"Why children are abandoning baseball"

[Dick Whitman]

Wall Street Journal article today about the precipitous freefall in youth baseball participation numbers:

Why Children Are Abandoning Baseball - WSJ

The numbers drop in the other sports, too, including basketball and soccer.

I guess this is the result of identifying talent from an early age and funneling it into travel teams. Parents today want to get their children into activities in which they can excel, including a sports speciality. There's not much slack built into childhood any more for mere frivolity.

The concern, often expressed, is how this will affect the health of MLB as a spectator sport and a business down the line.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

This isn't just a baseball problem. Youth sports participation is down across the board. Xbox doesn't make you sweat or have a coach cussing at you.

 

[Dick Whitman]

This isn't just a baseball problem. Youth sports participation is down across the board. Xbox doesn't make you sweat or have a coach cussing at you.

I don't have any numbers on this, but I'm not sure that's it. (That's not to say I don't consider video games a potential problem - my son, who will soon be 6, is already addictive about them, and we severely limit them, to his chagrin.)

Look at modern college applications. Kids are involved in more organized extracurricular activities than ever before. It's just fragmented, like everything else in the 21st century culture.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

The most interesting number in that story to me is that more kids are playing tackle football. That certainly doesn't fit with the narrative that youth football is in trouble.

I think some of it is pure laziness of some of the parents and some of the kids these days. I'm stunned at the number of kids in my sons' classes who do no sports at all. I think it may be a combination of kids preferring video games and parents being not willing or able to commit the amount of time to some of these sports. These days the parents pretty much all stay for the practices. I was at every single one of my son's Pop Warner practices last year and the same was true for the bulk of the parents.

I live in an area that is not very baseball friendly. The last year my kids were signed up for it, I think four of the 10 games were rained out. I played baseball as a kid and I certainly encouraged my kids to play it, but they lost interest pretty quickly.

 

[Dick Whitman]

The most interesting number in that story to me is that more kids are playing tackle football. That certainly doesn't fit with the narrative that youth football is in trouble.

Look at the footnote. Participation rose from 2000 to 2006, but it has dropped since from a peak of 5.4 million to 4.2 million today.

 

[YankeeFan]

Six views, and five posts.

That's some serious red meat.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Yeah, I just saw that. Well, actually, it's at 4.9 million, but still...

When it's down in all sports, I think video games and general laziness are most to blame.

There's also no happy medium with a lot of the sports. They're either not keeping score and letting everybody take base or they're traveling the state to play other teams at age 8.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Six views, and five posts.

That's some serious red meat.

I'm sure the people with no kids will be here momentarily to rag on us.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Yeah, I just saw that. Well, actually, it's at 4.9 million, but still...

When it's down in all sports, I think video games and general laziness are most to blame.

There's also no happy medium with a lot of the sports. They're either not keeping score and letting everybody take base or they're traveling the state to play other teams at age 8.

Did you read the story?

Some guy ranks the best 4-and-under baseball travel teams.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I'm sure the people with no kids will be here momentarily to rag on us.

Meatball always makes sure to chime in. He's good for that.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Did you read the story?

Some guy ranks the best 4-and-under baseball travel teams.

Yeah, it never surprises me that the "bat**** crazy contingent" continues to rise.

 

[Dick Whitman]

When it's down in all sports, I think video games and general laziness are most to blame.

Kids may be overscheduled these days at times, but I'll take that over the alternative in 2015. Huck Finn isn't walking through that door. My kid's doing something to keep him occupied over the summer.

 

[Songbird]

This isn't just a baseball problem. Youth sports participation is down across the board. Xbox doesn't make you sweat or have a coach cussing at you.

Who knows how much the "cussing at you" plays into it but since I took over my goddaughter's softball team last week, the attitude has been night and day, the parents have told me.

The 3 coaches who quit were yellers and jerks and punishers -- dropped a ball? go run 2 laps -- and the girls always seemed bummed after practice or games, the parents have told me.

I've had them for 1 game (25-4 loss, we're not so hot talent-wise) and 2 practices and the parents are happy because their girls are happy. A girl who had quit is coming back to the team.

Obviously, coach-player relationship is just one component of sports but in today's world perhaps it's the biggest component. Who wants to play for punitive assholes?

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

I don't know if kids are overscheduled or parents are overscheduled.

My kids are very active, but I did a lot more than they did when I was their age. The difference is, back then, parental attendance wasn't mandatory.

 

[YankeeFan]

Meatball always makes sure to chime in. He's good for that.

Who's meatball?

 

[Dick Whitman]

Who's meatball?

JackReacher.

I say that endearingly.

He's a big meatball. But that's OK.

 

[Ace]

Through the years my kids played in some kind of organized league or varsity team -- soccer, basketball, baseball, football, swimming, rugby, wrestling.

And the oldest complains that we didn't "let" him play football when he was young. (Actually, we didn't push it because we kind of liked having a few weekends free in the fall).

I think it's good to encourage kids to be active and find what they like.

But some of these travel teams are crazy and they reflect more the parents fear that their kid isn't keeping up with his peers than a good use of some kid's time and talent.

If you are having your kid play year-round baseball on several travel teams hoping to play varsity baseball or a college scholarship, the odds are way against you. College baseball players rarely get a full scholarship.

I am all for keeping kids busy but I don't want to spend thousands to travel everywhere to do it.

 

[YankeeFan]

I don't know if kids are overscheduled or parents are overscheduled.

My kids are very active, but I did a lot more than they did when I was their age. The difference is, back then, parental attendance wasn't mandatory.

Yeah. You rode your bike to practice/games.

Families were bigger. My mom couldn't possibly chauffeur six of us to various activities.

 

[Songbird]

Through the years my kids played in some kind of organized league or varsity team -- soccer, basketball, baseball, football, swimming, rugby, wrestling.

And the oldest complains that we didn't "let" him play football when he was young. (Actually, we didn't push it because we kind of liked having a few weekends free in the fall).

I think it's good to encourage kids to be active and find what they like.

But some of these travel teams are crazy and they reflect more the parents fear that their kid isn't keeping up with his peers than a good use of some kid's time and talent.

If you are having your kid play year-round baseball on several travel teams hoping to play varsity baseball or a college scholarship, the odds are way against you. College baseball players rarely get a full scholarship.

I am all for keeping kids busy but I don't want to spend thousands to travel everywhere to do it.

Sports equivalent of Facebookification Syndrome.