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We Have Failed
Something is wrong with our country. I know the war is unpopular and gas prices are outrageous. I understand we have political scandals by the week. I even understand that we put more emphasis on Valentines Day than Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day. But this week I ran across a new problem that only goes back to an old problem.

In my opinion we have failed our children in our country. Our parents and grand parents knew it was important to teach us about baseball and we have neglected it. Perhaps the movie “Field of Dreams” said it best with this scene:

Mann: Ray, people will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. "Of course, we won't mind if you have a look around," you'll say. "It's only twenty dollars per person." They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it; for it is money they have and peace they lack.

Mann: And they'll walk out to the bleachers, and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game, and it'll be as if they'd dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces.

Mann: The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Ohhhhhhhh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.

Ray got it but our children don’t. We have not taught our children the importance of baseball in our society. Many kids today don’t know that baseball held us together as a country through good times and bad. Many kids today know who David Beckham is but could not tell you who Mickey Mantle was. Kids know more about Nelly and less about Nellie Fox.

It is our fault. Ray stood up to the easy way out. Soccer moms did not want “little Billy” to get hit in the mouth by a bad hop. It was easier to take Billy and his little sister Susie to soccer practice and let them play on the same team. It was easier to let them be bored with baseball instead of explaining the game to them. Baseball gloves were more expensive than shin guards. We have failed.

I have known we were failing long before but this week reminded me of it. This is the week where the NCAA announced they were sticking it to college baseball scholarship numbers and participation numbers. Ernie Banks said lets play two but the NCAA says you may be playing fewer games with fewer players in the future. Why don’t you just limit me on the apple pies while you are at it? I say less peanuts and less cracker jacks too.

What have we become? What in the world are we doing? Why limit a great game? Why limit opportunities to participate in a wonderful sport? Our national pastime for goodness sake.

Is it any wonder that our major league teams now are filled with more Latin players and players from the Far East? We can’t even beat Canada in the World Baseball Championships.

Someone please explain to me why we have Title IX. A piece of legislation that is the main reason the NCAA maximum number of scholarships is more for women’s softball than baseball.

Women’s basketball gets two more scholarships than men’s basketball. Women’s track and field gets 5.4 more scholarships than men’s track and field. Women’s golf gets 1.5 more scholarships than men’s golf. Women’s soccer gets 2.1 more scholarships than men’s soccer. Women’s tennis gets 3.5 more scholarships than men’s tennis. Women’s volleyball gets 12 scholarships while men’s volleyball gets 4.5.

Women’s softball gets more scholarships than baseball. Women’s basketball gets more than baseball. Men’s and women’s track and field get more than baseball. Women’s gymnastics gets more than baseball. Freakin’ women’s ice hockey gets 6.3 more scholarships than baseball. Men’s and women’s lacrosse get more scholarships than baseball. Women’s stinkin’ rowing gets 20 scholarships and baseball gets 11.7. Women’s volleyball gets more than baseball.

My answer is, we are failing our kids. Thank goodness my dad and granddad decided to take a little time to throw the ball in the back yard with me and explain to me the legacy of Ted Williams. Thank goodness I know Lou Gehrig is not just a disease. Thank goodness no one limited my participation in our country’s pastime.

Wiffle ball was played in my neighborhood but many neighborhoods used to play street ball or rollie bat or pickle. But women’s field hockey? Our pastime?

Comments:

All is not lost in North Augusta. We have 144 4&5 year olds playing baseball this spring. Its no accident that North Augusta is in the final 4 of this year's State 4A title chase. I am with you on the 11.7 scholarships and Title 9. Baseball at the collegiate level is getting discriminated against. Tyler Colvin played baseball at Clemson for peanut scholarship money and brought so much recognition to the school.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=738>CuTiger77</a> on May 03, 2007 at 02:29 PM EDT #

So is your problem with wimmen's sports, or lack of interest in baseball?

