What IS, America's favorite past time...

Xanupox · Post by **Xanupox** » February 6, 2007, 6:35 am

The statement, passtime, past time, pass time, etc... who knows what it REALLY is, or how is was meant to be spelled.

The bottom line, people used it along time ago to refer to something that they watched, that while watching it... time passed. They liked it too!!

So, when I was growing up, everything was baseball! The REDS! Pete Rose, the A's with Canseco(sp)... Dale Murphy on the Braves! Baseball seemed pretty popular... it was actually shown on primetime during the weeknights on Major Networks.

Football however, about the time I started finishing up Highschool, seemed to start taking over that edge from baseball.

Fridaynight Highschool, Saturday College, Sunday NFL... Monday night NFL, Wednesday night sometimes, Thursday night later on.... more and more Football, while Baseball found itself only being shown on ESPN, then ESPN 2, and more obscure networks.

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NHL... I actually watched the NHL Hockey when I was 15-16 back in the late 80's early 90's. Edmonton Vs Pittsburg, Lemue versus Gretsky... EA Games came out with NHL Hockey where you could lay the smacketh downeth. Then, slowly that game too, similiar to baseball just seemed to fade away... I think it was around the time they doubled the number of teams across the league and also thier minor league teams started popping up in other major cities. I know I never heard of these "city teams" before as a kid, but now it seems like every city as a hockey team that no one watches, and the radio station is always giving thier tickets away.

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Pro Basketball, NBA. Does anyone actually watch this prior to the playoffs? I mean the season, is so fucking long with WELL over a hundred games on the season... does any one particular game actually MEAN anything, to make it worth watching? I could go on more about the NBA but I wont...

College Basketball, it seems like with the advertised ranking system in college, the draw is occasionally there when you see two top 10 teams playing during the season, you know it could be heated. The best obviously is the tournament in college basketball.... COLLEGE BASKETBALL Tournament, one of the highest rated, most watched events on TV and in arenas/stadiums.... << Hey College FOOTBALL, take a fucking look at that and get clued in, the bowl shit is SHIT.

College Football. That is the best shit going. You can pick a team from start to finish, could be anyteam... homestate, you lived near them, you went to that school, your spouse hates them so you love them... You get to see all thier games, you know each game is HUGE in the BSC scoring system... they are all good to watch.

The end the best game in the world however, college football, with the most fucked up finisher of all... Ranking based one game matchups to determine the best. Well we all saw this year how OH State and Michigan were obviously overrated, and how the only team undefeated in the season left with a bowl trophy and no possible way to declare themselves #1 outside of the polls. Lets see, how many people would have tuned in the week after OH/FL to watch, Florida versus Boise St and Louisville versus LSU, of which the winners would play for National title??

So... what is the pastime of the USA nowdays? I for one no longer think it is baseball, in any form whatsoever.

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » February 6, 2007, 11:16 am

if you based it off of attendance, it would probably still be baseball. But how do you compare a sport that's one per week to one that has one day off per week? What qualifies a sport as the national pastime? Do the most kids play it, do the most people see it, are the most people interested in it?

How the heck do you judge it. Most kids don't ever play organized football. Most try but never follow up on soccer. A lot of kids follow baseball, but even their numbers diminsh greatly at a high school level. Hockey is more accessable across the country but, if you don't have financial means to get ice time if you don't live in a cold state, you're not playing. Most every kid touches a basketball, maybe it's basketball?

I can't see college football though. Not enough kids play the game and the overall tv ratings certainly don't kend any credence to the argument. The PGA tour (3rd round of 4 in any tournament no less) gets better ratings than college football in my neck of the woods (a pretty big neck population wise). Even the big publicized matches do worse than home team baseball matches here, and those baseball games are played practically every day

Post by **Sylvus** » February 6, 2007, 1:32 pm

Chidoro wrote:I can't see college football though. Not enough kids play the game and the overall tv ratings certainly don't kend any credence to the argument.

Have you seen "overall" numbers? I haven't, and would be interested to see how many TVs are tuned in to any college football games over the course of a week. College Football is a different phenomenon than any other sport, as it has more than 100 teams playing on a greater number of television networks than any other. And there are college football games being played between teams from a lot more geographic areas every week than anything else. Granted they are sparsely populated, but do people from the states that don't have pro teams of any sort get into those sports as big as, say, New Yorkers do for the Mets or Yankees? I think the total number of people watching college football would have to rival that of any other sport, it's just that there are a lot more options for college football fans to tune into than anything else.

