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Comment by yaseer | Hacker News Reader

That's just your personal experience. It's reflective of your personal surroundings.

Nobody I know is into baseball. Either I assume there is no real interest, or I assume it might be a reflection of my surroundings.

(I live in London, where nobody cares for baseball)

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I'm in the segment of people who think baseball is extremely slow-paced and impossible to watch on TV, and yet I go to the occasional game. It's a social event more than anything else, and a way to be outdoors with friends and have a shared experience with (sometimes) thousands of other people.

I know some esport tournaments take place in sports arenas, but everything else has always been on niche TV channels and online, so the social factor is very much absent.

Well it's also a sport in it's infancy, not a more-than-a-century-old sport that's literally called "America's Pastime". Maybe when it's older than a couple of decades, the social factor of the sport will be more present. I was into eSports as a teenager, but it was very, very niche at the time, as you say. Nowadays, gaming is so commonplace with teens that a streamer like Ninja is able to reach a level of pop stardom.

I have friends who travel to the e-sports events in Sydney when it comes to town, or get together to watch DoTA TI (online, why would you rely on TV channels for this?) with their gamer friends. It's very much online, and very much a social event.

I'm not into e-sports enough to travel for it, I've considered it purely for the social aspect, but they do and have a blast.

I think Baseball is excellent to watch while in the background, e.g. in a restaurant. There is a lot of build-up when you can continue eating and during the few seconds of action you can watch the TV. And if you missed, there is enough time to show replays.

Sumo is similar to this.

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