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=67220>grouchingtiger</a> on May 03, 2007 at 02:36 PM EDT #

Ah yes. I remember the stories from my grandpa, that he heard from his grandpa about how football -- the American kind not that gay Euro stuff -- got the colonists through the Revolution and how basketball at Madison Square Gardens kept everyone's spirits up during the bloody Civil War.

Whoops, I made that up. Those sports didn't exist at those times. That means, holy cow(!), things changed! Can you imagine that BS. Things changed in America, the land of the free. Well let me ask you this, just what good is freedom if people are just going to make choices that let things change. It's not good. Not good at all. There should be a law. We'll call it the Micky Plyler law. Baseball is not allowed to change. People's perception of baseball is not allowed to change. And definitely foreigners shouldn't be allowed to play our game. Then all would be right with the world.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=2778>kneubra</a> on May 03, 2007 at 02:48 PM EDT #

Title IX is necessary, but has a huge flaw. It is that football is included in the equation. The greatest revenue generator is also the greatest men's scholarship provider. The only way to offset it is by creating extra scholarships for women by adding obscure sports or by removing scholarships from non-money generating men's sports like...baseball. Shame really. Take football out the equation, and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=65282>Taxlawtiger</a> on May 03, 2007 at 02:50 PM EDT #

Title 9 enforcement is the problem. There should be athletic opportunities for females. Right now universites like Clemson are forced to adhere to faily rigid statistical measures. Athletic scholarships are required to be offered to men and women in direct proportion to their % of your student body(there is a little wiggle room). No consideration is given to revenue earned, the fact that there is no female equivalant to football or to the level of interest that men have in sports as opposed to females.

A fierce phalanx of women athletic types prevent any change in these rules to reflect realities such as college baseball being shortchanged in scholarship numbers and becoming extremely popular in recent years. Politicians are scared of them and politically correct college administrators are total weenies.

Dont look for any changes.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=6153>milerock</a> on May 03, 2007 at 03:03 PM EDT #

Taxlawtiger - you hit the nail on the head! Football should be excluded from the equation in allocating scholarships. What the Title IV proponents don't seem to get, is that without football at a lot of major universities, their would be no other sports (men's or women's).

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=36252>Tiger Town5</a> on May 03, 2007 at 03:05 PM EDT #

Mickey, I don't like Title IX any more than you do. Its intentions are good but its methods are flawed. I would not fault youth soccer for a lack of interest in baseball though. Playing soccer as a kid did not keep me from playing baseball. Eventually I just dropped baseball because I sucked, not because it was impossible to play both sports or my parents were worried about an injury risk in baseball. In fact injury rates are much higher in soccer.

If you want a reason why baseball is not as popular with kids look at marketing. MLB has lagged behind other pro sports in marketing its athletes as individuals. Like it or not, we are in a society that focuses on individual stars and not teams or team rivalries. Yankees-Red Sox does not sell as well as a D-Wade - Lebron matchup. Personally I do not want to see baseball lose its tradition but I don't see participation in baseball changing until baseball changes the marketing image it projects.

You also have not even touched on the lack of participation by poorer Americans from urban areas. Bats and gloves cost a ton of money that a lot of families do not have. Baseball parks take up more space than a basketball court and are more expensive for cities to maintain. It is also much easier to have a pickup basketball game than a pickup baseball game after school. I don't think the precipitous drop in African-American major leaguers is attributable to a lack of ability or any shear coincidence. It is economics and lack of opportunity, plain and simple.

Oh and if you want to talk about tradition then please stump for getting aluminum bats out of college baseball. Aluminum bats have no place in baseball once you get to college level. Even in youth leagues where there is an excuse for needing the pop and perhaps durability of aluminum bats, they can be a safety issue. As a rule I dislike college baseball because of the aluminum bats. I can watch any MLB team all day long but absolutely will not watch a college game unless Clemson is playing.

