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I was reading this question, which inspired me to ask the above question. In Star Trek, there have been mentions of baseball, tennis, basketball, water polo, ice hockey, racketball, soccer (in Enterprise in 2152), volleyball, fencing, and other sports, including martial arts. However, we have rarely heard of any kind of professional sports leagues.

In the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Minefield" (set in 2151), Captain Archer tells Lieutenant Reed that England has made it to the World Cup Final. He also watches a water polo match in the episode "Catwalk" while trying to fall asleep. However, other than this, I don't think I've heard any other mentions of professional leagues. Sulu, Picard, and Guinan show fencing skills, but there is no mention of any professional competition; baseball--which has apparently died and is just played by some enthusiasts and amateurs--doesn't have a World Series anymore; Captain Janeway once practiced her despicable tennis serve for the audience (I play tennis--I know what bad form looks like), but there was no accompanying mention of a top player or a grand slam; and Bashir beat O'Brien handily at darts due to his status as a GMO.

I understand that some professional sports don't exactly match well with the values of Star Trek. This is especially true for brutal sports like American football, in which a player can be severely injured--like the incident that happened just yesterday, in which a football player suffered cardiac arrest on the field. And yet parrises squares, a violent and potentially fatal game, is enjoyed by many youngsters in the 24th century. But there are plenty of other healthy, safe, and competitive sports that people could enjoy.

I know that people in Starfleet don't necessarily have time to keep track of sports when they are busy with daily duties, trying not to start a war with the Klingons/Romulans/Cardassians, or avoiding assimilation by the Borg, but there would be someone who would have the spare time and interest to follow their favorite players or matches.

So do professional sports leagues still exist, or have they all become a much smaller activity than they are now?

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    Strategema has grandmasters. (the videogame Data had a nervous breakdown over because he lost) I suspect defining professional in a show where allegedly money doesn't exist will be the hard part for an answer.
    – lucasbachmann
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 5:15
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    Bashir played tennis competitively BASHIR: Well, I used to think so, but then I went to my first major competition. my opponent served first and I heard the ball bounce past me. The computer announced it was good and I realised I was in trouble
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 11:34
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    Anbo-jyutsu is huuuuge
    – Paul D. Waite
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 13:46
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    Wait. A World Cup final in 2151?!? If football survives, so do football pedants, so the World Cup final would be in 2150, World War 3 and post-nuclear horror be damned.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 13:50
  • "do professional sports leagues still exist, or have they all become a much smaller activity than they are now" - with society (at least to some part) moving their focus away from money, buying players and trainers for $$$ might become less interesting or necessary than it is now. Maybe this could result in a certain tendency away from "few very well-known wealthy top-notch teams playing in top leagues".
    – O. R. Mapper
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 20:36

1 Answer 1

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As you mentioned Baseball above, in https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Baseball , it's mentioned there was a game in ST: Picard between the London Kings and the Buffalo Solar Knights, suggesting that Baseball had a worldwide league at that time. It's not explicitly stated, but it is implied by this game.

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  • Unless it's not that London; London vs. Buffalo is practically beer league...
    – DavidW
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 19:08
  • True! But it would still be a professional league, even if a lower league :)
    – Richyt
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 19:10
  • And this is presumably a comeback for the sport long after its original decline in the mid-twenty-first century, so London vs Buffalo could be Earth's biggest teams battling it out. I like to think that Sisko's game against the Vulcan crew planted the seed that would eventually grow into this galaxy-wide renaissance.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 20:15
  • Yes exactly. I thought that it probably came back from Cestus 3 too, I seem to recall there was at least one team there too. I think in the books at least, it was the Pike City pioneers?
    – Richyt
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 21:28
  • memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Pike_City_Pioneers aaaah even in the series.
    – Richyt
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 21:52

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