The NFL season ended with the Philadelphia Eagles on top of the football world, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl and spoiling their chance at a three-peat. Months earlier in October, the Los Angeles Dodgers got their second World Series championship of the 2020s by beating the Yankees, who made it to the Fall Classic for the first time since 2009. While the Super Bowl is the bigger game, is the World Series the better championship? I say yes.
The World Series has been around for over a century and is a source of multiple memorable moments. The Boston Red Sox broke the Curse of the Bambino in 2004 after an 86-year championship drought, the San Francisco Giants dynasty was formed in the 2010s, the Kansas City Royals’ victory in 2015 against the loaded rotation of the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs finally broke the Curse of the Billy Goat after 108 years of losing. The newest moment that entered the storied history of the Fall Classic was the Yankees making it back for the first time in 15 years after they beat the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009.
Looking at pure viewership, the 2024 World Series averaged around 15 million people over the course of the five-game series, which was a 67% increase from the 2023 series between the Diamondbacks and the Rangers, according to Fox. The 2024 series involved the two biggest markets in New York and Los Angeles, contributing quite a bit to the increase.
This year’s Super Bowl shattered the previous record viewership, with over 127 million people tuned into the big game. However, the Super Bowl has a lot going for it, with viewers tuning in for the commercials, the halftime show, potential celebrity appearances and the game itself. However, these games are not the only measurement that can be used to decide which postseason is better.
October baseball just feels right; the underdogs come out and take down giants of the sport, and sometimes, they even make it all the way to the World Series. The postseason leading up to the Fall Classic might just be better than the actual series itself. Just this past year, the underdog Tigers with the eventual Cy Young Award winner, Tarik Skubal, took the American League Central champion Guardians to five games in the Division Series. The OMG Mets beat the National League Central Brewers in the Wild Card round on Pete Alonso’s 9th inning blast before dominating the Phillies in the Division and falling to the eventual Champions in the National League Championship Series. The MLB postseason has been this electric for years, going back to 2016 when the Cubs went up against the Giants and Dodgers to make it to the Fall Classic.
To me, the NFL can’t stack up against it; most playoff games are blowouts nowadays, and either on the scoreboard or on the field, it’s hard to get invested unless your team makes the playoff field and makes a run. I did not pay attention after the Wild Card round when the Eagles took down the Packers on their way to a championship. The memories are centralized to one fan base, while the MLB memories live on throughout the sport. To quote “Moneyball,” “How can you not be romantic about Baseball?”