You have only scratched the surface of problems with baseball, Mickey. There are a lot more issues than Title IX and soccer moms.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=11799>CUhoopster48</a> on May 03, 2007 at 03:22 PM EDT #

Some people would say that the culture is the reason why baseball is not as popular as it has been. There's no longer much emphasis put on delaying gratification, or on anticipation, and we want everything we think we can get right now. Baseball, pure and simple, is not going to give you that, and I think that's why, probably more than other sport, people actually love the game of baseball. However, simply put, baseball is not overly hip hop, you can't wear huge shorts while playing it, and it's harder to play than nearly any other sport. Personally, I think it will come back, and come back hard some time in the future, but right now the interest in playing baseball is lagging

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=31529>camcgee</a> on May 03, 2007 at 03:33 PM EDT #

We have evolved . . . People like football, so what?

Baseball is boring.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=7575>otisman</a> on May 03, 2007 at 03:51 PM EDT #

Men's football and Men's basketball should be reclassified from "sports" to "businesses" and excluded from Title IX as they are the ownly (I believe) revenue positive "sports". Of course this may not even be true at all NCAA governed institutions (that these 2 sports make money). I say the Laissez-faire approach to colege sports governance is called for. If you can come out ahead in financially in your "sport" you get exempted, all others you have equal # of scholarships

Regarding baseball I'm not sure that I wouldn't blame the aluminum bat and lawyers before (or at least as much as) I would the parents. There is also the Marshall McLuhan factor to consider, baseball may be going the way of the printed word.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=229>Walhalla Wildman</a> on May 03, 2007 at 04:03 PM EDT #

Baseball is the only game where the defense has the ball.
You can't hold the ball in baseball.
You cannot 'run out the clock' in baseball.
The other team always gets its three outs in baseball.

Still the best game going, and the dumbing down of America is why it is losing popularity, or more accurately, the loss of the American attention span.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=13017>mumbo78</a> on May 03, 2007 at 04:06 PM EDT #

Gambling. Strikes that lead to no World Series. Amphetamines. Steroids. Tainted Records.

You seriously wonder why baseball is losing popularity?

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=30415>GoodFella</a> on May 03, 2007 at 04:20 PM EDT #

Come to Aiken and see baseball at its BEST...over 15 fields packed with kids playing baseball.

NCAA has a small college mentality and wants to stick it to the big boys anytime they can. When the BIG conferences decide to leave NCAA it'll be the GREATEST day in college sports. ACC/SEC/Big 10/12/PAC10 and Big East should wake up and tell NCAA to stick it

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=812>Graphic Tiger</a> on May 03, 2007 at 04:36 PM EDT #

I share your concerns and this Title 9 entitlement is not right, but higher education is full of liberals who want to make the world equal by the law which never works. unfortunately the pain is masked because there is so much love for the game, especially here in the state. We know that as long as we see +5,000 in attendance at every game, the funds are there and the seats are full...the administration's bellies are full and happy. but if and when that changes, they may take note, but i doubt it.
Keep beating the drum!!!

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=1090>dgjtig</a> on May 03, 2007 at 04:56 PM EDT #

Regarding aluminum vs. wood bats...it's a money issue. As Mickey mentioned above, baseball is not a revenue-generating sport, and the amount of wooden bats used during the course of the season would put an additional monetary strain on the already tight baseball budgets

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=35293>clemsonguy2</a> on May 03, 2007 at 05:02 PM EDT #

STEROIDS

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=7575>otisman</a> on May 03, 2007 at 05:46 PM EDT #

You would have loved to grow up in my neighborhood mickey, for summners at a time my friends had this dirt lot in my friends yard, and every day we would go out and play baseball with a tennis ball. we would draw bases, and even tried to play with a real ball until we broke my friends window. we would play all day, even in the rain sometimes, and i loved it. I now live in the suburbs, and it's a totally different attitude, everyone just kinda sits around i hate it

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=49279>tIgErFan92</a> on May 03, 2007 at 06:37 PM EDT #

AMEN. Exactly what I was talking about with my recent post on the subject.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=3465>kgpittm</a> on May 03, 2007 at 07:07 PM EDT #

