What was America's Favorite Pastime

Florida Marlins' Sun Life Field During Game

When I asked my classmates at lunch today if they knew who won the World Series, none of them could even name both of the teams playing in it. Nobody had even watched a single inning. I could not be one to judge however. I wasn't sure myself. Having played baseball for ten years myself, I used to have such passion for the game that I could recite my favorite teams' batting orders from memory. What happened? I couldn't help but wonder why none of us high school athletes knew anything current about the baseball league that was once unquestionably the center of the American sports culture. The answer that I, and almost everyone else, comes up with is that, baseball simply cannot compete with sports such as basketball and football, the current reigning king of the sports industry. Americans' affinity for violent, fast-paced action puts baseball in an entirely different ball game. Football crushes baseball in television's Nielsen rating and even the NBA nearly doubles that of baseball.

Baseball is naturally at a disadvantage to football. In his New York Times article, "Is the Game Over?",  Jonathan Mahler, argues that football is simply "louder, faster and more violent", and therefore more "in tune with our cultural moment". According to Daniel Okrent, the founder of fantasy baseball, "we are a shouting culture now, shouting connotes and engenders excitement. Baseball is quiet and slow.” So baseball no longer fits into our culture. Being a sport placing a lot of value in tradition, maybe baseball has failed to evolve with our  culture. Or maybe, as Mahler implies, this is only a moment in our culture, a trend where football, the action based sport, outperforms baseball. 

I wonder what events or changes are actually causing this cultural shift towards a predominantly football loving society. What has changed since baseball's so called golden era, the 50's and 60's, until now that has caused baseball to decline in popularity relatives to other sports?