Like.. 92?
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69
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Tree fiddy
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When the Steelers started their run.
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I think that’s about right. There’s a line in the 1973 movie “Bang the Drum Slowly” where a doctor tells a baseball player he’s treating, “I hear it’s a dying sport.”

There’s also this:

https://news.gallup.com/poll/610046/...5%20basketball).
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That is interesting. For me, having so many opportunities (162 vs 16) to take my kids to a game in KC was a big deal. Plus, back when the Royals games were broadcast over antenna, it was fun to watch them almost daily.
Will never forget George Brett standing on second base going over .400

The Chiefs even making the playoffs back then was pretty much out of the question but I watched them every Sunday anyway.
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In Kansas City? Probably 1990 or 1991?
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After the MLB strike in 1994. That pissed a lot of people off that never came back.
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I would have to go with this. Plus the Royals were pretty good that year and were making a push at the moment in the AL Central. They were like 2-3 games back. And then play stopped. God did that piss me off!! Baseball died inside of me because of that. I've never really cared about it the same since. Not even during the Royals WS years. I watched but my heart really hasn't been with them since 94. And I really used to be a die hard Royals fan. I grew up with the memories of sitting out on the front porch at my Grandparents house in KC with my Grandpa during the summer. Listening to the Royals games on his portable radio that could pick up every band there was including shortwave. He let me drink beer with him I'm 15-16 ect. We sat there and listened to the Royals and drank Hamns beer and shot the shit. A lot of times my Dad and older bros and Uncles were there also. It was great times and great Royals memories too.
This would have been early to mid 70's
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I feel like this is when it really shifted. The strike coupled with Dallas becoming a team that everyone either jumped on the bandwagon or absolutely hated. This created a bunch of rivalries and banter between fans. I feel like it really took off from there. That’s just my experience, anyway.
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l think the McGuire/Sosa home run race saved baseball. It became a national story way beyond baseball fans. The fans came back the next year in their normal sizes/

Then the steroids scandals hit and football went to another level and "America's Game" was now football.
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You guys are way off. Football in national surveys passed baseball in the 60s. I am inmy mid 50s and football has always been more popular. The only thing that has changed is the gap.
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Agreed. I'm not checking the numbers, so I don't know when viewership for football passed baseball, but I think the writing was on the wall for baseball as soon as sports became televised. Baseball is a really good sport for radio, and football isn't. Football is a really good sport for tv and baseball isn't. How many people listen to radio anymore?
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I agree with this.

MLB “felt” very important in the late 90’s. Those Yankees teams were a big fucking deal.

But the Steroid Era and everything that followed really took the shine off the league.

It was sorta the equivalent of the Tour de France and Lance Armstrong. Normal people actually watched cycling back then. Then the scandal hit, and it never “felt” the same.
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