Sports fans in the United States used to refer to baseball as the “national pastime” because it was the most popular sport in the country. I believe that somewhere along the line football surpassed baseball in popularity.

I grew up in the baseball-is-the-national-pastime era. One year, when I was 11 or 12 years old, I – along with every other boy I knew – collected baseball cards. I loved those cards and devoured all of the information included on them. They would have a photo of the athlete on the front, while the back was a treasure trove of information. This included the player’s yearly sta...