both been to Charlton! What are the odds?
MLB: Cincy (Crosley, Riverfront, GABP), St. Louis (Busch II and III), Chicago (Old Comiskey, Wrigley), Houston (Astrodome),
Cleveland (Progressive), Detroit (the new one, whatever it's called), Denver (Coors), Kansas City.
Minor league baseball: Columbus, Indianapolis, Salt Lake, Phoenix, Toledo.
NCAAF: Ohio State, Texas, Utah State, Colorado
NCAAB: Ohio State, Texas, Utah State, Arkansas, Colorado, NCAA tournament game at Indiana that the Hoosiers weren't in.
NCAA baseball: Ohio State, Texas, Arkansas
NBA: Salt Lake (Salt Palace and Delta Center), Denver.
ABA: Spirits of St. Louis!
NHL: St. Louis
MLS: Denver
English Football: Charlton Athletic, going to Arsenal in March
MLB: Tigers (Comerica & Tiger Stadium), Indians (Progressive & Municipal), Reds (GABP & Riverfront)
MiLB: Mud Hens, Charleston River Dogs (once at the Citadel, once at their own stadium), Columbus Clippers
NCAA baseball: Detroit, Wayne State, Bowling Green, a ST tourney in Homestead FL.
NFL: Browns (Municipal & Browns), Lions (Silverdome only)
Arena League: Detroit Drive
USFL: Michigan Panthers
NCAAF: Ohio State, Michigan, Wayne State, Findlay
NBA: Pistons (Palace)
NCAABB: Detroit, Notre Dame, Loyola-Chicago, Cleveland State, Wright State, Toledo, Bowling Green, NCAA regionals (Chicago), NCAA regional finals (Ford Field), NIT 2nd round (Dayton)
NHL: Red Wings
NCAAH: Bowling Green
WWE Friday Night Fights (!) at Joe Louis Arena
Oh, how I envy you.
As for me, precious darned little --
MLB -- Braves
USFL -- Arizona Wranglers
NCAAF -- Arizona State (one game, against Stanford & John Elway), Auburn
NAIAF -- Southern Arkansas U.
NCAAB -- Arizona State (two games, one regular season against UCLA & an NIT opening-round loss to TCU)
NAIAB -- Southern Arkansas
AAA baseball -- Phoenix Giants
AA baseball -- Shreveport Braves/Captain, Arkansas Travelers, Montgomery Biscuits
Independent baseball -- Montgomery Wings
That's it, I'm pretty sure. In general, I'd rather read about sports & obsess over the numbers & talk about it all with other people. Doing so is also a lot cheaper & easier.
MLB: Boston, NY (Shea, old Yankee), Cincinnati (old and new), Chicago AL (old and new), Chicago NL, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Colorado, Washington.
Minor League: Indianapolis (old and new), Hudson Valley, Gary.
NFL: Indianapolis (old), NYJ (old)
USFL: New Jersey Generals
NBA: New York Knicks, Indiana Pacers (old), Warriors
NHL: Chicago
MLS: Chicago
CBB: West Point, IU, Purdue, Notre Dame, Butler, Valparaiso, Louisville, Franklin College, Stanford, NC vs. Kentucky (Brendan Byrne Arena), NCAA Regional Openers (RCA Dome, Rupp Arena), NCAA Regional Finals (Knoxville, St. Louis).
CFB: IU, Purdue, Notre Dame, Franklin College, DePauw University
Tennis: Indianapolis Men’s Pro Event
Auto Racing: Indianapolis (500 and Brickyard 400)
Boxing: Heavyweight Title Fight (Bowe-Golata, at MSG), Smaller Cards at Market Square Arena, Westchester County Center.
High School Basketball: Approximately 250 games in about 50 gymnasiums.
MLB: Oakland Coliseum, Candlestick, Kingdome, AT&T Park, Shea, Citifield, The Ballpark in Arlington, Wrigley, Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Jack Murphy
Minor League: Salinas Spurs
NFL: Meadowlands for a Jets game
CFB: Carrier Dome, Ole Miss, Florida, Texas, University of the Pacific
CBB: Carrier Dome, Univeristy of the Pacific, MSG for the pre-season NIT, Sacramento for the NCAA tourney
NBA: Oakland and MSG
NHL: Sharks (Cow Palace and the San Jose arena), Devils
Tennis: US Open
Soccer: San Jose Earthquakes (NASL version), NYRB, Tottenham at White Hart Lane
Auto Racing: just some very minor league dirt track stuff
Roller derby: @ Hunter's College in Manhattan. Surprisingly fun.
