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I think the personalities were better in the 80's and 90's.
-Someone like Cal Ripken was a legend. Remember his 2,130 game consecutive streak that broke Lou Gehrigs record? The steroid era really hurt baseball. McGwire, Sosa and others tarnished the game.
Kids use to look up to Ken Griffey Jr among others. I think yakees dominance in the 2000's hasn't helped. Many are tired of the yankee and red sox dominance.
I think there is also more competition from other sports that you didn't have in the 80's and 90's. For example, Ronda Rousey has gotten a lot of press coverage lately. 20 or 25 years ago, that would have gone to David Justice, Don Mattingly, Nolan Ryan?
Thankfully, baseball players aren't involved in the same idiocy as other sports. There is no MLB version of Johnny Manziel, or Ray Lewis, or Ray Rice or Adrian Peterson for example.
Babe Ruth was rumored to be a pretty wild guy. Good thing for him there was no social media at the time.
Baseball players may be just as wild. I know the New York media used to cover Jeter's exploits quite a bit during the 90s/early 00s. But he was really the only household name in the sport.
As criteria you've looked at Google search data, Twitter followers and endorsement deals. It should be no surprise that athletes with a more global reach lead, by leaps and bounds, in all categories.
I would say basketball players are more popular than baseball players domestically as well as internationally. The gap has only gotten bigger in recent years.
Baseball, in particular, has a much stronger sense of historical context than most "marketable" sports; I wonder how many of the basketball aficionados here would recall Elgin Baylor, Bob Pettit, or some of the other stars of the 8-team NBA which existed when I was a subteen -- yet Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron date from the same era.
It's a harmless variation due to a constantly-changing culture; nothing more.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 03-27-2016 at 01:51 PM..
Baseball, in particular, has a much stronger sense of historical context than most "marketable" sports; I wonder how many of the basketball aficionados here would recall Elgin Baylor, Bob Pettit, or some of the other stars of the 8-team NBA which existed when I was a subteen -- yet Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron date from the same era.
It's a harmless variation due to a constantly-changing culture; nothing more.
Uh, guys like Russell, Cousy, West and Chamberlain get brought up all the time in the basketball forum. I wouldn't say it's any weaker in basketball. The biggest difference is that MLB is an older league than the NBA. Nobody talks about NBA players from the 20s because there was no NBA then.
I'd say NFL is the same way. Johnny Unitas, Dick Butkus, Jim Brown, etc. There are a lot of hard core football fans out there who can name entire team rosters from the 40s and 50s. Football fans, on average, tend to be much more fanatical about these things, imo.
And of course, don't get me started on "futbol" with diehard Brazil or Manchester United fans.
Easily the most famous and talked about athlete in the US in the last couple of years.
The poster you quoted made an excellent point. There's many more stars, outside of baseball, getting attention than at any time in the history of pro sports in the US.
Easily the most famous and talked about athlete in the US in the last couple of years.
The poster you quoted made an excellent point. There's many more stars, outside of baseball, getting attention than at any time in the history of pro sports in the US.
Ok. I understand the point, but I had never heard of her before.
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