Most people in the world have been to a baseball game in person. Whether they liked it or not, is what I'll be arguing today. Baseball also known as “America's pastime” is still more relevant and cool than ever. Baseball has been around since 1846 and is still filled with excitement and happy fans that truly love the game. While it is a controversial topic and people say that the game is boring and takes forever that is truly the beauty of the game. There was a time hundreds of years ago when baseball was America and that's all everyone cared about. Nowadays there are new sports taking over but baseball is still cool.

People say that nobody goes to MLB games anymore and that football or basketball has a bigger fan base which is not true. In the MLB regular season, 73.2 billion people went to see their favorite baseball team while only 37.1 billion people went to NFL games and a measly 21.9 million people went to NBA games. Baseball's fan base has been getting bigger and bigger over the last 50 years. Baseball is also changing rules to make the game more fun to watch with the addition of the designated hitter and the pitch clock. It makes the game significantly shorter and means you get to watch more action and less of nothing. This is something other sports are not doing. Baseball is changing the game to make it better to watch while sports like the NFL and NBA continue to have flaws in the ruling losing their fans. In “Is this game over” Mr. Mahler writes “Major league baseball is doing just fine, it has more exciting young stars than I can even remember.” The sport has a very bright future with players like Ronald Acnua jr, Fernando Tatis jr, and Jazz Chisholm. Those players are changing the game from what it used to be. Their playstyles, style on the field, and attitude make the game great to watch. 

So if the game is thriving and better than ever, why doesn't it feel that way?

Well, the last seven years of the world series have produced the seven least-watched world series on record. Culturally the sport has fallen out of favor. Many years ago baseball was a huge part of American culture, now it's falling to the NFL. Aaron Judge's home run race last year sort of brought baseball back front and center on the news but that was one of the last times baseball was culturally relevant. So even though the sport might not be thriving on the information every morning it is still very well relevant behind the scenes. 

Overall baseball is still a “cool” sport. It has a great future with its many young superstars who will keep the fans coming back to watch more. Baseball is changing rules from its old ways to make it even more interesting to watch. The only reason that people still question if baseball is still relevant is because it is not as culturally recognized as other sports like football and basketball have taken the spotlight.

Works Cited

Gonchar, Michael. “Has Baseball Lost Its Cool? - The New York Times.” The New York Times Web Archive, 24 October 2013, archive.nytimes.com/learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/has-baseball-lost-its-cool/. Accessed 8 May 2023.

“MLB: How Major League Baseball is Losing its Appeal in the Modern Era.” Bleacher Report, bleacherreport.com/articles/1566029-mlb-how-major-league-baseball-is-losing-its-appeal-in-the-modern-era. Accessed 8 May 2023.

Snow, Isaac. “Has baseball lost its cool? – The Pitch.” The Pitch, 8 March 2017, wjpitch.com/top-stories/2017/03/08/has-baseball-lost-its-cool/. Accessed 8 May 2023.