MUNCIE, Ind. – Once America’s past time, the nation is no longer passionate about baseball, says a Ball State University historian.

"When you talk to people about baseball, the only ones who have that real passion are older or played the game," said William Eidson, a history professor and long-time baseball fan. "The rest simply don’t care as much. People have so many more alternatives than a few decades ago. There has been a gradual decline in interest."

Eidson is author of  "State Champs: The Final Four in Indiana Baseball," a 25-year review of high school baseball state championships from the late 1960s until the early 1990s.

During that span, he watched major league baseball popularity soar with new stadiums and television broadcast deals. At the same time, amateur baseball slowly waned as football and basketball popularity soared.

While working as a volunteer, Eidson saw fewer and fewer youngsters came out to play organized baseball each year. Many were drawn to football, basketball and other sports.

"I am very concerned with the lower levels of baseball," he said. "Even at the state championship level we don’t see the crowds we had 10 to 15 years ago.

"I think its because the best athletes used to play baseball first and then other sports second. Today, most of the best athletes prefer basketball and football. It has totally reversed itself in just a few decades."

Eidson longs for the days when baseball reigned before free agency and millionaire reserves.

"When I was a kid I worshiped St. Louis’s Enos Slaughter and when he was traded to the Yankees I was torn," he said. "Would I change my allegiance to follow my hero?

"Today, players change teams every few years," he said. "It is difficult to have a relationship with any team when they have new guys every year or two."

Despite baseball’s problems, Eidson is able to find old-style baseball passion from time to time.

When St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire dueled Chicago’s Sammy Sosa for the single-season home run record, the nation was in awe for a few weeks in 1998.

"I went to a game in Cincinnati, and everyone wanted to see McGwire break the record," Eidson said. "That year people were watching every game Sosa and McGwire played, filling stadiums and staying glued to the television set. It was like the old days."

By Marc Ransford, Communications Manager

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Eidson by e-mail at wedison@bsu.edu or by phone at (765) 285-8710.)