Has MLB Overtaken The NBA As The Second Most Popular Sports League In America?

Taylor Ballantyne. Getty Images.

The opening weekend of MLB season has me reflecting. It wasn't so long ago when people couldn't stop talking about how baseball was dying. The games were too long. The season was too long. Only the older generations cared about MLB; the younger audiences couldn't give a shit. 

And this was often reflected in mainstream sports coverage. You'd tune into the talk shows on TV, and they'd be discussing football for six months of the year, followed by six months of basketball. It was like clockwork. Very rarely would you see baseball get its shine. Instead, we'd talk about Andre Iguodala shooting a three with the future of the planet at stake. 

NFL is clearly the #1 pro sports league in America. We all know that. But baseball is definitely having a moment right now, while more and more people are growing indifferent to the NBA product. 

Last year's World Series was the most-watched Fall Classic since 2017, with Game 7 drawing an INSANE viewership of over 50 million people globally. It was the biggest audience for an MLB game since 1991. All those people dialed in just to see the Blue Jays choke on 17 different occasions. 

Then you get to the World Baseball Classic, which obviously showcased a shit-ton of MLB's brightest stars. The championship game attracted over 10 million viewers on a random Tuesday night. That's the most ever for the WBC, and it's also a slightly bigger number than what last year's NBA Finals averaged across the entire series. 

The numbers never lie. And baseball has a boatload of momentum with how many people are tuning in right now. 

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The pitch clock has changed everything for MLB; games are far more consumable for the people at home. The league has combatted the downsides of analytics; eliminating the defensive shift and increasing the base size has brought more fun back into the game. ABS seems to be adding more fun, too. They've also done a significantly better job of marketing their stars in recent years, and the Dodgers Empire has provided a much-needed villain in the sport. 

I know people fucking hate LeBron, but the last time the NBA had some legitimate juice was when he was top dog. The league has been looking for that next superstar to take up the mantle of King, and no one's quite been able to grasp it yet. Not to mention, Adam Silver hasn't figured out how to make these stars actually play the game they're paid millions of dollars to fucking play. He even implemented that ridiculous 65-game minimum for awards, and these guys will STILL miss a quarter of the season. 

And even though MLB has found some answers to keep analytics from ruining the sport, the NBA hasn't yet. Every team plays the same. A lot of free throws. A lot of three-pointers. A lot of meh. The league has been watered down to the point where no team really has a distinctive style anymore. It's why I'll despise the Golden State Warriors for the rest of my life. 

So the NBA better figure something out. Because I think they've already been surpassed by MLB, and the gap could get really wide really QUICK.