"Why children are abandoning baseball"

I'd agree on the misery of baseball for some kids.

Last year, in 13-year-old travel ball, my kid was on third base, started to take off on a hard-hit ball that the shortstop snagged and got doubled off at third base to end the inning. Tough play. The third-base coach, one of the assistants, wouldn't even look at my kid. Had the nastiest scowl on his face and stormed past him on the way back to the dugout. My kid walked back alone.

I'm not one of those parents who talks to the coaches, but I couldn't help but think: Why are we subjecting our kid to this?

In the association here, travel ball is tournaments only (hence the costs I mentioned on my previous post). Every pitch, it seems, can be life or death -- from 10 years old on up -- for the pitcher, the batter, the fielder and, yes, even the base runner. You have to win pool play to get to bracket play, you have to win in bracket play to get a trophy, etc.

Honestly, every kid on every team seems miserable. And the coaches (usually dads) aren't helping.

So what happened this year, at age 14, after four years of travel ball? My kid came home from school with a flyer for lacrosse and said he was going to do something different. And he loves it. Loves the full-team experience and not feeling isolated during play. Loves the action. He says he misses baseball, but I'm not really sure he does.

 

A friend of mine posts pictures every weekend of her 6-year-old's soccer games and every photo is of him either sitting in the grass, chasing bugs or kicking orange peels as hard as he can, all while he's on the field of play. I'm not sure there's been an actual soccer ball in a single picture she's posted.

 

They start caring as soon as the parents make it known. Usually by age 7-8, but whenever it is that you start keeping score, that's when you'll know.

 

My wife took one last week that I swear would be iconic, given a larger audience. It's my 6-year-old, in full uniform, after the game feeding his 2-year-old sister a spoonful of his post-game snow cone.

 

Iconic?

 

Yeah, it's Rockwellian.

 

These days, I think they start keeping score right around high school age.

 

Maybe?
Travel soccer? Or Baseball? Cheer? Travel hoops? Prolly not.

 

My kid started crying last week later that night because he said his team lost 7-3.

There is no way that the teams scored less than 30 runs apiece, had anyone been keeping track.

 

I am not trying to shit on your point, but I see an awful lot of organized passing leagues now in the spring or summer - at least for high school age kids.

 

Nah, for all the talk about this being the TROPHIES FOR EVERYONE! era, the scorekeeping and results do actually start way earlier.

The first time I ever played in a sporting event where results mattered was a fourth-grade basketball tournament -- not a whole season, just one tournament. Our Little League didn't start until age 10. Nowadays if you don't have standings and All Stars by age 8 or 9, parents won't choose your league.

 

There's always going to be camps and stuff, but certainly not games year round. A lot of schools have 7 on 7 workouts during the summer, but I think it's always no contact.