Are Kids Losing Interest in Baseball? Options

[thejazlive]

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130875&page=1
Just came across this article...
Are Kids Losing Interest in Baseball? I don't believe it at all. I think Peter Jennings is an idiot. (Even though I know he is referring to American kids) Now after umpiring for a consecutive 8th season, I only have Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph... areas around me to make a judgment whether Kids are losing their interest in baseball. And the answer is the opposite, there are increasing amount of interest in Baseball (ages 5-19) in the Southern Ontario Regions. During the season I at least have 5 games a week, no including week-ends. I think the lost of interest here is the interest of being an umpire. Now I know Umpiring is a hard Job, but as long as you can do these 3 things. Knowing the rule book well, knowing how to control a confrontation (that segment is fun to learn) and lastly not being bothered by abusive remarks. Any body should be able to succeed at Umpiring. But all in all I still don't believe that there is that much interest lost from children in playing baseball.

This post has been edited by thejazlive: Dec 1 2009, 10:35 AM

[Nick]

Kids are losing interest in baseball, why play baseball outside when you can just fire up the XBOX and play? Kids now a days are not anything like when I was younger. I remember every day of the summer we would wake up and start playing outside. We would play baseball, street hockey, football etc...all day long.

[dbacksfan414]

Must be an old article since Peter Jennings died four years ago.

I agree with Nick, kids just don't go outside anymore. I used to ride my bike around the neighborhood almost every day when I was younger. Now, I don't even have a bike, and I hardly ever go outside either. Younger people would much rather stay inside and play video games all day instead of getting all sweaty and doing some sort of physical activity (and playing the Wii doesn't count).

[LarryWayne]

Of course WE'RE less active than we used to be, and I don't have a kid yet so can't tell what the kids are doing, but it's also my impression that most kids have to play a sport through their school, right? and in order to play the games on the x-box and root for them on the TV you'll have wanted to have actually played the game at some point, no?

So now we're just talking about baseball vs basketball vs football. And football stuff is most expensive and basketball courts hard to find. Baseball still has a niche - cheap and you can play anywhere open enough really.

[Johnny Tuttle]

For me, my kids are too young yet to really know personally.

What I do see is that football is violent enough that I won't be encouraging or potentially even allowing my kids to play.

Soccer and dancing and a whole lot of alternative sports or activities are being encouraged in schools and local community groups for the safety and such, and that's pervasive. Baseball and basketball are still big, but baseball is hurt by the need for a lot of players. Same with unorganized soccer. With many or most kids going to after school programs with both parents working and with more and more people living in suburbs and farther away from centers, you don't have the meet after school baseball games anymore. I rarely even see street hockey any more, and that's something that shocks me. We played more hours of that growing up than I could count.

[the Grizzled 1]

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130875&page=1
Just came across this article...
Are Kids Losing Interest in Baseball? I don't believe it at all. I think Peter Jennings is an idiot. (Even though I know he is referring to American kids) Now after umpiring for a consecutive 8th season, I only have Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph... areas around me to make a judgment whether Kids are losing their interest in baseball. And the answer is the opposite, there are increasing amount of interest in Baseball (ages 5-19) in the Southern Ontario Regions. During the season I at least have 5 games a week, no including week-ends. I think the lost of interest here is the interest of being an umpire. Now I know Umpiring is a hard Job, but as long as you can do these 3 things. Knowing the rule book well, knowing how to control a confrontation (that segment is fun to learn) and lastly not being bothered by abusive remarks. Any body should be able to succeed at Umpiring. But all in all I still don't believe that there is that much interest lost from children in playing baseball.

Back in the day, my day, the summer vacations that enveloped the years between 1963-1968 (Age 9 to 14), included the following essentials were needed for a successful summer vacation, a bicycle with a tire patch kit for flats, a baseball glove, a regulation sized rubber baseball, a wooden bat, and a single dollar for that days sustenance.

Each day our daily journeys began around mid morning and ended at dusk.

We bicycled the endless roads of North Milwaukee in search of school playgrounds and City parks with actual baseball fields with dirt infields where, if we were able to scrounge up a minimum number of willing participants, could field an impromptu neighborhood All-Star game of MLB.

Finding enough players was never a problem because by noon of each and every glorious day, there would be prospective ball players on every school playground and City Park Diamond.

The point that I'm trying to make here is that back then there were no distractions, no options to lay around in front of the television, no computers to turn our brains to mush as we surf the web, no opportunity to become addicted to World of Warcraft like games that kept us riveted to a single chair for hours on end. Technology back then was a transistor radio used to tune in to that days broadcast of Milwaukee Braves game.

Drive by any Public park city diamond in the summer and notice that there are no pick-up games going on. Drive by any school playground and notice the void of adolescents playing ball.

Unfortunately these days, unless baseball is supervised and organized, with shiny uniforms, managers who treat these kids like they are major league players, and screaming parents in the stands vicariously living out their lost youth through their kids, baseball fields remain empty and unused.

Peter Jennings was almost on point with his analysis.

Today's kids aren't losing interest in baseball.

They Have already lost interest.