Hey Mick get all of the big name MLB players of today off of steroids and children may have something to model theirselves after again. Also, don't be jealous of Beckham because he has Posh.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=26716>TigerRag916</a> on May 03, 2007 at 09:08 PM EDT #

Great blog, as always. Brings back memories of playin youth baseball, I loved it. That scene from Field of Dreams is one of my all time favorites.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=59541>runnindownthehill25</a> on May 03, 2007 at 10:28 PM EDT #

Mickey, if you ever have any children, I hope they are all girls.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=57284>loubello</a> on May 03, 2007 at 10:30 PM EDT #

You guys don't know anything about scholarship restrictions....

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=6911>natedawgSWU</a> on May 03, 2007 at 11:39 PM EDT #

I think baseball has lost a lot of appeal with the greed that has corrupted professional sports. The game has changed. Teams have no loyalties to players and vice versa. I think the strike in 1994 was a big hit to baseball's popularity. Then the steroid scandal. I don't blame the players. I blame Major League Baseball. I believe the MLB knew that steroids were becomming a problem, but they did not do anything about it. They were happy lining their pockets as home run records that hadn't been achieved in decades were dropping like flies and becomming tainted. This is where the credibility of the game was lost. I heard an interview with Cecil Fielder where he said that when he hit 50 home runs he was only the 11th player to do so in the history of the game at that time and the first player in 23 years to do so since George Foster. Now you have players hitting 50, 60, and 70 home runs. There have been more players hitting 50 home runs since Cecil Fielder than the many years before he did it. Major League Baseball is to blame for the drop off in baseball's popularity. I too have found it hard to watch an entire game since all of the recent drama with the game. Frankly, I just don't have the love and respect I once did. The game is tainted to me. College baseball is great, but it doesn't have the visibility that Major League Baseball does.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=6500>BigTigga</a> on May 04, 2007 at 12:17 AM EDT #

Mickey, this is possibly the worst post I've ever read. Putting down other sports doesn't make baseball any more interesting or fun. Comparing Beckham, a modern star, to Mantle, a legend, doesn't add up. More people know who Bonds is than Beckham, so there you go, that's a much more viable comparison. If you want to go less controversial, ARod to Beckham is more similar. You go so far as to suggest that a 'soccer mom' wants "Billy and Susie" to play on the same team. Ask any (reasonable) woman and she will tell you that once you move past age 12, mens' and womens' soccer are different games entirely. Soccer is no more safe than baseball, there are just different risks involved. You want to talk about a non-contact sport? Baseball is about as non-contact as it gets with the exception of the occasional homeplate collision. Next time try building up baseball not tearing down every other sport.

And right on with Title IX, more media outlets need to begin to show the holes in it's logic.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=67132>Orange2009</a> on May 04, 2007 at 12:38 AM EDT #

Baseball is losing interest because it is BORING, and does not require a person to be in shape to play. Our society is trying to get away from the fat John Kruk image that many baseball players project. Soccer can be just as boring, but trust me, it is not catching on here like you think. Just because you are too simple to understand a sport that the rest of the world loves, does not mean that you should bash it. Soccer can lead to just as many injuries as baseball can. How many soccer players do you see that are fat, or smoking or advertising beer? NONE, because you can't smoke and play soccer well, you cant be fat and play soccer well, you cant be a drunk and play soccer well Mickey, You are being such a drama queen about all of this. Ive already stopped listening to you because you have a miserable broadcasting voice, but now I can't even read you anymore. Your drivel is ridiculous. If baseball is such a hardass American pasttime, then why don't people stop whining about it, and get out and play?