Just based on a quick search, the final round of the Masters last year drew about 6.5 million viewers and the Michigan vs. Ohio State drew close to 22 million. Unless my math is off.

Here's the only thing I could come up with that has multiple sports compared to each other.

this site wrote:The BCS championship game, which right now is presented as the Fiesta, Orange, Rose or Sugar Bowl on a rotating basis, is one of the most powerful events in television. The last two BCS title games (the 2004 Sugar Bowl and 2003 Fiesta Bowl) averaged a 15.0/26 household rating/share. Only one show in all of prime time is averaging a better rating this season-to-date. The 15.0 for the last two BCS title games is better than the two-year averages of the NBA Finals (9.0/16), NCAA Tournament Final (11.8/19), Monday Night Football (11.5/19), the final round of the Masters (7.8/19), and the Belmont Stakes (10.4/25).

Granted, that's for championship events, but I'd think that you'd get a better picture of the overall fanbase for a sport based on the number of viewers of its biggest event. Note that the Belmont Stakes and Masters are not primetime events, so a lower rating gives a better share.

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » February 6, 2007, 1:58 pm

America's favorite past time is, "bitching". We bitch about anything and everything and when it seems there is nothing left to bitch about we bitch about that. Some folks like to bitch more than others (usually wives) but there is never an end to bitching. You can bitch in any location at any time and under any circumstance. And if you aren't bitching about something then someone is probably bitching about you. Being bitched at and about is as common as air and people will bitch about that. We as a people are not happy unless we are bitching.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » February 6, 2007, 4:58 pm

Bubba Grizz wrote:America's favorite past time is, "bitching". We bitch about anything and everything and when it seems there is nothing left to bitch about we bitch about that. Some folks like to bitch more than others (usually wives) but there is never an end to bitching. You can bitch in any location at any time and under any circumstance. And if you aren't bitching about something then someone is probably bitching about you. Being bitched at and about is as common as air and people will bitch about that. We as a people are not happy unless we are bitching.

I'm saddened by how close to completely true that is.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 6, 2007, 5:26 pm

America's favorite pastime is kicking ass! Watching our sports is like watching a constant rerun of Top Gun, "the best of the best competing against each other". The best and brightest in the world migrate to the United States so any championship that takes place here is a world championship.

We invented Gatorade.

Baseball is the official "lazy days of summer" pastime for Americans
Football is the most entertaining to watch pastime for Americans

As for which championship is the most important, which of the big three (NBA, NFL and NLB) can you remember the most champions from going back year by year starting with the present?

Drolgin Steingrinder · February 6, 2007, 8:35 pm

Going from the thread title, apparently not grammar.

noel · Post by **noel** » February 6, 2007, 9:30 pm

Y'know, I can answer this question... It used to be funny pre-9/11 when Jim Rome answered this question, but now even he doesn't joke about it. I'm certainly not proud of it, but:

America's favorite pastime is War.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » February 7, 2007, 12:47 am

Jim Rome is a douchebag

America's favorite passtime is watching TV.

the expression used to describe baseball was coined long before television, which has fundamentally changed all of our lives.

If the question is what is the most popular sport, the overwhelming answer is football. From the small towns whose culture revolves around high school football, to the college towns whose population doubles on a game day, to the major markets who ping a 48 Nielsen rating (like Philadelphia did on Sunday) for the Super Bowl.

Across the board it is football, football, football.

I say this as a pretty diehard baseball fan as well.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » February 7, 2007, 12:56 am

Drolgin Steingrinder wrote:Going from the thread title, apparently not grammar.

What do you have against random commas?

noel · Post by **noel** » February 7, 2007, 1:26 am

Voronwë wrote:Jim Rome is a douchebag.

So right about so many things, and yet so wrong.

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » February 7, 2007, 11:10 am

Sylvus wrote:
Chidoro wrote:I can't see college football though. Not enough kids play the game and the overall tv ratings certainly don't kend any credence to the argument.
Have you seen "overall" numbers? I haven't, and would be interested to see how many TVs are tuned in to any college football games over the course of a week. College Football is a different phenomenon than any other sport, as it has more than 100 teams playing on a greater number of television networks than any other. And there are college football games being played between teams from a lot more geographic areas every week than anything else. Granted they are sparsely populated, but do people from the states that don't have pro teams of any sort get into those sports as big as, say, New Yorkers do for the Mets or Yankees? I think the total number of people watching college football would have to rival that of any other sport, it's just that there are a lot more options for college football fans to tune into than anything else.

