Baseball is America’s oldest major sport and has been played professionally since the late 1800s and has grown into a game of rituals and tradition. From the bat meeting the ball to the seventh inning stretch, from vendors balancing trays of peanuts to kids shouting for snacks, these small rituals are the true rhythm of a game. Yet something you will not find at a Major League Baseball game is a cheerleading squad.
This absence can surprise fans from other countries. In Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, cheerleaders are common at baseball games. They bring music, dance, and rhythm to the stands. In the United States, football and basketball games feature cheerleaders as an essential part of the show. But in baseball, the field remains untouched by that culture. A recent discussion on Reddit’s r/AskAnAmerican showed how fans see this difference.
The College Roots of Cheerleading
One of the clearest explanations comes from the history of cheerleading itself. User u/Predictor92 noted that football and basketball became huge college sports in the United States. Cheerleading began at those same colleges and grew alongside those games. Baseball, on the other hand, was never a major college sport. It thrived in professional leagues and local clubs instead.
This gap mattered. When football stadiums were filled with student sections and cheer squads, baseball ballparks had no equivalent. In Japan, where high school baseball became a national obsession, cheerleading entered through students who saw American college football and brought those traditions home.
Another user, u/Michael__Pemulis, backed this up, explaining that both basketball and football were considered collegiate sports first, which helped cheerleading take root there. Baseball simply did not share that path, which meant cheerleading never became part of its identity.
Tradition and the Pace of the Game
Even beyond history, many fans argued that baseball’s slow and steady pace does not suit cheerleading. TheRealScutFarkus wrote that MLB has never had cheerleaders and likely never will because it is a traditional game that resists change.
Another fan, u/Imightbeafanofthis, reflected on the nature of the sport itself. Baseball grew as a pastime rather than a constant action sport. He remembered games that stretched for 4 or 5 hours, where long stretches went by with little happening. In that environment, chanting and dance routines would feel out of place.
“MLB in general does not like to change too much. It’s an old game that has never had cheerleaders and I’m pretty sure it never will.” – A user on Internet
The Logistics of the Ballpark
Another reason is purely practical. Unlike basketball courts or football fields, baseball fields do not have safe areas for cheer squads. User u/augustwest30 explained that there is simply no room for cheerleaders on the field during play. They would not fit in the dugout either. The only place they could perform would be on top of dugouts or in the stands, which would block prime seating.
Some fans even suggested that adding cheerleaders would feel more like a gimmick than an authentic change. As user u/Wolfie_Ecstasy put it, it might only ever happen if a franchise was desperate to attract attention. Cheerleading would change the rhythm of the ballpark, and fans seem content without it. As one fan said, baseball may be slow, but that is exactly why many people love it.