Baseball: Cubs, White Sox (old), Milwaukee (new), Yankees (old), Baltimore (New), Pittsburgh (New), DC, Philadelphia (Old), and Reading
Basketball (NBA): Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and NJ.
Soccer: Chicago (Sting) and Naperville (Fire)
Hockey: Philadelphia (Phantoms)
Football: Chicago (Bears), Maryland (Terrapins), and DC (ND)
Dog Racing: Kenosha
MiLB: Knights, Bulls, Baysox, Keys, PawSox
NFL: Ericsson, the old Meadowlands, wherever the Eagles play.
CFB: Meineke Car Care Bowl a few times.
NBA: Hornets (in Charlotte), Wizards
There is a brief time period in golf (at least, maybe bowling) when you are exerting peak physical effort. A golf drive is a physical act, but it is for a very brief period of time. Why is it disqualified according to your definition?
MLB: Athletics, Giants (Candlestick & TeleCom Park), Red Sox, Yankees (YSI), Mets (Shea)
MiLB: Richmond Braves, Sacramento RiverCats, PawSox
NFL: Forty-Niners, Raiders
XFL: San Francisco Demons (season ticket holder!)
NBA: Warriors
MLS: Earthquakes
CFB: Cal, UC Davis
CBB: Cal
Plus a ton of assorted NESCAC sporting events in basketball (mostly), football, hockey, and some randoms thrown in. Small-school college hockey is freakin' amazing to watch in person.
On the 0-6 basis introduced in [72]:
MLB: 6
NFL: 5
NBA: 2
NCAAMB: 1 (with March Madness serving as 'the championship')
All other pro/college sports are essentially zeros for me. I also love the Olympics and watch them obsessively. I also usually watch every match in the Men's FIFA World Cup plus some qualifiers, and I'll usually watch the FA Cup final and the Champions' Cup and sometimes some CONCACAF and CONMEBOL stuff. So whatever number that gets for international soccer, but I don't typically have a rooting interest in any of those competitions.
NHL: 6
MLB: 6 (placed 2nd b/c I am a bigger fan of NHL than MLB)
NFL: 5
F1: 4
CFB: 3
NBA: 0
NBA: 0
Basketball: LA Sports Arena (Clips), Honda Center (Clips), Staples (Clips), Haas Pavilion (Cal Bears), Assembly Hall (Indiana Hoosiers), been inside Allen Fieldhouse (at KU) but not for a game
Hockey: Anaheim Ducks, SJ Sharks, Anaheim Bullfrogs (from defunct roller-hockey league)
Football: LA Rams, Cal Bears, Indiana Hoosiers
Soccer: Boca Juniors (Estadio Alberto J. Armando)
Horse Racing: Belmont Stakes, Kentucky Derby, Bay Meadows, Golden Gate Fields, Santa Anita
Bullfights: Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas, Madrid; bloodless bullfights in Gustine, CA
Hydroplane Boat Racing: Lake Mead, NV
(NOTE: 0's omitted, since there would be so many.)
NFL: 6 (OK, I can't literally name every player, but can anyone actually do this for any sport?)
MLB: 4-5
NBA: 3
College Football: 3
NHL: 2
College Basketball: 2
Tennis: 1 (some championships)
Soccer: 1 (World Cup)
MLB: A's, Giants (Stick & Phone Company), Cubs, White Sox (old Comiskey), Mets, Nats (RFK), Dodgers, Phillies, Astros ('dome)
MiLB: Chico, Stockton, Modesto, Fresno, Boise, Columbus, Jackson MS, Augusta
NBA: Warriors, Wizards
NFL: Raiders, Jets
CFB: Nebraska, Mississippi State
I feel like there must've been others, but I'm damned if I can remember any right now.
I've also gone to see high-school field hockey & track at Kezar in SF... the SF HS baseball championship is held every year at Pac Bell - free admission, following a Giants day game - and that's always a good time.
As Fernigal alluded to above, there are probably several to many people who have posted on this thread that could name 100% (or damn close) of the 285 players starting on Opening Day 2013 from memory if you asked them in late March, myself among them. By May-June I'm usually pretty familiar with well over 400 MLB players. So the answer to your question probably depends on your definitions of 'every' and 'league'.
ETA: FLNRSA reminds me to consider HS athletics... I used to go to the California NCS (North Coast Section..? I think) track and field finals at Cal every year. And I've been to a hundred HS football games and a handful of basketball games. That HS baseball game at Pac Bell sounds awesome, I'll have to look that up.
