The start of the Major League Baseball season is here! What a great day, right?
There is actually a petition that was sent to the White House asking for Opening Day to be declared a national holiday. Take a look at the petition. It reached over 100,000 signatures, which requires a formal response from the president. Unfortunately, a White House representative has made a response declaring it is not the president’s job to create national holidays, but would take Congress to get the ball rolling.
Why not though? Baseball is a pretty big deal right? The smell of the fresh cut grass. The sound of the ball cracking off the wood bat and slapping the leather of a glove. Grabbing a hot dog and sitting out in the sun with your friends and family. It’s not just a game, but an American tradition. I mean it is the American past-time, isn’t it?
Well telivision ratings would beg to differ. I was taking a look at Sports Media Watch’s telivision ratings break down from 2013 and to be honest; it’s not even close.
If you are judging a sports popularity by how many eyes are staring at the TV screen than NFL is America’s favorite sport and by a long shot. Taking a look at the 2013 top 50 rated sporting events for the whole year, out of the those 50 the NFL was responsible for 46 of them. The other four came from the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship, NCAA Men’s Football Championship, and Game 6 and Game 7 of the NBA Finals. No surprise the top overall rated sporting event for the year was the Super Bowl.
If you throw out the NFL here is a break down of the next Top 50 rated sports and which event brought in the highest rating for each sport.
Sport – (Number of Top 50 events) – Highest rated event
- NCAA Football – (16) – National Championship Alabama vs. Notre Dame
- NBA – (11) – Game 7 of Finals Spurs vs. Heat
- NCAA Basketball – (8) – National Championship Michigan vs. Louisville
- MLB – (7) – Game 6 World Series Cardinals vs. Red Sox
- PGA – (3) – The Masters Final Round
- NASCAR – (2) – Daytona 500
- Horse – (2) – Kentucky Derby
- NHL – (1) – Game 6 of Finals Blackhawks vs. Bruins
I don’t think TV ratings should be the sole factor in determining our nation’s favorite sport, but if you are asking is baseball still the country’s favorite sport. You have a legitimate question. Has the top spot in the sports world been definitely claimed by football?
I have been to at least one event from all of the sports listed above, except NHL. If you ask me there is nothing like going to a NCAA Football game, but being from Nebraska I am a little biased because football isn’t just a sport in that state it’s almost a like a religion.
But I want to hear from you…what sports do you follow? More importantly what is your favorite sport?