A remarkable number of Americans got up very early to watch not only their own team, and not only the final, but many of the other key games of the World Cup tournament.
What does this say about our standard American sports fare?
Despite the limited amount of scoring, soccer provides non-stop action. Compare this to the fleet wide receiver who goes in for one play, only to return to the sidelines sucking oxygen, 40 seconds later. And, don't forget the interminable stoppage of the game between downs.
In American football, a wrong-doer can get thrown out of the game--only to be substituted. Big deal! When you're red-carded in soccer, you're out and your team plays the rest of the match a man short. Thus, flagrant fouls tend to happen a whole lot less frequently. Moreover, in tournament play, accumulated YELLOW cards will cause a player to miss the next match. And, that's probably a big reason why Germany lost to Brazil, playing as they had to, without their star forward Michael Ballack.
As far as baseball, it is so painfully slow, that you can't pay kids to watch it anymore, and thus the demographics are in the toilet. I suppose that in the 1920's, when it was literally the only game in town, and the pace of life was dramatically slower, it had its place.
Once they started to use multiple pitchers as a matter of course, and instituted the designated hitter, for me it was GAME OVER. Not only does the logistics of replacing pitchers take a lot of time, a big part of the strategy of baseball was that you knew the pitcher was a weak hitter, and that was just too bad. You had to plan around that. Throw in the "benefit" of him not having to face the opposing pitcher, allowing for stupid and flagrant brush back pitches, and it gets even worse. Add in the stupefyingly boring non-stop irrelevant commentary and arcane statistics, and it's more than most people can take.
But, until the beer companies are more concerned about profits and shareholders, than the stupid ego trip of sponsoring dinosaur athletic events, nothing much will change.
In the meantime, you can catch loads of soccer on cable.