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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

I think the idea that baseball is only as popular as hockey isn't quite accurate. Two seasons ago, Major League Baseball broke its all-time attendance record. They would have broken it again last year had there not been a bunch of games cancelled due to the hurricane. I remember reading two years ago that something like 76 million people attended MINOR league games during the year.

So I think that baseball is thriving in its own way. It doesn't have the TV audience that football has, but I do think that there are a lot of reasons for that. If baseball had a 16-game schedule, primarily played on Sundays, I don't think there would be any question as to what the national pastime is. But because there's a game every day from April through October, I think the enthusiasm waxes and wanes during the course of a season. That's just one of many reasons why I think baseball's popularity is difficult to measure against football.

To address the actual issue, though, I think that even in the long-term, the hobby will continue to thrive. As people get older, their sense of nostalgia begins to increase and they become more interested in old things. Look at the people on this board - it's safe to say that none of us - except maybe Leon - were alive when Ty Cobb played, and yet that's what we all collect. Most of us collect out of a sense of history or love for the game.

I think the hobby has only just begun to tap into the vast wealth that was accumulated by younger people during the dot com boom. Many of those people still have plenty of money, and as they get older their own senses of nostalgia will start to kick in, and some of them will enter the hobby. I also think that after this recession is over, people will be a little more hesitant to put all their money in the market, and may begin investing money in other places - and our hobby will get some of that money.

The staggering dollars that are brought by the major auctions amaze me, year after year. I see that trend continuing.

-Al