This article in today's WSJ claims that the number of people playing baseball has grown 21% since 2014 and is the hottest sport. Sorry, it's behind a pay wall.
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .