Think Baseball Is Boring? Maybe a Cat Will Help

[elleng]

When The New York Times asked readers how to fix baseball, we all neglected to consider the obvious answer: cats.

Seldom does traditional baseball please a crowd the way a renegade feline scampering across the infield can. Few home runs are as gratifying as a groundskeeper futilely chasing a cat who is having absolutely no part of it.

On Tuesday, fans of the Miami Marlins were delighted to stop watching baseball for a bit as a stray cat evaded capture in the outfield.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/sports/miami-marlins-cat.html?

[stopbush]

1. Baseball doesn't need fixing.

If it bores you, don't watch.

End of story.

[tazkcmo]

3. I love watching baseball on TV.

Can't get sleep like that at the opera!

[elleng]

4. I agree,

but it appears not everyone does!

[tazkcmo]

2. Instead of a ball?

Not a big cat fan but that just seems cruel.

[stopbush]

5. The same people who find classical music boring, or going to a museum boring,

or being quiet during a movie boring.

[shenmue]

6. Kittehs win!

[demosincebirth]

7. Baseball is the most popular sport in the world

[grantcart]

8. Football (soccer) is more popular than baseball by several times.

[demosincebirth]

9. Sorry, but Baseball draws more spectators than any other sport in the world.

[grantcart]

10. Beyond laughable

Baseball is virtually unknown, and has zero spectators in most of Asia and Africa. In South America where baseball is very popular it is still less than football.

I lived in Asia for 20 years and cities with 10 million people like Bangkok, Jakarta, Shanghai would come to an absolute standstill for key international matches on TV. The last world cup had a total of 29 billion spectator views.

Only someone that hasn't lived extensively outside of the US would every attempt such an assertion. Besides that baseball is a) not the most popular sport even in the US b) has declining viewership

https://www.forbes.com/2004/04/13/cz_kb_0413match.html

One of the biggest knocks against soccer is the lack of success of its professional leagues in the U.S. The latest to make a go of it, Major League Soccer, has lost $350 million over its first eight years. But when you look at the number of people playing soccer, it’s a major growth sport. Almost 18 million people played soccer in 2002, up 15% from 15 years ago according to SGMA International. Baseball participation is down 31% over the same period to 10 million people.

On a global scale, soccer leaves baseball even further behind. Soccer’s preeminent event, the World Cup, which takes place every 4 years, had 1.1 billion people tune in to watch the final game in 2002 between Germany and Brazil. The tournament had a cumulative television audience of 29 billion people in a total of 213 countries for the 64 matches. Baseball’s biggest event, the World Series, is a non-event outside of North America and Japan. Viewership in the U.S. for last year’s World Series averaged 20 million per game and ratings were down more than 50% from 20 years ago

In the US MLS now equals MLB among teenagers.

http://www.espnfc.us/major-league-soccer/story/1740529/mls-catches-mlb-in-popularity-with-kids-says-espn-poll

In this worldwide survey Baseball ranks 11th.

http://www.totalsportek.com/most-popular-sports/

The NFL has ranked more popular than MLB since 1985

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/10354114/harris-poll-nfl-most-popular-mlb-2nd

I haven't seen any world wide comparisons but baseball probably doesn't get as many spectators as its cousin Cricket where test matches in Australia, India and England have spectators in the hundreds of thousands

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283309.html

[demosincebirth]

11. Laughable, huh?

http://www.businessinsider.com/attendance-sports-leagues-world-2015-5



If you add Japanese attendance, that's 100 million attending baseball worldwide. If we consider total attendance, Major League Baseball is the most popular, drawing more than 70 million fans during the 2014 season. NO other sport is, even, close.



How do you like your crow served?

[grantcart]

12. Your statement was "Most popular sport in the world"

Not "paid tickets to professional sports leagues".

There are NO professional sports leagues in SE Asia, China, India, the people follow country team play.

The number of individual views of football (soccer) matches on TV is counted not in millions but by the billions a year.

Only an untraveled American would equate purchasing an expensive ticket to attend a game in person as a metric

For Soccer professional league play isn't the most popular form of the sport, national team play.

In the last World Cup 3.2 billion people watched at least one game and over a billion people watched the final. That doesn't include all of the

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2015/m=12/news=2014-fifa-world-cuptm-reached-3-2-billion-viewers-one-billion-watched--2745519.html