Losing My Religion: Football Has Given Baseball a Concussion

 Baseball has become a boring part of our American past.

Trying to keep up with you

And I don't know if I can do it

Oh no, I've said too much

I haven't said enough

-REM, "Losing My Religion"

Baseball is a boring sport. This is a fact I've been wrestling with for well over a year now, and it's a conclusion I'm confident in stating. I consider myself to be what you'd call an above average baseball fan. I've been updating this blog for almost six years now, making this the 1,265th post made on SawxBlog - and in order to keep this blog breathing I've attended a plethora of games at Fenway, watched hundreds of games on TV, and have poured over statistics, websites, blogs, boards, and books at a pace considered ravenous. I've professed my love for the game continuously, and have claimed baseball as a religion more than once. After all of this, I think I may be losing my religion, and I have football to blame and thank for that.

I'm sure part of this is just me missing baseball because the Red Sox are no longer playing. But that right there proves my point. If the Red Sox aren't involved, I'm rarely watching baseball. The only honest interest I have in the post-season this year is seeing the Yankees lose. It's all I care about, and could give a crap who wins the World Series. I've watched a total of about five innings so far for the playoffs this year. A few of these were at The Tam on Tremont Street during Roy Halladay's no hitter. But the only reason I was watching that is because I was in a bar pre-gaming for the The Hold Steady show later that night. If I was at home, there's no way I'd be watching that game. The other game that I watched a few innings of was Game 4 of the ALCS. I was interested because of my hate for the Yankees, and because Cliff Lee is just amazing to watch. I was at home for this game, but honestly only watched during timeouts of the Monday Night Football game, and trust me, that game was AWFUL to watch. Bill Simmons tweeted the following this week in regards to these two games.

"Ratings for last night: worst possible NFL game with 2 crap markets (7.2); best possible MLB playoff game with 2 huge markets (6.5)."

That paints a very clear picture as to where American sports fans loyalty lies. I wrote a post on Opening Night of the NFL last year with the observation that Football seemed to be passing baseball in popularity. Well, there's no doubt in mind now that it has raced past, and I hate to say it, but I think I'm a bigger fan of football today than I am of baseball.

Let's go back to the Monday Night game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans. These are two of the smallest markets in the NFL, and currently have two under performing, sloppy, and boring Teams. In the latest Power Rankings poll at ESPN they're ranked 8th (Titans) and 25th (Jags) respectively, not exactly powerhouses, and I'd argue that 8 is WAY too high for the Titans. Yet more people watched this game then Game 4 of the ALCS? Really? This was just a divisional Week 6 game for the NFL, no playoff implications, no real drama, just a Monday night game. This wasn't a game that had two teams playing for the right to be in the World F^(%ing Series, with the best pitcher on the planet throwing against the most popular sports franchise on the planet - who happen to also be the defending champions. It's borderline unbelievable. American Pastime my ass. Baseball may very well be dying, and people haven't even realized it yet.

Ask any Red Sox fan who the most intense player on the Sox is, and you'll get a large majority of Youk answers. Kevin was on 98.5 the Sports Hub's Felger and Mazz Show this week and said that he's tried to watch some of the games, but typically falls asleep by the fourth inning. Think about that. Youk is not a laid back guy. He's the most intense player on one of the biggest market teams with a passionate fanbase and he can't get excited for a game he's not in. He went on to say the below:

"I love playing, I just don't like watching... I'd rather watch football, even if I'm not a fan of the team I'm watching"

That sentence is what the rest of the country thinks too. That's why I was only watching the ALCS between commercials for the Titans vs. Jags game. If you're not a passionate fan, and your Teams not playing, you're not watching baseball. Plain and simple. People don't get the MLB package and end up watching random Pirates vs. Reds games on a Tuesday night. Why not? Because that's a God awful way to spend three hours of your life. They get the package because they no longer live in the market their favorite team plays in. People will end up watching a Bills vs. Lions game though. Why? Because football is inherently more exciting, not as over saturated, and  Fantasy Football. The three things that helped propel Football way past baseball  popularity in my opinion are:

1. Fantasy Football
2. More fun to bet on.
3. Only once a week.

Watching baseball is like buying the Sunday paper, laying it out on your kitchen table, and reading it cover to cover. You relax, take your time, and make a day of it. Watching football is like logging onto your computer and checking your Twitter feed, Facebook newsfeed, all the while dancing between five other open tabs within your browser, getting bombarded with information both global and hyper-local as it happens before your finger-eyes. Football has evolved with our culture, while baseball has become a link to our past. Sunday's are social now not because of church, but because of football. Whether you're watching with friends or not, you still have your stat tracker open as the games unfold, making it a true multimedia experience. Something necessary for a successful product in the year 2010.

I don't know how to "fix" baseball, but I would say 162 games is too much. I would rather watch a Celtic pre-season game over the MLB playoffs, and I RARELY watch the Sox in Spring Training. No lie. Shit, the NFL has the opposite problem right now, they want to add MORE games, and the people would eat it up like a Sunday tortilla chip. I was talking with my friend Ryan the other day and told him I had a football problem. I confessed watching, and getting into a CFL game on the NFL network. I'm still ashamed.

Another problem for baseball is that the generation coming up doesn't have the attention span, or bedtime allotment to watch the games. The majority of football games are on during the day on a weekend, while a typical baseball game is on during the week, and ends after 10:00pm, 11:00pm if you're a Red Sox fan. With a new generation coming behind me, they're not going to care about baseball like I did, it's just a fact. Is it sad. Sure. But I'm not one to fight evolution, and in America, Football rules, today, and for the foreseeable future.