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qbajCmVa6g (One of the best Pump players in the world, playing a single panel chart for a remix of Fur Elise rated 23 for difficulty. The rating scale currently goes up to 26, although the hardest single panel charts are rated 24s at this point in time. During the fastest parts of the music, there are sections of complex 16th note stepping at 237 BPM, or approximately 16 steps per second. Pump It Up charts are notorious for having large sections of turning, where the player must cross their feet over each other consistently at fast speeds to get to arrows that flow together. Occasionally some turns are so fast that a player will shortcut this by skipping them and having one foot hit two arrows consecutively, it's hard to notice but he does it a few times here.)
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfhuY0fcKm0 (The best In The Groove speed/stamina player in the world, playing a song that was made specifically for him to attempt. It contains 60 straight seconds of 16th note stepping at 240 BPM, 16 steps per second, though it is obviously not insanely movement heavy, notice how precise his technique is in keeping his feet near the center of the pad so as to minimize wasted energy and hit only the inner pressure sensors for each arrow. I am a pretty good In The Groove player myself, and I cannot even do patterns at this speed for five seconds without failing/having my Quads lock up. This is the hardest song/chart that has ever been passed, in a game where people have privately owned machines for five-plus years working on beating hard songs.)
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-XFCIyO6_I (In case you were not impressed by the videos of people using the bar, here is a video of someone playing the highest difficulty chart that exists in Pump It Up, without using the bar, and still getting an A. It contains sections of 220 BPM 16th notes across both pads, numerous sections where the player must hit four arrows at the exact same time, and is insanely movement heavy. It's probably not the ACTUAL hardest song in the game, maybe four or five harder songs exist, but it's a pretty good indicator of how high the skill curve on Pump It Up can be.)
This is all a lot of words and a lot of your time and if you actually read all of this you're probably having a boring day at work/home, but I thought it might interest people a bit since it's a very niche hobby and everyone here seems to have their own dorky obsessions. I personally think at the higher levels dance games are certainly a sport, and I've always wished that I could find some prime athlete and put them in a room with a Pump It Up machine for several months and see how good they become. Obviously the people competing at the highest levels of these games are not traditional athletic beasts, yet they still accomplish things that border on the unbelievable.
Here's a sporcle quiz for 2012 opening day.
Baseball: Wrigley, Comiskey, The Cell, Milwaukee County Stadium, Target Field, Busch Stadium, The Ballpark, The BOB, Dodger Stadium
Hockey: Chicago Stadium
NBA: Chicago Stadium, wherever the Mavs play
CFB: 5
MLB: 3-4
CBB: 3
Cwrasslin: 3
NFL: 2
NBA: 2
NHL: 0
But he holds onto the bar behind him like an old lady?
It's a means of precision, not a necessity to play the game. Imagine if we told golfers they could no longer use a few randomly selected clubs from their bag, they could still play the game but the quality of their play would decline. Most great Pump players can still play exceptionally well without the bar, but since one element of the game is timing your steps to get as many "Perfects" as possible, you can improve your scores by using the bar. I personally warm up without the bar and can play up to 18s-20s without the bar, though not nearly as well as I can play them with the bar. Until about 2006, where Andamiro started rapidly ramping up the difficulty of the game, players were not allowed to use the bar at the National and World Pump Festivals.
Those that are played by the emperor
The moribund
Those involving trained animals
Ball sports
Those that award prizes
The fabulous
Hunting
Those that are included in this classification
Those that cause the viewer to tremble as if mad
The innumerable
Those played with a very fine camel hair brush
Et cetera
Those that have just broken the sound barrier
Those that, at a distance, resemble baseball
As much as I'd like to be sympathetic to your proposal, I watched all 3 videos and what those kids are doing resembles "dancing" about as much as brine shrimp resemble Sea Monkeys.
MiLB: Utica, Watertown NY, Oneonta NY, Memorial Stadium in Baltimore (Bowie BaySox), Bowie MD.
NCAAF: Michie Stadium, BC Stadium.
NFL: old Giants Stadium
NCAAB: NIT in MSG NY (~1970), Columbia, UPenn.
Auto Racing: Lime Rock (TransAm, WSC), Watkins Glen(CanAm/6hour, USGP), Bridgehampton.
Horses: Saratoga Springs (sigh...)
Page 2 of 4 pages
< 1 2 3 4 >You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.