Just based on a quick search, the final round of the Masters last year drew about 6.5 million viewers and the Michigan vs. Ohio State drew close to 22 million. Unless my math is off.

Here's the only thing I could come up with that has multiple sports compared to each other.
this site wrote:The BCS championship game, which right now is presented as the Fiesta, Orange, Rose or Sugar Bowl on a rotating basis, is one of the most powerful events in television. The last two BCS title games (the 2004 Sugar Bowl and 2003 Fiesta Bowl) averaged a 15.0/26 household rating/share. Only one show in all of prime time is averaging a better rating this season-to-date. The 15.0 for the last two BCS title games is better than the two-year averages of the NBA Finals (9.0/16), NCAA Tournament Final (11.8/19), Monday Night Football (11.5/19), the final round of the Masters (7.8/19), and the Belmont Stakes (10.4/25).
Granted, that's for championship events, but I'd think that you'd get a better picture of the overall fanbase for a sport based on the number of viewers of its biggest event. Note that the Belmont Stakes and Masters are not primetime events, so a lower rating gives a better share.

During the season, the college football games get a 1 to 1.5 rating in the NY area (roughly 30 million people in a 60 mile radius) except for Notre Dame games which get a touch under 4 weekly. The PGA get between 4 to 8 in ratings the weekends they are televised. This years' BCS championship got an 8 in the same market. The ohio/michigan game got an 11.5 with it being the most hyped clash ever (1 vs. 2, former coaches dying, etc).

You want to say football as a whole is the national pastime, I can't argue that (except maybe the whole lack of youth participation as compared to other sports and that the season is so short compared to most sports). But college football by itself, I can't, at least not compared to baseball which has multiple successful leagues with teams in towns all across the country.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » February 7, 2007, 12:36 pm

Chidoro wrote:During the season, the college football games get a 1 to 1.5 rating in the NY area...

Contrary to what the media would have you believe, neither the world, nor the US revolve around New York.

Kilmoll the Sexy · Post by **Kilmoll the Sexy** » February 7, 2007, 1:41 pm

I would venture to say that the number 1 pastime is actually golf (if you are counting a sporting activity as the pastime). If you are talking about watching a sport on TV, then it is football followed closely (and sadly) by NASCAR.

Wulfran · Post by **Wulfran** » February 7, 2007, 3:52 pm

Boogahz wrote:
Chidoro wrote:During the season, the college football games get a 1 to 1.5 rating in the NY area...

Contrary to what the media would have you believe, neither the world, nor the US revolve around New York.

No but with its surrounding area its the largest market area in your country and thus a fairly substantial indicator in its own right. Its views may not reflect the country as a whole but it reflects a large part of it.

From the US media I see at home (most of our cable channels are US based or have partnerships with American networks such as TSN and ESPN) and what I've seen on visits to the US, my impression is football out in front by a quite bit, followed by baseball, with the basketball not too far behind MLB. Maybe its because NBA players seem to attract more controversy than baseball players but they seem to garner more headline time... and then whole March Madness thing is something football can equal in Bowl Season but baseball misses out on entirely. The NBA doesn't match MLB on its own but college + pro, basketball doesn't seem that far off baseball. Again this is just my impression from what I see off the various US media outlets we get up here and I realize this could be somewhat slanted.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » February 7, 2007, 3:56 pm

Wulfran wrote:
Boogahz wrote:
Chidoro wrote:During the season, the college football games get a 1 to 1.5 rating in the NY area...
Contrary to what the media would have you believe, neither the world, nor the US revolve around New York.
No but with its surrounding area its the largest market area in your country and thus a fairly substantial indicator in its own right. Its views may not reflect the country as a whole but it reflects a large part of it.

He was addressing college football, and I would imagine that New York ratings may not be the best market indicator for interest in that particular sport.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » February 7, 2007, 4:35 pm

The thread title and its unique grammar remind me of that GWB quote:

"Rarely is the question asked... is our children learning?"

Wulfran · Post by **Wulfran** » February 7, 2007, 4:41 pm

Boogahz wrote:
Wulfran wrote:
Boogahz wrote:
Chidoro wrote:During the season, the college football games get a 1 to 1.5 rating in the NY area...
Contrary to what the media would have you believe, neither the world, nor the US revolve around New York.
No but with its surrounding area its the largest market area in your country and thus a fairly substantial indicator in its own right. Its views may not reflect the country as a whole but it reflects a large part of it.
He was addressing college football, and I would imagine that New York ratings may not be the best market indicator for interest in that particular sport.