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=46990>FootballFan36</a> on May 04, 2007 at 02:56 AM EDT #

Sports may have "helped" bring a peace to a troubled land at one time in our history, but sports is a great part of our nations downfall these days.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=1333>skillet</a> on May 04, 2007 at 09:35 AM EDT #

Great article and appropriate ending

can't see the forest through the trees

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=3618>cufan</a> on May 04, 2007 at 09:54 AM EDT #

Natedawg touched on it and I think it should be reiterated. The 1994 strike killed baseball. Baseball in my life died that year. I have tubs of baseball cards somewhere in an attic and none of them are from past 1994. 1994 pushed me into a hitting slump and I didn't return to little league the following year. It'll take another generation or two before the effects of the strike are no longer felt.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=29755>Wosco</a> on May 04, 2007 at 11:18 AM EDT #

^ BigTigga not Natedawg

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=29755>Wosco</a> on May 04, 2007 at 11:19 AM EDT #

Way to display those scapegoating and flamebaiting skills, Mr. Plyler. Honestly, though, isn't it easier to take cheap shots at other sports and women than to deal intelligently with the nearly countless reasons baseball is in trouble? While Clemson baseball is on par with football in my heart, quite frankly, softball currently is a much more exciting game at the college level.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=7571>TNC Tiger</a> on May 04, 2007 at 11:51 AM EDT #

Mickey--is your wife a man? Because I can't figure out how you found some woman to put up with your blatant sexism. You seriously think "soccer moms" are the root of baseball's downfall in this country as THE sport? That's ridiculous. Lots of kids play soccer and lots of kids play baseball. Come to Greenwood and see all the kids on traveling and youth teams for BOTH sports...and they get hurt in both sports, too. You tell me who has the safer job--the left fielder who picks his nose and watches clouds all day or the mid-fielder who's constantly cracking skulls, ankles, and knees with other players. I LOVE baseball, but to defend it by attacking soccer is ridiculous. You just wanted the opportunity to blast a favorite target of idiot rednecks like yourself--soccer moms. By the way, baseball dads are a hundred times worse.

Funny how your whole agrument--from soccer moms to
Title IX--blames women. It actually makes you look like a bit of a wuss...maybe you can go on Oprah and complain about how all these women are picking on you. Good luck with that...

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=58959>clemson32</a> on May 04, 2007 at 12:13 PM EDT #

What in the world is this post about....you liking baseball, you virtually hating everything else, you wanting football to be its own business, seperate from rules of the school and the NCAA (which goes hand in hand with your emotional crusade against the school administration, undoubtedly with the help of coaches), etc?

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=60052>Justwannaread</a> on May 04, 2007 at 12:40 PM EDT #

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=60052>Justwannaread</a> on May 04, 2007 at 12:51 PM EDT #

This post is only SLIGHTLY less boring than the sappy, overated, melodramtic movie Field of Dreams.

Reruns of it belong on Lifetime.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=4950>STERLING</a> on May 04, 2007 at 01:40 PM EDT #

Baseball has failed.

3 1/2 hour ball games... Post-season games on too late for kids to watch... Labor Strikes... Steroids... Ticket prices soaring... Players changing teams every other year... Dogs and cats sleeping together...

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=2320>joeyb</a> on May 04, 2007 at 03:43 PM EDT #

You have failed you moron!!! Blame it all on soccer, are you kidding me. The most popular sport in the world. Get out of you little box, Putz. I take it you've never played. I have played both Baseball and Soccer through High School. I love playing both. If you knew anything about soccer you'd know it's a contact sport. I have had two knee surgeries to prove it. Can you honestly say the rare home plate collisions makes baseball more manly. You can’t force a sport on a child, either they like or not. Your issue is that we are failing our children may be true but it’s not because they don’t like baseball and all of its steroid using players. And Personally I like the diversity that baseball is getting. I could go on about how wrong you are but I don’t want to waste my time. I read you blog most days and enjoy your insight. But you are dead wrong on this one. Dead right about title IX. But dead wrong on baseball and soccer. Shame on you.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=47148>tahotiger</a> on May 04, 2007 at 06:26 PM EDT #

gtft49w8ah, you make a good point.

Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=35785>Biochem 98</a> on May 05, 2007 at 06:39 PM EDT #

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