Sports media industry insiders recently polled by Brendon Kleen of Awful Announcing claimed that Cam Newton’s 4th & 1 podcast was “under the radar.”
But Newton’s latest comments on baseball are anything but.
“Baseball is like a — I hate to say — a dying sport,” Newton said. “I think baseball will be surpassed by WNBA in 20 years. Baseball isn’t being played by Americans anymore.”
There’s a separate conversation about Black Americans not playing baseball at the youth level and why there’s a lack of representation in the major leagues, but that’s not the one Newton is having. He bluntly said, “Americans. ” And while he’s not making the same argument that his First Take cohort Stephen A. Smith did when he claimed Shohei Ohtani couldn’t be the face of baseball, his argument is in the same vein.
Newton’s take also conveniently ignores the wealth of American talent dominating the game. Consider Aaron Judge, Mookie Betts, Mike Trout, Kyle Tucker, Bobby Witt Jr., Chris Sale, Tarik Skubal, Zack Wheeler and Devin Williams, to name a few.
Add in the growing popularity of the College World Series, and it’s hard to argue that baseball is being eclipsed.
However, that didn’t prevent Newton and his co-hosts from discussing on 4th & 1 the possibility of bringing back steroids to the sport.
“I don’t know about bring back steroids,” Newton quipped. “I’m Cam Newton, and I do not approve that message.”
The message that Newton does approve of, however, is that he’s speaking the truth about the nation’s national pastime.
“It’s like, who’s really paying attention to baseball? Especially paying attention to baseball in the regular season,” he said.
The same argument could be made for the NBA — and we all know that Major League Baseball could — and should — shorten its 162-game schedule. That said, the postseason, which Newton made sure not to include in his argument, saw World Series audience(s) reach multi-year highs and a decisive Game 5 giving the Fall Classic its highest viewership since 2017.
And the numbers don’t lie. While MLB’s regular season may have its challenges, when the lights are brightest, America is still watching, even if its people are supposedly not playing.
Whether the WNBA will surpass baseball in two decades is plausible, but it’s also an entirely different conversation.
[4th & 1 with Cam Newton]