# Question from non-American: is baseball popular (or indeed, existent) in the South? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** baseball-mlb\ **Created:** [August 26, 2019, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268 "2019-08-26T16:00:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/21 "2019-08-26T20:12:09Z")
The Arkansas University baseball team is one of the best in the SEC. Dave Van Horn has coached Arkansas 17 seasons. We were playing in the College World Series a couple months ago. The success of the University team has increased interest at the high school level. > [@](#): > > Van Horn’s subsequent teams have had plenty of success as well, reaching the College World Series eight times, six occurring at Arkansas (2004, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2019), the other two during his tenure at Nebraska (2001 and 2002). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/22 "2019-08-26T20:15:20Z")
I think the important point is that in real life today, baseball is just as popular in the South as it is in the rest of the country. In a fictional story with an alternative timeline, it’s perfectly plausible that baseball didn’t become nationally popular. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/23 "2019-08-26T20:19:15Z")
Florida and Florida State Universities are big baseball teams. And the Louisiana team just won the Little League World Series. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/24 "2019-08-26T20:25:06Z")
[quote=“dalej42, post:16, topic:839268”] I can’t think of any sport that has much of a regional difference in the USA. Perhaps ice hockey, but teams have been successful in the south as well. QUOTE] I would venture that hockey is still significantly more popular in the North/northeast than elsewhere in the country. Other major sports are equally popular across regions. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/25 "2019-08-26T20:32:49Z")
Thanks, everyone. As, basically, a sports-ignoramus, I feel complimented / overwhelmed by all the responses; with the mass of info, bringing in assorted factors. At all events, I now know that the South doesn’t in any way boycott or eschew baseball. > [@bordelond](#): > > So far as I know, there’s never, ever been a stigma with baseball being a “Yankee” sport. In comparison, consider that Japanese sportsmen did not drop baseball \*circa \*the late 1940s despite it being one of the most popular sports of their fiercest WWII adversary. Ah, yes – “beisoboru”, don’t those chaps call it? Something of a parallel – I gather that Cuba was baseball-mad pre-1959, and has remained so, despite the country’s relations with the US having been, shall we say, sub-optimal for the past sixty years. > [@md2000](#): > > Plus, I wonder how relevant weather was? It would be pretty hot sitting out in the sun in summer in the Good Old Days, worse in the south. Many teams now feature indoor venues with air conditioning. I can see the point here – have never been to the US at all, but do get the picture that the climate of the country’s south-east can be a trial to those who didn’t grow up there – and sometimes, to them too. Cuba again: I understand that there, and in the equally baseball-crazy Dominican Republic, there is great following of the game, and huge live audiences; and it’s envisageably yet hotter there, than in the US South. One takes it that those Cubans and Dominicans are tough cookies… The Harry Turtledove stuff – I know (I think !) that it is only fiction, but I’m a fan. Picture is got that in that “universe”, it’s not only the Confederacy which doesn’t “do” baseball – same goes (without political / nationalistic factors) for nearly all of said “universe” 's United States: most of the northern “tier”, the Midwest, the South-West, and California – baseball is just not on the radar of people there, they’re interested in football only: baseball is a strange and highly-localised thing, peculiar to New England and, I take it, New York State, where Abner Doubleday was born. Re Turtledove’s narrative: one takes it that Doubleday, born in 1819, must have been there as himself, in that “universe” – giving rise to hypothesis that after things there start to go down the pan for the States as one united country, w.e.f. Sept. 10th 1862, the “point of divergence” (when a vital Confederate document which in “our time line” was lost and fell into Union hands; isn’t lost, so that the South wins the battle of Antietam – and wins the decisive battle, and the war, three weeks later) – Doubleday gets killed in those last few weeks of the war, so never gets the chance to popularise baseball in the Union army. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/26 "2019-08-26T20:41:49Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > I can’t think of any sport that has much of a regional difference in the USA. Perhaps ice hockey, but teams have been successful in the south as well. Lacrosse? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/27 "2019-08-26T21:26:44Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Lacrosse? I’d suggest curling myself, but I might be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/28 "2019-08-26T22:04:38Z")
OP, I read about a sport you play over there called Quidditch. You like riding brooms around and throwing Quaffles? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/29 "2019-08-26T22:19:25Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > OP, I read about a sport you play over there called Quidditch. You like riding brooms around and throwing Quaffles? Fried chicken goes well with Quaffles. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/30 "2019-08-27T00:39:07Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > Re Turtledove’s narrative: one takes it that Doubleday, born in 1819, must have been there as himself, in that “universe” – giving rise to hypothesis that after things there start to go down the pan for the States as one united country, w.e.f. Sept. 10th 1862, the “point of divergence” (when a vital Confederate document which in “our time line” was lost and fell into Union hands; isn’t lost, so that the South wins the battle of Antietam – and wins the decisive battle, and the war, three weeks later) – Doubleday gets killed in those last few weeks of the war, so never gets the chance to popularise baseball in the Union army. He’s pulling your leg. Or he’s a much worse historian than I thought. Abner Doubleday had absolutely nothing to do with baseball in any way. [Albert Spaulding](https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Abner_Doubleday), a sports mogul, wanted a patriotic beginning to the sport and rigged a commission to “prove” that it was invented by Civil War hero Doubleday. Baseball had been around long before he was born and evolved as a sport all over the country. Both sides in the Civil War spent idle hours playing baseball. A large percentage of professional baseball players came from the South throughout its history, even though the teams were in the big northern cities. A much larger percentage would have if baseball had allowed “negroes” to play. The Negro Leagues included plenty of southerners, too. