Blame it on soccer (and video games)

The quote below is from an AP article titled:
``Kids' Baseball Teams Going Farther, Get Younger'' By JAY REEVES

The growth of Little League Baseball Inc. has leveled off in recent years, with about 2.2 million baseball and softball players in the United States. Chief executive _Steve_ Keener attributes that mainly to video games and soccer rather than players leaving recreational leagues for travel teams.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hGHf8Q9aSvtkHAvKb_QfhunJ2E1gD92GU5N00

In our town Lacrosse is killing baseball

The quote below is from an AP article titled:
``Kids' Baseball Teams Going Farther, Get Younger'' By JAY REEVES

The growth of Little League Baseball Inc. has leveled off in recent years, with about 2.2 million baseball and softball players in the United States. Chief executive _Steve_ Keener attributes that mainly to video games and soccer rather than players leaving recreational leagues for travel teams.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hGHf8Q9aSvtkHAvKb_QfhunJ2E1gD92GU5N00


YES!!!

Softball and Baseball are great sports for the Non Athetic kids who like to stand around and sing nursery rhymes

ySoftball and Baseball are great sports for the Non Athetic kids who like to stand around and sing nursery rhymes


I guess thats what Manny did in the outfield for the last 8 years, while picking up 20 mill. He probably got the words wrong.

i saw some of the US national team softball players today. no athletic skill necessary. mass for power is a good start though.

seriously, one myth is that kids play certain sports over others due to financial opportunity. This is partly true, but not really true for most young kids. Most young kids play the sport that is most popular in their neighborhood. In the innercity, it's basketball. In the Dominican it's baseball. In most countries other than the US, it's soccer. The rise of lacrosse interest cannot seriously be motivated by money, impossible.

now, by the time the kids are older, the choices can be made. moreso a few years ago, but even now, there are still a lot of athletes who can pick up lacrosse in high school and get an easy scholarship, because the athletic pool is still small compared to the number of scholarships available, but this is changing.

I'd say that most kids play the sport that they grow up around first, and then by the time they get old enough to make that decision, it's usually too late. the kids in the city were already playing basketball, it's not like they picked the ball up 'to get out of the ghetto.' That's a reason they maybe practice a bit harder or are motivated to be great, but they all play, and not all have the same drive, they play at first because everyone else is. Same with those dominicans. it's all they do at first. then if they get good, there is that chance of getting discovered by a pro team.

it would be easy to say if you were a left hander to say that baseball would be a good avenue, average left handed ball players get SO many chances to fail because it's so hard to find a good lefty, the problem is that you can't play it at all when you are really young, so you do other sports, and by the time you can play, it seems boring compared to other sports, and it is for a kid for sure. the more this happens, the more kids who play baseball are surrounded by kids who do not, and there is some peer pressure, and just in general wanting to do what everyone else is doing. baseball survives in the communities that want it to or are defined by it, like the stronger little league communities, not because there is money at the end of the tunnel.