Where did you get that stat? I would think that football would have the highest injury rate in youth sports. The chances of having a successful career in sports is small, but baseball gives you the best chance for that. Just look at the odds of becoming successful in basketball compared to baseball. There are 30 teams in each league, but baseball has 40 roster spots compared to only 12 for basketball. This adds up to... MLB 30 teams x 40 spots = 1200 MLB players NBA 30 teams x 12 spots = 360 NBA players The chances of having success in MLB is much higher due to number of players needed. Football has the around the same number of roster spots, but the average career length of NFL players is around half to that of MLB players. Plus, contracts are much worse in the NFL. Elite players in football get paid around $7-8 million per season while MLB elite players get around $15-$20 million per, and the NFL doesn't have guaranteed contracts like the MLB does. Bottom line is people are going to play what they love. But, if I was MLB I would market these facts to the young black males in poor areas to help push them towards their sport.
It's not really cool to play baseball anymore. Kids are way more into football and basketball, and their popularity has had a huge effect on why few people care about baseball.
Kids only play football in school anyway. most public schools have football teams. most kids who play baseball play little league. when you add up league costs and individual costs, its apples and oranges. kids don't pay for pads in football. in baseball now a days kids buy more than one bat, gloves, they go to the batting cages. there is a lot of money invested. not to mention the organizational aspect. in the innercity kids play ball on broken down hoops.
Where did I say that? I didn't. I said that I don't understand why people are bending over backwards to try to get these kids to play sports they aren't choosing to play on their own.
on top of all that, yes there is the popularity issue. in latin america, baseball is to them what basketball is to black youths. as far as popularity and seeing a way out.
*disclaimer: I haven't read the rest of the thread yet. I don't think Whitey is saying anything about affirmative action (and based on your tone, I believe you and I agree about affirmative action). I believe what he is pointing out is that it's a bummer that baseball isn't as prevalent in the lower-income parts of our culture, and that is a bummer. I don't think he's throwing around blame or playing the race card. The RBI foundation I believe exists to try and get baseball back into the poorer communities. I hope they have great success in that endeavor.
You obviously do not have kids in Little League then. Both my son (8) and daughter (5) are in Little League right now and not only is the league thriving, it is very competitive. Why do you say that baseball is not popular? I do agree that it is not cheap. We have spent quite a bit on fees and equipment. It is soooo worth it though. We moved my son up a league (9-10 year olds) so that he is playing with better kids. He suddenly went from being the best kid on his team to not. It is awesome to actually watch good baseball now and see him grow. While he isn't the best kid on his team, he definitely can hang and watching that growth is very, very exciting. 4 years of crap t-ball and coach pitch is excrutiating. No more kids kicking around in the dirt or running after butterflies. It is double plays and fly balls that are actually caught!! He has a game tomorrow night and I'm probably as excited to watch him play as I am about the start of the Astros season.
And why wouldn't this be a good thing? Expand your marketing segment. Reach out to new targets. Win back an audience. Baseball is the greatest game in the world. East Asia is playing now. All of Latin America is playing now. I think it'd be great to win back the inner cities somehow. While we're at it, let's knock soccer of the throne in Europe and Africa.
Interesting poll on pro sports' popularity: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=622 Professional football continues to surge in popularity as one-third (33%) of U.S. adults who follow at least one sport say it is their favorite sport. This is up three points from last year. Baseball slips slightly again this year, dropping to 14 percent, down one point from last year. Coming close on the heels of baseball is college football (13%) followed by auto racing (11%). While both of these have seen a rise in the past year, racing is up four points this year, most likely as a result of NASCAR’s increasing popularity. ... Baseball does best among Hispanics (20%) and Echo Boomers (those aged 18–27) (21%). African Americans are least likely to say baseball is their favorite sport (6%). The NBA is listed as the favorite sport by only 4% of respondents. Men's college bb is listed by 5%.
re: the Compton Baseball Academy Drayton and Enos Cabell both put up $35K to pay for the batting cages. They named them after Enos's dad, I believe.
I don't know for sure. I just know that I recently bought a new bat for my son...he's 6 years old playing dad-pitch baseball. I bought one of the cheapest bats you could buy...it cost me about $70. they ranged up in price to around $300. for 6 year olds. i was shocked that it had tracked that high.
Where did anyone say that people were "bending over backwards"? They didn't. Kids love to play ANYTHING. The factors the contribute to their non-interest is the lack of availability to facilities to culitvate a love for the sport. BTW 20 years ago I played baseball in the street with one bat that everyone shared and a glove that my uncle gave me. We had one base and slid on asphalt. Everyone wanted to be Willie McCovey but found it more convienant and less painful to be Dr. J.
I didn't say it was a bad thing. It just seems like altruism is met with skepticism way too often in here, so you have to convince people that something is good if the end result is that it benefits rich people.
When the school my sons go to (a "white" school) play an inner city (mostly African-American school) here are some of my observations. In football, they cream us. In track, they cream us (except in long distance). In basketball, they cream us. In baseball, it's sad. We have to swing at anything that hasn't hit the ground or the batter. Outside? Step over the plate and go after it. Otherwise the game would never end because of the walks. But hitting it mostly produces a host of errors that is comical if it weren't so sad. The suburb schools field teams made up of kids that have played rec ball since they were 5 and pushed (maybe too hard at times) by their dads. My son has had many professional lessons by ex-major league players. How much training have the inner city schools been given? The inner city coaches explained, that by the time baseball rolls around, the athletic kids are not making good enough grades to make the team. True or not, that is what they said. Also, baseball is an expensive sport. Most school sports only make you buy the shoes. (I felt sorry for some kids that had to wrestle in socks because they didn't have shoes. They couldn't wrestle in sneakers because it would "tear up the mats" and the couldn't wrestle in bare feet because "of the disease". Try taking a guy down your size wearing gripping shoes while you have on socks and yet some did a very admirable job.) But in baseball, bats and gloves are not provided. A legal (-3) bat will run $150 to $200 easy. Gloves will run $50-$100 easy. A parent or a coach may be able to come up with bat that the whole team can use, but getting enough gloves can be a challenge when added to the price of some cleats. I'm not sure the other school kids find it too much fun to play and I think they lose interest in it.
its not just black kids, I bet if you did a study on the economic backgrounds of all MLB players the results would be a lot different from NBA and NFL players.
