|
Replies: 14
| visibility 2,170
|
MVP [514]
TigerPulse: 99%
Posts: 858
Joined: 2/4/03
|
Why Baaeball is Losing Children
May 20, 2015, 9:53 PM
|
|
There is a good article in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal
concerning the steep decline in Youth Baseball participation.
www.wsj.com/sports
|
|
|
|
 |
110%er [6937]
TigerPulse: 88%
Posts: 22594
Joined: 5/4/03
|
Re: Why Baaeball is Losing Children
May 20, 2015, 10:42 PM
|
|
I have seen no decline in the Irmo-Chapin, SC area. If course, now, kids have to have the full paraphernalia (uniform, all gear, etc) and have to be begged to practice. I remember when we got one baseball in February and by August that thing had been taped several times.. We played ever chance we got.
|
|
|
|
|
|
110%er [6400]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 11142
Joined: 6/5/03
|
Re: Why Baaeball is Losing Children
May 21, 2015, 12:38 AM
|
|
From the WSJ article...
"Roughly two-thirds of Newburgh’s Little Leaguers are minorities. When youth baseball dries up in a place like this, it pushes the sport even further in the direction it has been headed for years: richer, whiter, smaller."
There you have it. And it's the truth. You think it's tough getting 18 kids from working families together for a game? Try getting 18 section 8 housing kids out for one. Thank you LBJ, thank you Welfare State, thank you Democrats. And they have the gall to wage a "war" on obseity...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Commissioner [932]
TigerPulse: 97%
Posts: 1544
Joined: 6/4/12
|
Re: Why Baaeball is Losing Children
May 21, 2015, 12:48 AM
|
|
Black kids play in areas like greater atlanta and Tampa and DC. They can relate to professional players.
Most black colleges if they have baseball are filling their roster with white players.
Most of the minorities you see in MLB are from south of the border.
The ncaa gave baseball a black eye when they restricted scholarships. Good luck selling that to underprivileged kids. Just easier to get a game with a football or basketball and hoop. Especially when potential full ride is at the end of the tunnel.
|
|
|
|
|
|
110%er [6400]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 11142
Joined: 6/5/03
|
Re: Why Baaeball is Losing Children
May 21, 2015, 1:18 AM
|
|
The NCAA had no choice. It was Title IX. Same reason so many schools nixed wrestling. But I hear the Women's Equestrian Team did well in the Dressage playoffs, so that's cool and whatnot.
|
|
|
|
|
|
All-TigerNet [10402]
TigerPulse: 95%
Posts: 17413
Joined: 8/9/10
|
Re: Why Baaeball is Losing Children
May 21, 2015, 1:01 AM
[ in reply to Re: Why Baaeball is Losing Children ] |
|
Yeah it's funny watching those 5 yr olds with the bat bags and the whole nine yards.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Orange Blooded [3573]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 6516
Joined: 6/1/99
|
They have to have all that because the leagues don't provide
May 21, 2015, 9:58 AM
|
|
anything in the form of equipment. It lowers their cost and they think it lowers their liability if the parents have to provide the helmet and bats. All they do is check the 1.15 stamp.
|
|
|
|
|
|
All-TigerNet [10402]
TigerPulse: 95%
Posts: 17413
Joined: 8/9/10
|
Re: Why Baaeball is Losing Children
May 21, 2015, 12:58 AM
|
|
In Florence youth baseball is going strong.
|
|
|
|
|
|
All-In [30766]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 34465
Joined: 6/22/03
|
my oldest son started playing last fall. . his
May 21, 2015, 7:01 AM
|
|
Interest is fading. . It isn't a very exciting sport to play. He enjoys playing football and basketball Far more. Especially basketball because he can just grab a couple neighborhood buddies and play in the driveway just about any time. Hard to get enough kids over to the field to play baseball. Ghost runners arnt nearly as fun.
