Baseball

I don't think there's any question that the majority of the best athletes in the USA are African American, yet it seems less and less are focusing on baseball. Why do you think that is? Mlb players make major money and seem to put less wear and tear on their bodies. With football under attack as being too dangerous, does baseball have a chance to win back African Americans? How would you try to get young African Americans to focus on baseball again?

(Although I used race in the post, I don't think it's controversial or disrespectful at all)

Actually I think more and more are getting back into it. In the high schools ranks here in Alabama, I've seen quite a few African Americans that are playing baseball. As a matter of fact, last weekend the varsity of the high school I coach baseball at played a team in the semifinals and both teams had an African American lefty first baseman. Don't see that very often. And our program as a whole from middle school to 12th grade in suburban Alabama has around 6 or 7 African Americans in the program out of 55 or 60 kids. That's a pretty decent count considering the demographics of where we live.

I think football is becoming too hard on these kids now and they are realizing like you said that the wear and tear on the body in football isn't for them. Baseball consumes much less time than football at the high school level, the level of intensity for the most part isn't as high (lot less yelling and screaming in baseball), and you are usually involved in more facets of the game in baseball so you feel like you can make more of an impact.

I think African Americans are making a big comeback in the game and in 5-10 years you are going to see that manifest itself at the big league level. Football is becoming too dangerous for parents to risk it, basketball just doesn't have as many spots for kids to make it, so the natural course of things was that people were going to start gearing more towards baseball once the glamour of the NBA wore off and the reality of the dangers of football began to sink in with kids parents.

I think a lot of it has to do with the emphasis on travel ball and AAU basketball. Most of the top African-American athlete kids I knew did both sports. Both are expensive, and doing 2 is tough. If they are doing 7v7 football, then you can forget baseball too.

I also think baseball became "uncool", for lack of a better term. There are a number reasons behind that from a cultural perspective, but I think it is starting to turn back to baseball. Concussion fears of football will be big for baseball (and probably soccer) in terms of youth sports participation in coming years.

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Originally Posted by msstate7

I don't think there's any question that the majority of the best athletes in the USA are African American, yet it seems less and less are focusing on baseball. Why do you think that is? Mlb players make major money and seem to put less wear and tear on their bodies. With football under attack as being too dangerous, does baseball have a chance to win back African Americans? How would you try to get young African Americans to focus on baseball again?

(Although I used race in the post, I don't think it's controversial or disrespectful at all)

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You topic is fine minus the ignorant beginning statement. Just like the other thread, generalized statements about a group of people tend to cause issues. Yes, there are ton of black players in the NBA and NFL that are athletic as hell, but it's dumb to suggest that the best athletes are majority black in the entire USA just because they play in sports that are more visible. What about hockey players, tri-athletes, or the like? Are they not as athletic?

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Originally Posted by Interpolation_Dawg_EX

You topic is fine minus the ignorant beginning statement. Just like the other thread, generalized statements about a group of people tend to cause issues. Yes, there are ton of black players in the NBA and NFL that are athletic as hell, but it's dumb to suggest that the best athletes are majority black in the entire USA just because they play in sports that are more visible. What about hockey players, tri-athletes, or the like? Are they not as athletic?

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When most people use the term 'athletic,' they are referring generally to speed and jumping ability. And I think it is pretty much an undeniable fact that, yes, on average, African-Americans are more athletic.

Baseball is just a lot different than football and basketball. A lot of times the best "athletes" aren't the best baseball players. Wade Boggs and John Kruk would not have played above high school in anything but baseball. Naturally speed helps in the outfield and on the base path but even then there are baseball abilities that makes it less important. Football and basketball you can at least out athlete people but it doesn't work in baseball.

Baseball is also expensive now. It is very unusual to see someone like Hunter Renfroe who doesn't do the travel team almost year round. I know several people that is what they use most of their vacation days on is baseball tournaments.

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Originally Posted by Tbonewannabe

Baseball is just a lot different than football and basketball. A lot of times the best "athletes" aren't the best baseball players. Wade Boggs and John Kruk would not have played above high school in anything but baseball. Naturally speed helps in the outfield and on the base path but even then there are baseball abilities that makes it less important. