The results are potentially skewed by using percentages. Given the increase in legal residents of the U.S., the actually number of folks who call baseball their favorite sport may have in fact, increased. Yet, the overall "percentage" of the population may have decreased. In addition, an overwhelming percentage of new U.S. residents have immigrated from parts of the world where the answer to the question, "What is your favorite sport?" is likely to not be baseball or American Football, but soccer (football). Ergo, the baseball "percentage" likely suffers. This could very well be a typical case of someone (not the OP) presenting "the facts" in a convenient fashion to lend credence to their point of view. Statistics can usually be spun to support what ever you want them to support.
