Take Me Out to the Ballgame

To even the most casual observer, baseball's outlook has probably looked bleak for some time. Dwindling World Series ratings and sliding participation rates among growing minority populations in the U.S., particularly among African-Americans, are a fairly good indication. Then there's Major League Baseball's performance-enhancing quagmire, which, despite current drug testing, continues to haunt the league thanks to its past demons.

Meanwhile, the popularity of many other professional leagues and their athletes is on the rise.

The NBA has enjoyed rising Finals viewership over the last few years, a return to the global mountaintop after the U.S. won gold in the 2008 Olympics, and soaring popularity for a number of its stars. The league has also kept itself at the forefront of fans' minds during its off-season the last two years, due to numerous star-player trades and the tantalizing 2010 free agency market. (Comparatively, baseball's biggest off-season story this year involved its highest paid player breaking off his marriage to date octogenarian pop stars and admitting he tested positive for a banned substance in 2003.)

The PGA's top two money makers on and off the course last year, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, were also the top two money makers in all of sports (Sports Illustrated, July 6, 2009 issue). They're so marketable that Mickelson made almost as much in endorsements ($46.6 million) as the top endorsement earners in baseball, football and basketball combined ($49.5 million). And Woods is so far ahead of the pack that he earned nearly double that of Mickelson.

Men's tennis celebrated Roger Federer's record-breaking 15th Grand Slam title last month, surpassing Pete Sampras, but the question of which one of them has stirred up less controversy during their careers is still up for debate. During their dominance of the sport over the last two decades, Federer's and Sampras' likability quotients have rarely been disputed.

Even the NHL has its playoff beards and the coolest trophy in all of sports.

Then, of course, there's football - the undisputed titan of American fandom. Every year the Super Bowl earns the highest ratings of anything on television, no matter which two teams compete in the event. In the NFL, the product is so good, the action so packed, and the athletes so stellar that nary anything they do off the field can diminish our passion for their feats on it – not steroid use, dog fighting convictions or DUI manslaughter charges. For years, baseball has been America's past time in name only.

So what is baseball’s allure in the face of rising competition and its own continuing controversies? What does baseball have that no other sport does?

Well, for one, its music. Or rather, its song.

That in-game hymn that’s shared by every major, minor and independent-league team, college and university, little league and pee-wee squad alike. At no other organized sporting event, at least inside the U.S., will you hear everyone in attendance simultaneously break into song no matter where their allegiances lie. No other game has a tune devoted to that very thing – the game.

The next closest thing, likely, is college football, where fans often serenade one another with the home team’s fight song. But if there’s just one fan in attendance cheering for the other school, you’re not getting so much as a hum out of that person. Plus, should you venture to a different campus the following week, you’re not likely to hear that song repeated. Nor would you want to. They’re meant to unite the fans of a team in creating one more stitch in the blanket that is home-field advantage.

And yet, when the seventh inning of a baseball game arrives, something feels right about the entire stadium gleefully singing the same number, no matter who the majority is rooting for or how many runs back they might be. If anything, even when the game seems out of reach, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” can serve as a welcome relief.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Wrigleyville. Fans fill the stands day after day, year after year, and no matter how bad the contest, or the season, is going for the Cubs, they all stand and belt out the melody. Oftentimes, it’s at the urging of a celebrity or local pro athlete who is leaning out the broadcast booth with a microphone in tow. Not that the organization needs them; instead it’s usually viewed as an honor to lead the rendition. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s tough to find a more captive audience.

But boisterous versions of the song are heard in hundreds of ballparks in and out of the country. “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is universally known; sung by baseball fans before they’re old enough to distinguish right field from left. It’s believed that the song is so popular that for decades everyone sang it at the beginning of each MLB game, and that the ritual eventually moved to the middle of the seventh inning to accommodate L.A. Dodger fans who were just arriving to the stadium.

Even a book dedicated to the history of the song (Baseball’s Greatest Hit: The Story of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”) came out in 2008 to help commemorate the tune’s 100th anniversary.

Through constant change – integration, relocations, expansion, stadium lights, the designated hitter, artificial turf, the extinction of artificial turf, the wild card and interleague play – it’s been a staple, giving fans (pardon the pun) something to sing about no matter what the circumstances. The notion that the sport continues to draw major interest because of an in-game diddy is not the most ridiculous theory you’ve ever heard. Let’s face it, it’s not because of the beer prices.

Whatever the reason, it does continue to draw major interest. The current recession aside, attendance figures through the end of 2008, Major League Baseball is happy to tell you, suggest that the sport’s performance-enhancing drug controversy is not enough to keep fans away. Many view this as proof that the media are the only ones who care if the players use steroids or other banned substances.

Don’t be fooled. Fans care. They’ve always cared.

As a show of protest we could all stop attending games, stop watching the broadcasts, stop buying the merchandise, and subsequently force sponsorship dollars to dry up. But even given the economic downturn, that’s a lot to ask. Especially when, presumably while clean thanks to current effective drug testing, there’s a guy in St. Louis slugging his way through history. Or when there’s a hitter in Minnesota flirting with .400. Or when Kansas City is excited about one of its pitchers for the first time since Bret Saberhagen. Or when a member of the White Sox just achieved perfection.

Take away all this drama and the fans still wouldn’t stay at home.

There’s just too much singing to do.