The Downfall of Baseball in Star Trek

[Admiral_Young]

Being a baseball fan myself I've always been curious as to the cause of professional baseball's downfall in the Trek Universe. In the Star Trek Chronology it is mentioned that the final World Series was played in 2045 I think between the London Knights (Buck Bokai's team) and I forget who the other team was.

Considering the current state of MLB right now with the steroid issue so prominent (thanks to the A-Roid situation) and the economic recession I'm wondering if these things played a part...as well as the coming World War III? What does everyone think?

 

[C.E. Evans]

Generally, I believe that the fall of baseball had more to do with people's steadily decreasing attention span and that baseball simply was considered too slow-moving by the majority of folks by the mid 21st-Century and that very few people attended or watched the last World Series.

 

[spoonunseptium]

Jake Sisko loved baseball.

 

[Mr. B]

I'd agree with Evans that the current reasons for its decline are likely responsible.

 

[Takeru]

I think it may have something to do with the fact that baseball is a pretty obscure sport outside of North America, it's just not important on a worldwide scale. Golf is more popular than baseball if you go by countries where it'splayed professionally and don't even get me started on soccer. So they probably just stopped, when they realized that it's not very popular.

Edit: I have a question, why is it called "World Series", if it's just a bunch of teams from one country?

 

[Terengo]

Baseball also requires a large field with the possibility of the balls sailing far outside that field, too. It doesn't seem well-suited to a starbase, for sure, and maybe not even for a city of the future. Even today, in most urban areas, basketball has overtaken baseball, largely because of the space requirements.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Edit: I have a question, why is it called "World Series", if it's just a bunch of teams from one country?

It's actually two countries. You're forgetting the Blue Jays and Expos--Canadian teams that play against ours.

 

[Kirk1980]

And Nerys, you're forgetting the Expos are now the Washington Nationals

As for Takeru's assessment....not that popular worldwide?

Japan has a professional league, most baseball talent these days comes from Latin America.

What WORLD are you talking about...? It's also a multi-billion dollar a year industry. The sales come from all parts of the world.

If anything, I'd agree more with the low attention span thing. But the last WS wasn't well-attended because nobody outside Philly and Tampa gave a crap to go watch them in person or on TV. Get a popular team involved and it gets good ratings and attendance.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I was thinking also it's big in Japan and the Latin American countries as well. I know that the steroid issue did not really enter into the mindset of the public until the last five years but still it is interesting to consider that might have effected a drop off in viewership.

 

[Semah]

Edit: I have a question, why is it called "World Series", if it's just a bunch of teams from one country?

It's actually two countries. You're forgetting the Blue Jays and Expos--Canadian teams that play against ours.

Yeah, I caught 2 Expos games last season-hey wait a minute.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

And Nerys, you're forgetting the Expos are now the Washington Nationals

My bad! But the Blue Jays still count, unless something else has happened that I don't know about.

What can I say...when I got older I started to find college football a whole lot more interesting than baseball! Proving the point, I suppose?

 

[Myasishchev]

A lot of professional sports fell out of favor during the post-Eugenics Wars public backlash against the genetically engineered sportsmen who played them.

 

[Misfit Toy]

I have a question, why is it called "World Series", if it's just a bunch of teams from one country?

Same reason we have a "Miss Universe" pageant.