Chicago Cubs: World Series and WBC bringing back baseball

Once considered “America’s Game,” baseball took a backseat to other sports. But after a record-breaking World Series win by the Chicago Cubs and a popular start to the WBC, is baseball back?

For centuries, the game of baseball was called “Our National Pastime.” It was the game we grew up playing in the sandlot down the street. We collected baseball cards. Some of us were members of the Mark McGwire fan club after he clobbered 49 home runs in 1987. The names of baseball immortals flowed in arguments like bullets in the battle of Gettysburg.

However, something changed. We moved from a nation of radio and bicycles to HD LED flat-screens and increasingly quick internet speeds. The purity in the strategy of baseball gave way to the entertainment of football. The love of a long ball from Juan Gonzalez left with for long passes from Peyton Manning. Discussions and investigations into performance-enhancing drug use clouded our hearts and minds. Football became king of the screen.

But is that changing? This what the question that came to my mind as I was listening to Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio yesterday morning. The discussion circled around Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott‘s antics in a St. Patrick’s Day parade. With the pressure by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on performance off the field due to players arrested for domestic violence or DUI, the unfortunate exposure Elliott has brought to the NFL only brings more focus. Is now the time for Major League Baseball to become the game America loves?