WSJ article about the decline in youth baseball

Discuss all things Cardinals Baseball
jim
Red Lobster for the seafood lover in you
Posts: 50608
Joined: May 1 06, 2:41 pm

Re: WSJ article about the decline in youth baseball

Post by jim »

So you are saying if you suck soccer is the sport for you? Never thought of it like that, but yeah. I get that.

User avatar
cardinalkarp
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 17990
Joined: May 4 06, 8:44 am

Re: WSJ article about the decline in youth baseball

Post by cardinalkarp »

jim wrote:So you are saying if you suck soccer is the sport for you? Never thought of it like that, but yeah. I get that.
What other sport can you hide kids who are clumsy, have no hand-eye coordination, yet they can run around and seemingly have fun (if soccer's your thing), and not get hurt? Yep, you guessed it...soccer.

User avatar
lukethedrifter
darjeeling sipping elite
Posts: 37434
Joined: October 17 06, 11:19 am
Location: Huis Clos

Re: WSJ article about the decline in youth baseball

Post by lukethedrifter »

In HS it's xcountry

jim
Red Lobster for the seafood lover in you
Posts: 50608
Joined: May 1 06, 2:41 pm

Re: WSJ article about the decline in youth baseball

Post by jim »

lukethedrifter wrote:In HS it's xcountry
Yes and no I would say. I agree that it is a sport where anyone can participate, and the athletes all accept and cheer that last kid coming in the open race. But, on the other side of the coin, you get the attendees of the event like me hitting their wife in the ribs and saying "Good lord look at this loser, he's like 10 minutes behind everyone else. They can't even start the next race because he can't get his fat ass across the finish line. Oh great, he's walking now. Gonna' be a here a while.".

No hiding when you are last in my eyes.

AJ

Re: WSJ article about the decline in youth baseball

Post by AJ »

cardinalkarp wrote:
Spider John wrote:When I was a kid soccer hadn't really taken off yet, so you either had baseball in the spring/summer, or you had nothing. I can't remember the last time I saw a bunch of kids playing a pickup game, or even out in the yard playing catch.

I wouldn't take anything for the time I spent playing baseball, be it league or neighborhood. I wish we'd had the opportunities to play that kids have now, like longer seasons and fall ball. As an adult who values his down time I have become more appreciative of coaches who give their time to coach.
I had a pretty decent sized back yard as a kid, but not nearly big enough to play baseball so like pretty much every kid who liked baseball we would play medium pitch speed from a spot that was about 40ft from the batters box. We played w/ tennis balls and doctored up wiffle ball bats that were stuffed w/ rags and taped. If you hit one good you would smash it into a huge tree at the far side of the neighbors yard. Played indian ball rules for the most part, since it was just 2 man teams. We tried to play where you ran bases and if the pitcher was able to field the ball cleanly he could fire the ball fire at the batter as he ran. That lasted all of a couple games before I got tagged in the eye by a throw.

Good times, good times.
We had a pretty good sized backyard but obviously couldn't play baseball in it, so I invented a game called monster ball where we used one of those giant plastic red hollow bats made for little kids and the ball was one of those large plastic balls from walmart filled with air. It was kind of a baseball/dodgeball hybrid, you could hit runners with the ball to get them our and we adjusted the basepath where 2nd base was in the outfield and we actually had scores that weren't too insane (like 18-15 or something like that). There was a fence into the neighbors yard that we had for homeruns, we would maybe get 1-2 a game, good thing, there were two vicious dogs next door and someone would have to distract them while someone else jumped the fence after the ball, kind of like the movie the sandlot.

It was crazy fun, had all kinds of neighbor kids that would come play. Amazing what games you can come up with when restricted by space.

User avatar
obucard
Perennial All-Star
Posts: 8055
Joined: April 18 06, 11:04 pm
Location: Central AR

Re: WSJ article about the decline in youth baseball

Post by obucard »

jim wrote:
lukethedrifter wrote:In HS it's xcountry
Yes and no I would say. I agree that it is a sport where anyone can participate, and the athletes all accept and cheer that last kid coming in the open race. But, on the other side of the coin, you get the attendees of the event like me hitting their wife in the ribs and saying "Good lord look at this loser, he's like 10 minutes behind everyone else. They can't even start the next race because he can't get his fat ass across the finish line. Oh great, he's walking now. Gonna' be a here a while.".

No hiding when you are last in my eyes.
That's when the kid passes out and you feel like a total [expletive].

jim
Red Lobster for the seafood lover in you
Posts: 50608
Joined: May 1 06, 2:41 pm

Re: WSJ article about the decline in youth baseball

Post by jim »

obucard wrote:
jim wrote:
lukethedrifter wrote:In HS it's xcountry
Yes and no I would say. I agree that it is a sport where anyone can participate, and the athletes all accept and cheer that last kid coming in the open race. But, on the other side of the coin, you get the attendees of the event like me hitting their wife in the ribs and saying "Good lord look at this loser, he's like 10 minutes behind everyone else. They can't even start the next race because he can't get his fat ass across the finish line. Oh great, he's walking now. Gonna' be a here a while.".

No hiding when you are last in my eyes.
That's when the kid passes out and you feel like a total [expletive].
I'm probably sipping on a nice Tall Grande Ice Skim Latte with extra cream from Starbucks while that loser can't get up. I'm good. I feel great.

User avatar
ghostrunner
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 28724
Joined: April 18 06, 9:40 pm

Re: WSJ article about the decline in youth baseball

Post by ghostrunner »

Friend of my son's is putting together a pick up game on Saturday. Which means it's not really a pick up game, but all the same...nice.

User avatar
pioneer98
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 22249
Joined: July 15 08, 8:24 pm
Location: High A Minors

Re: WSJ article about the decline in youth baseball

Post by pioneer98 »

So when I was a kid we had 2 leagues that each had 8 to 10 teams in the 13-14 year old age group (Pony League back then). At some point those two leagues dissolved and they were replaced by Babe Ruth league, which is 13, 14 and 15 year olds. The 50% larger age group gave them enough kids to have 1 league of 8 teams. This season, more than half the league is 15 year olds who won't be back next year. With luck the league will be able to come back with 4 or 6 teams next year. Youth baseball outside of travel ball is on its last legs.

SmithJones
Single A Minor League Player
Posts: 14
Joined: May 18 19, 12:58 pm

Re: WSJ article about the decline in youth baseball

Post by SmithJones »

Baseball is a slow moving kind of game. Hockey and basketball are fast moving up and down, back and forth. Do you think most offices will have a bracket pool for the CWS tourney next week in Omaha? But people are maniacs for NCAA bracket pools and NFL fantasy football.

Baseball is what it is and I'm against MLB further expanding and watering down the product. As far as soccer goes, I have no use for any sport that lets games end in a 0-0 tie. I'd sooner watch paint dry than watch soccer. Or golf.

Post Reply