Former NL MVP Fires Blunt Reaction to Cam Newton's Baseball Take

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Rex Villas | Last updated Dec 27, 2024 7:44 PM ET

Former NFL Most Valuable Player Cam Newton created a big noise recently when he shared his thoughts on baseball, particularly on the sport's popularity. For the former Carolina Panthers star quarterback, it will take just a couple of decades before the WNBA leapfrogs the MLB.

"Baseball is like a, I hate to say, a dying sport," Newton said on his "4th & 1" podcast. "I think baseball will be surpassed by WNBA in 20 years."

Publicly sounding the death knell for baseball isn't exactly a new act in the sports media realm. Many have done that before, and for former National League MVP and current Pittsburgh Pirates hitter Andrew McCutchen, Newton is just another person without a clue of what's really happening in baseball.

“He talks about baseball like a person who has never been around baseball talks about baseball,” McCutchen wrote in a post on X as a reaction to Newton’s hot take.

Only time can truly tell whether Newton’s prediction will come true 20 years from now. However, it’s also a strange time for Newton to make such a claim, especially when considering the data. According to the MLB, attendance in the league during the 2024 season was at its highest since 2017.

In terms of ratings on TV, MLB announced that its “national television partners enjoyed a successful season” in 2024, with ESPN’s "Sunday Night Baseball" posting a plus-12 percent increase in terms of viewership from the adult 18-34 demographic while FS1 garnered a plus-24 percent improvement.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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