Why are baseball numbers so "treasured"

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

The big difference is in degrees.  Hardcore baseball fans can recite these numbers (I could tell you the win record is 511, and the win record for lefties is 363, and the strikeout record is 5,714, and the HR record is 755, and the hits record is 4,256, and even that second place in hits is 4,191), while hardcore football fans would be hard-pressed to tell you the career yardage record, or the career sack record, or the career receiving TDs record.  Casual fans can still tell you a good number of the common baseball records, while I couldn't tell you any of the football records besides Peyton Manning's 49 passing TDs.

Career Passing Yards: 61, 361 (Dan Marino)

Career Rushing Yards: 17,418 (Emmitt Smith)

Career Sacks: 200 (Bruce Smith)

Career Receiving TDs: (still going now thanks to Jerry Rice still playing but at last count, 197)

 

You're not asking the right people if you can't find anyone who knows this stuff. Some hardcore fans know the football records as much as baseball fans do the baseball records. It all depends on if you care enough to know.

FYI, there are plenty of people that maintain Deacon Jones with "Too many to count!" is still the "unofficial" sack leader!

 

Steve

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

The big difference is in degrees.  Hardcore baseball fans can recite these numbers (I could tell you the win record is 511, and the win record for lefties is 363, and the strikeout record is 5,714, and the HR record is 755, and the hits record is 4,256, and even that second place in hits is 4,191), while hardcore football fans would be hard-pressed to tell you the career yardage record, or the career sack record, or the career receiving TDs record.  Casual fans can still tell you a good number of the common baseball records, while I couldn't tell you any of the football records besides Peyton Manning's 49 passing TDs.

Career Passing Yards: 61, 361 (Dan Marino)

Career Rushing Yards: 17,418 (Emmitt Smith)

Career Sacks: 200 (Bruce Smith)

Career Receiving TDs: (still going now thanks to Jerry Rice still playing but at last count, 197)

 

You're not asking the right people if you can't find anyone who knows this stuff. Some hardcore fans know the football records as much as baseball fans do the baseball records. It all depends on if you care enough to know.

FYI, there are plenty of people that maintain Deacon Jones with "Too many to count!" is still the "unofficial" sack leader!

 

Steve

That may be so, but this is official records. 200 is what is recorded as the most sacks in a career. Deacon's is probably like the Mania 93,000 figure, just a myth.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Precious Roy got what it really amounts to, and that's baseball being part of the national consciousness for a solid 80 years now. The NFL never really got big until the 60s. There's a greater mystique about it when you've got Eddie McOldfart talking about players he saw when was 8 years old back in 1915 and stuff. The NFL really can't touch that quality just yet, and it might never do so since it's become huge only in the modern media era.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

There is a reason baseball is called the American Pastime.