I realize that but it is still a very significant market to gauge for interest in ANY sport. How many million people are we talking about these days? 8.1 million (according to the 2005 census) or so within the city limits and how many more in the surrounding areas? They may buck some national trends but you can't just dismiss them... and you can bet advertisers and sponsours don't.

Vaemas · Post by **Vaemas** » February 7, 2007, 4:49 pm

Leonaerd wrote:The thread title and its unique grammar remind me of that GWB quote:

"Rarely is the question asked... is our children learning?"

Not that I'm defending W...even he knows how badly he fucks up the English language...but that quote should be taken in its full context. It's a joke from the 2001 Washington TV/Radio Correspondents dinner.

Dubyah wrote: "Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" Let us analyze that sentence for a moment. If you're a stickler, you probably think the singular verb "is" should have been the plural "are," but if you read it closely, you'll see I'm using the intransitive plural subjunctive tense. So the word "is" are correct.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » February 7, 2007, 6:04 pm

Wulfran wrote:
Boogahz wrote:
Wulfran wrote:
Boogahz wrote:
Chidoro wrote:During the season, the college football games get a 1 to 1.5 rating in the NY area...
Contrary to what the media would have you believe, neither the world, nor the US revolve around New York.
No but with its surrounding area its the largest market area in your country and thus a fairly substantial indicator in its own right. Its views may not reflect the country as a whole but it reflects a large part of it.
He was addressing college football, and I would imagine that New York ratings may not be the best market indicator for interest in that particular sport.
I realize that but it is still a very significant market to gauge for interest in ANY sport. How many million people are we talking about these days? 8.1 million (according to the 2005 census) or so within the city limits and how many more in the surrounding areas? They may buck some national trends but you can't just dismiss them... and you can bet advertisers and sponsours don't.

along that same note, if we base ratings for another sport, such as Hockey, on the ratings in New York, we should be able to decide how well Hockey will do in the ratings across the country.

The original point in discussing the "fanbase" surrounding college football, was that it was not necessarilly in the urban areas that it would be most popular. It will be in those areas which have little else, no pro teams and such. apart from the area college (or high school). Basing the "popularity" on the New York area would not address any of the unique factors present in the communities that support the teams, sometimes with more fanatic behavior than you will see at professional games.

Have you seen "overall" numbers? I haven't, and would be interested to see how many TVs are tuned in to any college football games over the course of a week. College Football is a different phenomenon than any other sport, as it has more than 100 teams playing on a greater number of television networks than any other. And there are college football games being played between teams from a lot more geographic areas every week than anything else. Granted they are sparsely populated, but do people from the states that don't have pro teams of any sort get into those sports as big as, say, New Yorkers do for the Mets or Yankees? I think the total number of people watching college football would have to rival that of any other sport, it's just that there are a lot more options for college football fans to tune into than anything else.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » February 7, 2007, 7:54 pm

Vaemas wrote:
Leonaerd wrote:The thread title and its unique grammar remind me of that GWB quote:

"Rarely is the question asked... is our children learning?"
Not that I'm defending W...even he knows how badly he fucks up the English language...but that quote should be taken in its full context. It's a joke from the 2001 Washington TV/Radio Correspondents dinner.

Dubyah wrote: "Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" Let us analyze that sentence for a moment. If you're a stickler, you probably think the singular verb "is" should have been the plural "are," but if you read it closely, you'll see I'm using the intransitive plural subjunctive tense. So the word "is" are correct.

Fuck! Didn't know that.

Zamtuk · Post by **Zamtuk** » February 7, 2007, 8:39 pm

To settle one argument in this thread, it's spelled pastime.

pas·time /ˈpæsˌtaɪm, ˈpɑs-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[pas-tahym, pahs-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun something that serves to make time pass agreeably; a pleasant means of amusement, recreation, or sport: to play cards as a pastime.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Origin: 1480–90; earlier pas(s)e tyme, trans. of MF passe-temps]

—Synonyms entertainment, hobby, diversion, avocation.

