MLB: Will the NFL, NBA Labor Issues Give Baseball A Chance to Recapture America?

Thursday, April 7th, US District Court Judge Susan Nelson declined to end the NFL lockout.

On Wednesday, two of UNC’s top basketball players, Tyler Zeller and John Henson declared their decision to stay at Chapel Hill for another season. This may not look like much on the surface, but I think they are the first of many to stay in college an extra year with the potential of an NBA lockout.

Clearly, there is a situation brewing. MLB could be the only league of the big three to play a season in 2011. While baseball is often referred to as “America’s Pastime,” it’s going to take more than just a pair of lockouts to capture the hearts of Americans. Here’s why:

The Average Fan

Without a doubt, baseball is my favorite sport. It is one of the most popular and most played youth sports in America, right up next to soccer. We’ve all played it as kids; we’ve all watched the occasional game on television.

To the average sports fan, however, baseball is easily the most boring sport. I recognize the fact that without a strong rooting interest or a baseball upbringing, baseball is one of the more difficult sports to fall into. Let’s compare.

To put it simply, basketball is a fast-paced game, filled with characters and tons of athleticism. And that makes for good entertainment. The NBA has Shaq, one of the few people in this world who can be described as both terrifying and goofy.

The NBA has Kobe Bryant, a charismatic, hard-working star. Then there’s LeBron James and Dwayne Wade, two athletic specimens who got nearly an entire sport’s fanbase to root against them.

When you watch a game, there’s tons of get-up-on-your-feet moments from a put-back slam, behind-the-back pass, alley-oop or three-point dagger.

From the basketball fan’s point of view, baseball is a slow, drawn-out game with exciting moments but not enough to watch. While a basketball game is done in two to two-and-a-half hours, baseball games can go anywhere from three to five.

For every alley-oop or jaw dropping pass there is a home run or great defensive play, but it’s the rest of the game that loses the casual basketball fan’s interest. For every Kobe, LeBron and Kevin Durant there’s an Albert Pujols, Tim Lincecum and Hanley Ramierez, but fans know far less about the average baseball star than they do about basketball stars.

LeBron and Kobe are larger than life. Most people wouldn’t even recognize Pujols or Hanley in person. The celebrities just don’t exist in baseball.

In football, it’s much of the same thing. While football is a very slow, drawn-out sport much like baseball, it’s the athleticism component that keeps fans drawn into every moment of the game.

There are the larger than life stars like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. There are the insanely athletic guys like Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson and Calvin Johnson. And there’s the loud-mouth guys you love or hate like Chad Ochocinco and Ray Lewis.

As historical as baseball is, football has become America’s pastime over the last couple decades. It is a Sunday tradition to watch the NFL, even if you don’t like a specific team. Families eat dinner around the television during Sunday Night and Monday Night Football.

For the average football fan, baseball is simply the sport that fills the rest of the year when there is no football. While some baseball players are built like football players (have you seen Hanley lately!), football is football because it exudes manliness.

Football is essentially organized Kill the Carrier with rules. And don’t tell me that wasn’t your favorite game as a kid. It’s not possible.

I, on the other hand, am a baseball fan first, sports fan second. As I mentioned above, to really get into baseball, one of two things need to have happened.

1. You played baseball growing up as a kid all the way into high school

2. You have a passionate rooting interest in one team

I have both.

The average basketball and average football fan may not. Despite the fact that I think baseball is the greatest sport in the world that alone is not going to bring fans of football and basketball into the sport.

So What Needs to Happen?

Last June, the baseball world came to a halt when Stephen Strasburg made his major league debut. All of my roommates and I huddled around a tiny computer screen to watch his electrifying performance—14 strikeouts, pure dominance.

The buzz lasted all but a couple more weeks.

As hard as this is to say, the only way baseball takes the country by storm is with a record chase of the same magnitude as the 1998 Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home run record pursuit.

Even though the steroid era has tarnished baseball history, it saved the sport and renewed interest in the game. The Home Run chase brought in casual fans, and the buzz lasted years.

Granted, we are not going to see the home run record fall in 2011 or 2012. Strasburg, Lincecum, Roy Halladay and Felix Hernandez are still going to be as dominant as ever.

Pujols is still going to make a case for the best to ever play the game. But for baseball as a whole, something needs to happen. A pair of lockouts is not enough to turn sports fans into baseball fans.

So who’s gonna create the buzz?