I have watched and played baseball as a young kid, I adore the sport. I just find it fun to watch and to this day I love watching it on the T.V.
I have noticed recently that not that many people watch, or even follow MLB no more. Viewership of baseball has decreased tremendously. The average viewership of the World Series in 2013 was 15 million, 2009 had an average viewership of 19.4 million. The game 7 for World Series 2014 had reached 23.5 million people which was a better number to see. Sadly, the average viewers of this World Series was 13.8 million viewers. Baseball is just a relaxing and a strategic sport to watch. My friends and I follow baseball like it is a religion. We follow from college prospects, to learning most of the lineup to teams. I have been a fan since I was younger but it is not just watching it on the T.V. I went to a Yankee game during the summer, where the major sport affiliated with summer is baseball. Soccer, football, basketball, hockey, etc. are all off and baseball is the only thing on.
I remember it was 80 degrees in July when I went to the game and barely any humidity on a weekend. I went to watch the game and half the stadium was filled up. I was so surprised to see that. Then again it was against the Cincinnati Reds who were not in the same division. And the numbers of the World Series could involve the MLB teams fan base itself. For example the 2009 World Series with the Yankees vs Phillies had an average of 19.4 million people. Yankees are known to have the biggest fan base in baseball. The previous year Phillies vs The Rays had an average of 13.635. So this is how I see it. It’s not a matter if people do not like the sport anymore; it is the fact that not that many people watch it because the teams are not the ones they are fans of. (Which I believe it’s ridiculous if you just watch baseball for one team.) The sport I believe is still alive but people watch it for how big a matchup is or for the teams involved in playing it. For instance Derek Jeter’s final home game as a Yankee had 10 million T.V. viewers and 800,000+ internet stream views.
It just matters on how important the game is and who is playing. Such as Rivalry’s, players retiring, or MLB playoffs. Interest is obviously still there, but no one has time to watch a 3-4 hour game. It’s just common sense.