Also, you can't at all tell how big college football is by NY. They have no hometeams at all. Rutgers might be the closest university with a football program, but not sure. Hell, the Giants and Jets play in NJ. But when two of the top three watched events in television history is the Super Bowl, (this year got third, surprisingly) it should be fairly obvious what should be regarded as our favorite pastime.(sports wise that is)

Spang · Post by **Spang** » February 8, 2007, 4:45 am

syracuse and army play college football in new york.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » February 8, 2007, 4:51 am

Masturbation. No contest.

Keverian FireCry · Post by **Keverian FireCry** » February 8, 2007, 5:29 am

Going from the thread title, apparently not grammar.

Will you be my ratman wife?

Zamtuk · Post by **Zamtuk** » February 8, 2007, 1:15 pm

Spang wrote:syracuse and army play college football in new york.

talking about the city, not the state, sorry.

Post by **Sylvus** » February 8, 2007, 2:13 pm

I've continued this conversation with a friend via email. He's the executive producer for the top radio show in Detroit and is pretty conversant in media ratings. This was his take on it.

Marc wrote:Ratings and shares are kind of the same and different. You are correct that the amount of viewers each share is worth depends on the time something is shown. Usually during sweeps in primetime, the rating is about 1.2 million people.

A rating is the percent of tvs tuned to that program out of all tvs in the market (be it the nation or NYC). The share is the percent of tv tuned to a show out of all the tvs on at the time.

Drew thought that the World Series had about 15 million viewers and the BCS championship game had about 40 million viewers. Therefore the championships are no comparison but when I said that the World Series beat college football, that would be one world series game (15 million) beating the Saturday night ABC college football game the week before which got about 12 million.

I want to say that either the Louisville-WVU or the Louisville-Rutgers game was the highest rating ESPN ever got for college football and it was about 6.5 million. For comparison, the Saints-Falcons game in the superdome did about 10 million and is the second highest cable show ever. Believe it or not, but Ross Perot in Larry King is #1 with about 12 million. Usually the top Cable shows do about 5.5 million and are wrestling. (now that I think of it… if you want to count wrestling as a sport it routinely outdraws NBA, NHL, and all other sports shown on cable) Therefore I would think that the average noon college football game on espn gets about 3 million. Add ESPN 2 (maybe 2 mil), ABC (4 mill?), ESPN U (350,000) and the Fox Channels together and about 10 million are watching at noon on a Saturday. That supports your argument that it’s a lot of people watching a wide variety of games.

That's kind of where I was going with that, and that's just for the noon games on a Saturday. The third round of a golf match might draw more viewers than a single college football game in an area with a dearth of college football teams, but I'm certain that there are more people watching college football in a weekend than there are watching golf.

One more thing…

The reason there is so much golf on TV (including it’s own channel) is because the people that watch Golf are one of the richest demographics in the U.S. Just watch the amount of ads for “luxury” items during a golf match. College football is on so many channels because there are the viewers to watch each and every game

NYC is going to be more of an anomaly than just about anywhere else. I don't know the breakdowns of population in the burroughs, but Manhattan has to be one of the most affluent places in the country that does not have a local college football team. It also probably has more alumni from more different schools than any other city. Affluence draws people to watch golf, inflating those numbers in that area, and the diffuse population of alumni or imports from other areas being interested in a vast array of schools from around the country keeps any one football game from dominating the local ratings.

And wasn't Chidoro a cross-country runner? That explains why he isn't as big of a football fan right there.

Sorry that I'm being college-centric, you can boil down my argument to: Football is America's pastime.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » February 8, 2007, 3:32 pm

Sylvus wrote:Football is America

Fixed.

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » February 9, 2007, 1:10 am

Sylvus wrote:And wasn't Chidoro a cross-country runner? That explains why he isn't as big of a football fan right there.

Sorry that I'm being college-centric, you can boil down my argument to: Football is America's pastime.

jesus, good memory, or scary one i guess. I was a high school cross country runner that received more attention than our football team by qualifying for nationals in '87. I became a dedicated miler during my first two years of college before getting issues w/ my hip. It was the forcing me to sit in the trainers room getting ultrasound every afternoon that made me decide it wasn't worth permanent skeletal deteriortation. So that should fill in some blanks.

you also have to read my specific posts and respond in kind with regards to my opinion on football overall. I can see the national pastime being considered football as a whole, not college football on it's own. pretty much made that clear i thought, if not, well hell, god bless I guess.

I'd also like to point out that I'm a big football fan, it just happens to be pro football that garners all of my attention. I'm sure in your astute message searching you will find that parity and overall quality level of the game are my issues with football below the pro level.