I am reading Michael MacCambridge’s book, America’s Game. For those interested in sports and particularly professional football it is a remarkable telling of the rise of the NFL and passing of the mantle from baseball as America’s game. I recently met MacCambridge while at Stanford and saw a presentation by him based on the book that was likewise engaging.

Beyond the story of the NFL it is an insightful look into how television began to swallow up America in the 50’s and how it changed the cultural landscape forever:

The number of television sets in the country had grown from 172,000 in 1948 to 25 million by 1954, the same year the oversize perennial photojournalism weekly Life lost 21 percent of its circulation over a six-month period.

NFL Hall of Famer Tex Schramm said this on television’s influence on the American audience:

The Fifties was a decade in which everybody became watchers instead of doers. Television meant the end of minor league baseball as we had known it and also minor league entertainment. Why pay to see a stage show with one big name and no other talent, when you could turn on your TV and watch the best entertainers in the world? I think this also signaled the end of regionalism. People started thinking more on a national scale.

Although Schramm is best known as the first president of the Dallas Cowboys and as an innovator with the LA Rams, I think his analysis of the impact of television on American culture is on the mark. If you continue to extend this thought out there are many possible directions you could go (I will leave it to some of you to take the paths I don’t). What has been the true impact of TV on community? Not only do we think more nationally than regionally but we also stay at home more rather than heading out to the corner pub or over to a neighbor’s to visit.

The minor league baseball point is intriguing. In 1949 there were 450 minor league baseball teams spread throughout communities in the US. In that year an all-time attendance record of 39.7 million was set. Rivalries existed between local towns much as they do today in European soccer leagues. The record stood for more than half a century. It was not until 2004 that minor league baseball was able to match the attendance posted 55 years prior.

Is the recent return of minor league baseball foreboding on its apparent nemesis, television?

The acceptance rate of television mentioned earlier is amazing. More amazing is that new technologies like cell phones, DVR, satellite, cable, DSL and others have even faster market penetration rates than television did.

After 50 years of dominance it appears that television, at least as we have known it, is on the way out. Those flat screen monitors are just going to continue to drop in price. Wait long enough and they will join the ranks of other relics like beta machines, 8 track cassette players and turn tables. Web 2.0, the iPod, smart phones and other technologies give us multiple options now to view video when we want to. Am I going too far here in predicting the tube’s demise? I think it likely has another 10-15 years left but I am skeptical.

I’m not sure how or if this ties to the renewed interest in minor league baseball. However, I am taking it as a good sign that despite all the other virtual options, Americans are physically going out to the ballpark to have a hot dog and a beer while cheering on the boys of summer.