From the New York Times… good to see baseball is doing great, and almost as popular as international soccer.
And yet The Baseball Mafia is probably talking about how great the World Series was (I wrote this yesterday), and still thinks the game has Superstars who are within 100 miles of Reggie Jackson’s popularity.
Personally I am looking forward to the upcoming lockout because sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. For example, a million inches of rain in New York City might encourage someone to discuss The Climate Emergency which is in the 10th inning with a ghost runner on second.
In a world where a sport’s status can be measured on social media and in endorsement dollars, it is basketball icons like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, football heroes like Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes and even international soccer stars who captivate the American imagination and dominate the public discourse, the way (Reggie) Jackson did in the 1970s and ’80s.
On the list of the most followed sports Instagram accounts, the first baseball player is Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels at No. 130, with 1.9 million followers.
There are 25 basketball players and nine football players ahead of Trout on the Instagram list. The account for U.F.C., a mixed martial arts organization, ranks sixth, and W.W.E., a staged wrestling competition, is seventh. Major League Baseball’s general account is 33rd, with 6.8 million followers.