My youngest son is still in coaches pItch and still enjoys playing. I'm waiting to see what happens 2 years from now when he goes to players pitch. The game slows down big time then.
|
|
|
|
|
|
110%er [7219]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 6986
Joined: 11/30/98
|
Re: Why Baaeball is Losing Children
May 21, 2015, 7:01 AM
|
|
Little league is dying here in Northern Ohio. I believe the problem is overzealous parents and coaches. There is too much emphasis on winning, too much parental griping on ump calls, playing time, etc., and too much drive by coaches to win. Too much time spent on practice and too much criticism of kids that don't perform. It is turning off young kids in a major way. They leave the sport before they have had a chance to see if they can develop into decent players. There are too many other things to do in the spring summer than deal with that. I have seen it first hand. Some local towns of decent size (16,446, Fremont Ohio) has quit with little league. The better players are going to all star teams, the average players will move on to other sports.
|
|
|
|
|
|
All-In [30766]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 34465
Joined: 6/22/03
|
those things are not specific to baseball.
May 21, 2015, 7:32 AM
|
|
Every hung around some CESA parents? Holy cow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
All-TigerNet [11161]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 10900
Joined: 9/17/07
|
2 reasons: It's not an App and it's outdoors.***
May 21, 2015, 10:00 AM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Orange Blooded [3573]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 6516
Joined: 6/1/99
|
That article leaves a lot to be desired
May 21, 2015, 10:17 AM
|
|
1) It focused just on Little League. Parks are dropping Little League left and right because their license fees are too expensive and their rules are very onerous. There are really only 3 major Little League footholds left in Georgia. The rest are Dizzy Dean or Dixie Youth.
2) It glossed over the rise in USSSA players.
3) According to the graphic, all sports are losing participation at the same rate, so why focus on the losses in baseball? If the theory holds that baseball is in trouble because youth aren't playing it, then soccer is in even worse trouble because they don't have the big fan base.
I think the real reason behind these numbers is that kids are specializing. My belief is that there are no fewer kids playing sports OVERALL today as there were 10 or more years ago. And they are spending the same amount of time playing sports OVERALL as they were 10 or more years ago. But they are playing 1 sport MORE than kids were 10 or more years ago and the way we count the participants hasn't caught up with that trend.
Plus it missed the point. Fans of sports don't like the sport because they played it. People who played sports are fans of sports in general. I played football and baseball. I like watching basketball.
|
|
|
|
|
|
110%er [9023]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 7375
Joined: 4/9/11
|
We lost it in the lowcountry when it turned into "daddy ball
May 21, 2015, 11:11 AM
|
|
and it became about who you were, if your daddy was the coach and who your friends are. The black kids from the Island were frozen out. We lost some terrific athletes to football and basketball.
But it is also dying because practices are so boring - 15 kids standing around while one kid takes BP.
Travel teams have taken all of the good players from rec leagues, so they are drying up too.
|
|
|
|
|
|
All-TigerNet [13036]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 22353
Joined: 4/24/04
|
Based on my own personal experience with my friends
May 21, 2015, 11:40 AM
|
|
and I, when we were maybe in the 8-13 range we were all obsessed with baseball. We played little league (dixie youth actually), we watched a ton of games, we went to summer camps, we collected and traded baseball cards, we idolized Ken Griffey Jr and Frank Thomas, and we would even play 1 vs 1 baseball with a tennis ball if we couldn't get more people.
Somewhere in middle school everything began to change though. Most of us quit baseball, we all played basketball, Shaq and Penny were the new big things, and we all slowly started watching less baseball and more basketball.
If i had to guess what happened, i would say it was the access to the sports. My area didn't have a good pony league to jump to when we were too old for Dixie Youth, we got tired of playing baseball with 2 or 4 people, and we all got involved with middle school and eventually HS basketball. I think playing the sport really drove our interest in everything related to that sport.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Replies: 14
| visibility 2,170
|
|
|
50
