The World Series is coming to a close, and this was a pretty good season. Over the past couple of years, MLB has set new attendance records in terms of total ticket sales. MLB has been able to do this by separating itself from the steroid era. Fans have forgotten the cheaters, like Jose Canseco and Rafael Palmeiro, and come back to America’s pastime. But in terms of TV ratings, baseball is behind NASCAR, a sport mostly popular in the southeast region of the country and is mostly considered not a sport by the rest of the United States. What does this mean for baseball? That only hardcore baseball fans are watching their sport. Look at the most popular sports league in America, the NFL. They have the best TV ratings because their sport attracts the average sports fan and even those who do not enjoy watching most sports.

Baseball is not attracting these people because the game has a bad reputation of being “boring.” Sophomore Donnel Epps said, “All you do is hit and throw a ball around.” But baseball is much more than that. Most people don’t appreciate the history of the game and they can not find entertainment in men hitting and catching a ball like they can in men hitting each other. Baseball is much more than “men hitting and catching a ball”, it is America’s pastime and it just has not kept up with our fast-paced, action-packed society. Baseball games can be lengthy, and sometimes nothing will happen for hours at a time, but usually there is always exciting plays every game, and not just home runs. It is true that football is a little more fast-paced than baseball, but it is hard to understand why people do not find a great leaping catch over the wall or a pitcher throwing a no-hitter as exciting as someone trying to hit the guy on the other team with as much force as he can, if one did that off the football field, they would be charged with assault.

It is not just at the national level that baseball is unappreciated. College football is nationally televised each weekend, and the college championship game is aired in primetime. But there is no college baseball on NBC, ABC, CBS, or FOX and the college baseball championship is only aired on cable TV. Even at our school baseball is shunned. The stands are usually full at every home game but at a baseball game you would be lucky to see half the bleachers full. Junior baseball player Phil Cast says students prefer football more because, “there is more physical contact in football.” He is right, in today’s world violence and action make up everything considered entertaining.

Baseball is a more artistic sport; you really have to appreciate it to find it exciting. Some people do not like baseball, that does not mean it is a boring sport. Yes it is a slower-paced game, but the great moments in baseball are really exciting and the only reason people do not watch it is ignorance. Most people see baseball as the home run sport, and nothing else. If you do not like the game fine, but do not ever say it is boring.