If you are black, does your son play baseball?

[Anonymous]

Participation is down for all kids, across racial lines, because it is slow, boring, and not great exercise. Financial barriers to things like hitting/pitching coaches and travel leagues to develop the skill sets that would set a player apart widen the income divide. It's a great activity for less active kids with parents who have money, as there isn't that much interest or competition compared to many other sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baseball doesn't get as much attention whore look at me focus like football and basketball that people need to feel like someone

Which is odd because in baseball everyone playing is guarunteed to have atleast some part of the game where the EVERYONE in the stadium and tv is watching you individually (when you are hitting) or if you are a pitcher.

That's not the case in basketball and football where outside of the superstars, you can just blend into the background

It is odd. But true. Look at commercials for endorsements. It's definitely not baseball players. It's football and basketball.
Look at little league World Series the players favorite athletes ARENT usually baseball players. They will say what their favorite BASEBALL player is when asked in an interview but won't say a baseball player is their favorite athlete

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Participation is down for all kids, across racial lines, because it is slow, boring, and not great exercise. Financial barriers to things like hitting/pitching coaches and travel leagues to develop the skill sets that would set a player apart widen the income divide. It's a great activity for less active kids with parents who have money, as there isn't that much interest or competition compared to many other sports.

+1
Basketball has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.
Football has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.
Soccer has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.

Baseball has constant breaks and constant lulls and no set time frame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Participation is down for all kids, across racial lines, because it is slow, boring, and not great exercise. Financial barriers to things like hitting/pitching coaches and travel leagues to develop the skill sets that would set a player apart widen the income divide. It's a great activity for less active kids with parents who have money, as there isn't that much interest or competition compared to many other sports.

+1
Basketball has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.
Football has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.
Soccer has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.

Baseball has constant breaks and constant lulls and no set time frame.

what? Football has like 10 minutes of 'action' in a 3 hour game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Participation is down for all kids, across racial lines, because it is slow, boring, and not great exercise. Financial barriers to things like hitting/pitching coaches and travel leagues to develop the skill sets that would set a player apart widen the income divide. It's a great activity for less active kids with parents who have money, as there isn't that much interest or competition compared to many other sports.

+1
Basketball has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.
Football has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.
Soccer has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.

Baseball has constant breaks and constant lulls and no set time frame.

what? Football has like 10 minutes of 'action' in a 3 hour game.

You say toe-may-toe...I say toe-mah-toe

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Participation is down for all kids, across racial lines, because it is slow, boring, and not great exercise. Financial barriers to things like hitting/pitching coaches and travel leagues to develop the skill sets that would set a player apart widen the income divide. It's a great activity for less active kids with parents who have money, as there isn't that much interest or competition compared to many other sports.

+1
Basketball has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.
Football has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.
Soccer has constant action and constant motion and a set time frame.

Baseball has constant breaks and constant lulls and no set time frame.

what? Football has like 10 minutes of 'action' in a 3 hour game.

Haha you're beyond add.

That was in comparison to baseball anyways. And football is not that slow

[Anonymous]

I think a mom on here has a son who works for the orioles as an analyst/programmer, iirc, so she maybe can shed light on this but I can say that black kids also have almost no interesting 'breaking in' in the front office setting either.

I've been to baseball winter meetings and I've seen more women trying to 'break in' and get recruited for front office roles than black people.

Now some of it is the shift towards front office recruiting mirroring finance/consulting/law type recruiting (which I believe wilbon and bryant and other black writers are in the wrong of disparaging) as being an impediment towards blacks getting into the game through that route. But it isn't like there aren't black people at elite schools.

Trust me -a black kid that can program half decently and comes from a top 25 school and has cursory knowledge/interest of the game would get picked up very quickly by a mlb front office.

[Anonymous]

My son is baseball crazy (he's white) and plays in a league in Howard County. I'd say the teams are at least 1/3 AA.

[Anonymous]

To me, I think it's because there are fewer ball fields in predominately AA communities and thus less opportunites for kids to get involved such as little league programs not to mention lower rate of parental involvement. But you can play on the streets, right? Like back in the glory days where kids would hit the ball and break windows from cars and homes. These days the alarm would go off and someone with a cell phone would call the police and the kids would get into all kinds of trouble. That would be the end of that.

Additionally, like someone said there are more role models in basketball and football that influence the AA kids. When Ken Griffey Jr was playing he was someone who they could look up to, he had everything- the talent, charisma, and the drive. Also that swing swing he had. These days there's an absence of someone like junior to carry that flag.

[Anonymous]

Baseball either clicks for you or it doesn't. It never did (at all) for me, but DS1 is totally obsessed with it. He's quite a strong and well-rounded athlete, and is a top player in pretty much any sport he plays *except* baseball (in which he's above average, but not dominant) . . . but baseball is his first love. If we had less money and/or time, though, I'm not sure he'd be able to pursue it -- it's not a pick-up sport where we live. . . .

[Anonymous]

This is a little off topic, but it's interesting to read about efforts to sustain and develop baseball in Uganda of all places.

http://ugandalittleleaguebaseball.org/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Baseball either clicks for you or it doesn't. It never did (at all) for me, but DS1 is totally obsessed with it. He's quite a strong and well-rounded athlete, and is a top player in pretty much any sport he plays *except* baseball (in which he's above average, but not dominant) . . . but baseball is his first love. If we had less money and/or time, though, I'm not sure he'd be able to pursue it -- it's not a pick-up sport where we live. . . .

baseball is impossible to hide lack of technique with sheer athleticism. it's more of a 'skill' than a 'sport' - closer to golf.

[Anonymous]

My rule loving "thinker" kid LOVES baseball. He likes the set rules and methodical nature of it and also the math of it (anticipating where the ball is going to go based off angles, force, etc)

My BIL was really into baseball and he always calls it "the thinking man's sport." I tend to agree.

You also do not need to be huge or tall or the fastest kid on the block to be successful at baseball, especially as a kid. You can be a really accurate consistent hitter or have a wicked fastball and be as slow as dirt and still be successful and a valuable player in baseball.

My fast paced, easily distracted, energetic kids thinks baseball is just OK, and prefers sports like swimming or soccer that are go go go.

I agree that most kids don't have the patience anymore for a sport like baseball. They want the instant gratification and fast pace of soccer or if they are going for a slow sport with little action they want the social status of football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised by the MLB numbers - 58% white, 8% black. i guessed the highest percentage of players were Latino.

Folks, you know that most Latinos are white, correct?

Can we please drop this obsession with skin color?

Sure..but only when POC are no longer oppressed b/c of it. Let me know when that happens.

[Anonymous]

It is not promoted as much to them as basketball is. Not a racial issue at all. People want to throw race at everything, is there a racial problem in basketball? Hey let's talk about hockey, Seeing there is a women's soccer player involved in all this trendy new protesting, she is part of the least diversified sport out there, would she give up her spot to allow a black player to play? No, she grew up with the resources of travel soccer her whole life, that is what is comes down to resources, not race.