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Originally Posted by JRutledge
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
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I just turned the big 5-0, so we each have our own perspective, but you are correct about the marketing issue. Baseball just hasn't done it. When I was a kid, I could tell who the top named players were on every team in the league. Even the lowly Washington Senators had a star in Frank Howard. Free agency and runaway expansion have ruined the game that now is so saturated with mediocre players making $1 million a year. I remember back in the late 60's when Sports Illustrated ran an article about who they thought would be the first $200,000 player. Now a rookie makes $400,000. I think a lot of the mystique of baseball has gone away. The great players aren't placed on pedestals like they used to.
How do you market a product that has nothing special about it anymore? Back then if you made the major leagues, it was for a reason. Pitchers pitched every fourth game instead of every fifth and most of the time went to 7th even if they gave up four or five runs. There were no "set-up" pitchers.
Kids had their "hero" players. Now, I couldn't even name one player on every team. Kids don't read the newspapers so they don't really "follow" any teams or players. Baseball needs an Ernie Banks, Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays or Hank Aaron back in the game.
My father took me to my first baseball game in 1962, Cubs vs Houston Colt 45s. Bottom of ninth, two out bases loaded, Cubs losing 5-2. Guy by the name of Ellis Burton who wore number 21, knocks the first pitch into bleachers for a walk-off grand slam. I can honestly say I wouldn't trade that moment in life for a sky box at Wrigley. Nowadays when home team is losing, can't wait to leave early to beat the traffic.
If I could find a good way to market MLB, I'd get a patent on it.