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Originally Posted by BigGuy
When it comes right down to it - kids have so many more choices. As long as the demographics of the US continue to change, the make-up of players in any sport will continue to evolve. When, if ever, it will level off, who knows.
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I am in my mid-30s. When I was a kid we played sports in the back yard before we even played any organized sports. We did this almost every night after school when the weather was good. I played varsity sports in baseball, basketball and football. We did not have AAU and travel baseball as it is today. Even if we did not play organized sports, we played different variations of sports. I also grew up playing a lot of video games. I owned an Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System (the original), and a Sega Genesis. I still own a Playstation (original), Playstation 2, XBOX and I have a XBOX 360. The games have gotten more realistic and lifelike and I think kids play those much more than I did when I was a kid. When I played Atari Football on my Atari 2600, the NFL did not endorse the product and the players and football was a couple of dots on a screen. And if you look historically at the one sport that has had the worst video games it happens to be baseball. Madden Football is an institution and if nothing else players that know little about everything about a real football player, they know a lot about their video game counterpart. So the kids that might be talented to play baseball, regardless of their race and class choose not to.
Even in the ESPN story one of the HS players said, "It is not seen as cool to play baseball." And that fact that we know more about OJ Mayo as a HS player than any top baseball prospect is very telling to the overall sports culture. OJ Mayo was not recruited to go to USC, but he just told them he was coming. This story made SportsCenter. Even they way recruiting are covered in football and basketball is totally different. I have no idea who is even thought of as a top prospect in baseball.
Over all baseball has done a terrible job of marketing their sport to kids and MLB keep hanging their hat on "We are the National Pastime." Then the sport and its fans focus too much on the past and players that are seen as much better than today's athletes. Baseball wants to believe that no one can hit 500 homeruns except Frank Robinson, Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron. No wonder kids today have no interest in this sport.
Peace