Heck no! But in Manhattan, perhaps it was viewed as low class or gauche. Not like today when ticket prices are such that a Yankees game would be considered a luxury perk if the seats were good. Baseball games were for the common man back in the day. Football before Joe Namath was anything but glamorous, and rather boring without the kind of passing plays you see today.
But I didn't become a sports fan until around 1967, and didn't live in NYC, so I'm probably not really qualified to comment.

hmmm. ya. never thought about the potential "low class" angle... again, but to have ZERO sports talk seems like a huge oversight, or a very purposeful omission.

There was an episode where Don told someone that he took Bobby to a Yankees game.

ooh.. cool. thanks! i may vaguely remember that. anything else people can remember?

There was a lot of sports talk in our house - I had 3 brothers. We watched sports on TV all the time and played sports as well, esp. basketball, baseball and football (yes, me too).

Not only do the men on MM not talk about sports, but the Draper kids spend way too much time inside. Their parents say, "Go watch TV," when in fact, parents said "go outside and play," in those days. Bobby and Sally seem to have no friends and never do sleepovers, aren't in scouting, don't take piano lessons, although Sally does ballet. The Drapers don't go to church either, which is atypical for that time.

I indeed heard it: I believe Kenny asked Jane (or was it Hildy) to go to a Mets game.

Boxing - didn't they see Floyd Patterson at the nightspot where Jimmy Barrett was, too?

Given that most of the folks we see are upper management, not the first rung folks who most likely are the ones going to ball games and bowling, it's not a surprise. Pete plays tennis (remember those chicken legs?) Golf, yes, but at private clubs. Betty and her friends ride horses; haven't heard anyone betting on the ponies, though, unless they're polo ponies.

We have to remember that sports did not fill up people's lives 24/7 as today. College basketball was not big business like now, even the NBA was not all that important. Baseball got attention during the playoffs. I don't remember regular games being televised. The only car race I recall seeing on TV was the INDY 500. ABC's Wide World of Sports only began airing in 1961.

....for the same reason one hears no rock 'n' roll from 1962-63 in the show...

Matt Weiner seems to very cannily want to narrow down his "snapshot" of the Atomic Era. To include some particulars, but eschew others.

It may be that (specific) talk of sports and the playing of then-popular songs might already have too engrained of a response in the collective public's memory.... maybe de-railing us from other ideas and iconographies that hew more toward's Mr. Weiner's purpose.

thanks for the comments. i guess it's difficult to imagine a world without 24/7 sports news/talk. ha ha. today, talking about sports amongst men is like "talking about the weather".

These episodes are stuffed like turkeys with all they can fill them with and, ultimately, if something doesn't fit theme or move along the plot, it gets left on the sidelines.

With 13 episodes and only an hour per episode, I'm astonished that the writers manage to put in as many references as they do, without bogging down the dialogue or turning it banal.

If something in 1963 happened in sports that captured everyone's attention and had them talking can be used to support the story, theme, characters, you'll see it. If not, then at best it'll get mentioned in passing and you probably won't even remember it. Like Don taking Bobby to a baseball game. Putting it another way, just because we don't overhear all those men at the barbecue talking about sports doesn't mean they never talk about sports--we don't get to see every minute of the Draper's lives, or listen in on every conversation.

Do keep in mind the time of year and what the focus is--first season had the elections--that's certainly going to get talked about a lot more than football games; second season had Monroe's death, Sputnik and the Cuban Missile crisis, all likely to dominate casual conversations. Combine that with the drama of the office, affairs and pregnancies, marriages, and the attempt to toss in talk of theater shows, books, and popular music (remember Peggy going to see Dylan?), and where do you fit in talk of sports?

Last season, when Don and Betty went to Betty's father's house after his stroke, the father asked Don, hey, the Yankees are having quite a year, you ever take the kids to see Yankee Stadium? And Don says, Yes, all the time.

Not quite sports per se, but after Marilyn died, the bellman mentioned Joe DiMaggio, who had retired by then but was married to her at one point.

In an era absent of ESPN, etc., most people would have really talked sports during the pennant race/World Series if the Yankees were involved. The Mets only started play in 1962 and as far as I know, their losing record of 40-120 has never been... bettered(?).

The Dodgers were already gone for five years.

This was also the era before football and basketball became big. That took live television coverage.

Most of you Maddicts are not to keen on sports so you missed it, I will try to find specifics, but someone mentioned ( I think it was Ken) the 1962 playoff for the national league pennant between L A Dodgers and SF Giants. There were no playoffs in 62 but the 2 teams finished the regular season in a tie and had a best of 3 playoff for the right to face the Yankees in the 1962 World Series

Also Auburn Annie, the Yankees and Mets, both televised at least 80 games a year in 62 on Wpix and WOR respectively, both in NY. The Knicks and Rangers were also on TV in 62 and someone like Harry would have had to have been selling TV time to the Stations covering Sports. There were only six commercial stations in NY, and Gillette had Boxing every Fiday night on ABC. There was Wide World of Sports on ABC for 90 minutes every Sat. College football game of the week preceded WWOS during the football season. . The NFL and AFL were in a war with CBS and NBC showing 2 games every Sunday. so given the small amount of stations, a good percentage of programming was sports. This great show does not need the sports angle, but just to be accurate even Executives and Mid Management guys still would have had some interest in sports. If Matt missed this angle it is o.k. but let's not make excuses for it

Maybe Matt Weiner is just not into sports.

NNT: I'd have to agree. I'll bet if you got to sit down to dinner with him, the very last thing he'd talk about would be sports.

Chopin47 is quite right. Kids were playing outdoors in those days and there were penty of sleepovers and everybody was in the Scouts and everybody took piano lessons even when they hated it. Men in professional firms talked about sports but not that much, come to think of it. Maybe a class thing.

thank god the only sports talk has been fleeting references to joe dimaggio and the yankees.

Hi everyone!
Can someone tell me the significance of the football trophy on the shelf behind Pete's desk? Of all the people in the show to have a football trophy!! Pete doesn't strike me as "the football type". Towel boy/water boy, yes...player, no!

@hobocode52 great insights! just what i was looking for. thanks!

i guess i've been so tuned into the main stories that i totally forgot about the few sports references/mentions in the show.

i love sports. don't care that much that the show doesn't touch on it much. that's fine. just was wondering if there was a reason for it.

i worked in boston for 3 years at a medium sized consulting firm in the john hancock tower, and after a big red sox win, you could not walk down the hall in the morning without over hearing a red sox conversation...

Hi gladman!

Red Sox Nation member here (or should I say heaa?)
GO SOX!!!