trendspotter

Let's cut through the noise and get to what matters! If you want to make big money follow the trend!

[trendspotter @bigtrendspotter]

https://t.co/tPxxNvYK7a

[trendspotter @bigtrendspotter]

Sports Trend: Baseball has become a strikeout machine

This one fundamentally changed what an MLB game looks like.

In 1980, MLB teams struck out roughly 4.8 times per game. In 2026, it’s 8.38 strikeouts per team per game—about a 73% increase.

🤯 Here’s the crazy part

Because each game has two teams batting, a typical MLB game today produces roughly 17 strikeouts.

In 1980, it was under 10.

And the shift becomes even clearer looking at individual hitters. The all-time single-season list for batter strikeouts is now overwhelmingly populated by recent players. Mark Reynolds’ record is 223 in 2009, while James Wood struck out 221 times in 2025.

Why? Pitchers throw harder, bullpens supply fresh high-velocity arms throughout games, breaking pitches have become nastier, and modern offensive strategy has generally tolerated more strikeouts in exchange for power.

Bottom line:

⚾ 1980: ~4.8 K/team/game → 2026: 8.38 → ~73% increase

Baseball hasn’t merely gotten somewhat more strikeout-heavy. A modern game has roughly seven more strikeouts than a game in 1980.

[trendspotter @bigtrendspotter]

Long-Term Trend: The Collapse of Cigarette Smoking in America

In 1965, 42.4% of U.S. adults smoked cigarettes. By 2024, that figure had fallen to 9.9%.

The remarkable part

In 1965, roughly 1 out of every 2.4 American adults smoked.

Today, it’s about 1 out of every 10.

That’s a decline of 32.5 percentage points, or approximately 77%, over six decades.

Smoking also underwent an enormous cultural transformation. Cigarettes went from being commonplace in restaurants, offices, airplanes, homes, and social gatherings to being largely absent from indoor public life.

Higher cigarette prices, smoke-free laws, public-health campaigns, changing social attitudes, and better access to smoking-cessation treatments all contributed to the decline.

One interesting divide remains: in 2024, cigarette smoking was about 8.0% in large metropolitan counties versus 15.4% in nonmetropolitan counties—almost twice as high.

[Michael Beschloss @BeschlossDC]

This is one minute after launch of Apollo 11, this week 1969: