Is MLB and NFL Dying? Will People Watch In 32 Years From Now?

I never watched sports on television.  I only liked to watch sports in person and I was not that interested in it really, but games were fun to go to with friends.

Then I met and married Wessie.  He always wanted to watch sports, but I never did.  Then, I had children and Space Jam was released.  I cried through that movie and asked if that Michael Jordan was as good as those clips.  The response, of course, was yes.   My sister and her family were crazy about the Chicago Bulls and mainly MJ!  She was always telling me to come watch a game with her and I was never interested.  That abruptly changed after the movie!  I never missed a game or a newscast about them. To this day, I am still a Michael Jordan fan.

My family on my mother’s side were all die hard Cubs fans as well as were my brothers. They had the games on all of the time, I would take the charter buses and go to the games when they played the Cardinals and it was quite fun.  Later, I got to go to Chicago White Sox games and Chicago Blackhawk games.  I really got hooked on the Blackhawk games and would listen to those games on the radio if I could not get them on the television.  I certainly would NOT watch football on television though!  Then, the Bears were doing great and ended up doing the Superbowl Shuffle and winning.  Those games were fun to watch on television.  So I sort of liked football then but stopped after that.  I, however, have since started back up and have several favorite football teams.

So, I now watch sports on television. I am usually home alone and no one watches them with me.  I get all excited and call them and tell them about a great play and they politely listen, but now they do not seem interested.  Go figure!  How does that happen?!!  So, I sit here and yell at the television by myself.  I cheer alone too!

Okay, I probably like football and hockey the best.  I totally LOVED watching the Cubs win the world series!  That was the most exciting ever.  I was so sad that most of my family had passed on and did not get to see it when they were ever so faithful, but what total enjoyment!  I was thrilled that my nephew went to see them in person in the final games and was there supporting the team and our family. I still watch the Cubbies play.

I have not really found a team to like or even watch in the NBA.  They are no longer fun so that is one sport that I do without.  During March Madness, however,  it is fun to watch the last quarter of any game.

Ok, so, my nephew texted me and asked if I was watching the World Series last night.  I responded that I was not as I did not have a team I was interested in.  I said if I picked one it would be Washington. I then checked on the game and found that this could be the last one if Houston won.  I then had to watch the game.  I LOVED when Washington hit the home run after that horrid call.  How fun was that?!!  Anyway, now, of course, I have to watch it again tonight.  Go Washington, please!

The point of this long lead in was to say the following.  Haha.  I was talking to a lot of friends/people about the fact that I never liked sports and now I am the big fan and am sitting at home watching everything all alone.  What the heck??!!  Where are they now?  Some of the responses were that when the generation of my children were 60 years old no one would be watching these sports anyway.  Some said that golf was rapidly dying out.  I did not agree with that, but I certainly do not watch golf either.  I know several who do and totally love it though.  One friend has a daughter who was fabulous and now has a team she coaches.  Several went on to say that the NFL and the MLB would be dead as well.

I had mentioned some of my baseball card collections.  A lot of them said those will be the first to go and who still collects them anyway?  They asked if I knew of any.  I responded that I had not really thought about that or looked for any.

I reacted to all of this rather emotionally and totally disagreed.  How could this even be thoughts in people’s heads.  Baseball is so American!!  I am still upset about these comments even though I wholeheartedly think they are all crazy.  However, then I get to thinking about what the children do today.  Most are on their video games turned into online games.  Who will be playing the sports for people to watch?  Who will watch the sports if all of the audience is online playing videos? People even watch videos of people playing online games.

It seems crazy to me and I cannot even fathom that sports would die out. They have been around forever.  What about the Sandlot????!!!!  You rarely see a group of children out playing unorganized ball these days.  We always were outside playing and people would randomly stop as they were driving by and ask if they could play.  That is in a prior blog of mine from our childhood days. I totally disagree with these thoughts of friends, but what do I know? What a sad time it would be without baseball.  What a sad world.  Those times of outside play were the best!  I would hate to think that children would have no knowledge of outside play and no memories.  Could things actually change that much?

What are your thoughts?