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/31 "2019-08-27T01:21:58Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Lacrosse? Just what I was going to suggest. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/32 "2019-08-27T01:28:17Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Just what I was going to suggest. Yeah, I agree that lacrosse is probably one of the strongest examples. Extremely popular on the east coast / northeast, and it’s played in high schools and colleges (and there’s even several pro leagues), but it’s somewhere between a niche sport and non-existent in much of the rest of the country. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/33 "2019-08-27T01:41:10Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Extremely popular on the east coast / northeast, and it’s played in high schools and colleges (and there’s even several pro leagues) That should have been “ **where** it’s played in high schools and colleges” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/34 "2019-08-27T02:08:14Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > He’s pulling your leg. Or he’s a much worse historian than I thought. Abner Doubleday had absolutely nothing to do with baseball in any way. [Albert Spaulding](https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Abner_Doubleday), a sports mogul, wanted a patriotic beginning to the sport and rigged a commission to “prove” that it was invented by Civil War hero Doubleday. Baseball had been around long before he was born and evolved as a sport all over the country. Both sides in the Civil War spent idle hours playing baseball. A large percentage of professional baseball players came from the South throughout its history, even though the teams were in the big northern cities. A much larger percentage would have if baseball had allowed “negroes” to play. The Negro Leagues included plenty of southerners, too. Indeed, two of the greatest home run hitters in the history of the game were Southerners - Babe Ruth (from Maryland, culturally the South), and Henry Aaron, from Alabama. Incidentally, **Sangahyando** , the history of baseball owes quite a bit to one of your lot: an expat English sportswriter named [Henry Chadwick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Chadwick_(writer)). He started covering baseball for the _New York Times_, as an outgrowth of his coverage of cricket (which was a popular sport in the US in the mid-19th century). Got hooked by the game, and subsequently promoted and refined it - it was he who managed to change the rule so that a ball caught in the air was an out - previously, a ball caught on one bound also counted. He published the first baseball guide, and was the first to list runs, home runs, strikeouts and outs. He devised the box score, and is credited with creating the earned run average and hitting average. He is sometimes called “the Father of Baseball”. Arguable, but he had much more claim to the title than Abner Doubleday. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/35 "2019-08-27T02:15:55Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > He’s pulling your leg. Or he’s a much worse historian than I thought. Abner Doubleday had absolutely nothing to do with baseball in any way. Turtledove doesn’t attribute the absence of baseball to Doubleday’s absence in the Southern Victory books - in the book no one knows about alternate universes, so no one can be wondering about the effect of the death of a minor figure on a minor sport Per this Turtledove fan site [Sports References in Turtledove's Work | Turtledove | Fandom](https://turtledove.fandom.com/wiki/Abner_Doubleday) Doubleday is mentioned in a Turtledove story, but not in the Southern Victory series. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/36 "2019-08-27T02:32:31Z")
Nm ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/37 "2019-08-27T07:11:48Z")
Let’s not forget the minor leagues. In AAA (one level down from Major League Baseball) there are 10 southern teams: Gwinett Stripes - Lawrenceville, GA Charlotte Knights - Charlotte, NC Durham Bulls - Durham, SC Norfolk Tides - Norfolk, VA El Paso Chihuahuas - El Paso, TX Round Rock Express - Round Rock, TX San Antonio Missions - San Antonio, TX New Orleans Baby Cakes - New Orleans, LA Memphis Redbirds - Memphis, TN Nashville Sounds - Nashville, TN I’m too lazy right now to see how many there are in AA, A, and Rookie leagues. ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/38 "2019-08-27T13:07:43Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Durham Bulls - Durham, SC That’s Durham, **N** C. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/39 "2019-08-27T13:56:13Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Let’s not forget the minor leagues. In AAA (one level down from Major League Baseball) there are 10 southern teams: > > Gwinett Stripes - Lawrenceville, GA > Charlotte Knights - Charlotte, NC > Durham Bulls - Durham, SC > Norfolk Tides - Norfolk, VA > El Paso Chihuahuas - El Paso, TX > Round Rock Express - Round Rock, TX > San Antonio Missions - San Antonio, TX > New Orleans Baby Cakes - New Orleans, LA > Memphis Redbirds - Memphis, TN > Nashville Sounds - Nashville, TN > > I’m too lazy right now to see how many there are in AA, A, and Rookie leagues. The ranks will be decreasing by one in 2020, as the New Orleans Baby Cakes will be relocating to Wichita, KS. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268/40 "2019-08-27T15:55:44Z")
> [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](#): > > That’s Durham, **N** C. Oops, yeah. Sorry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-non-american-is-baseball-popular-or-indeed-existent-in-the-south/839268.md?page=3)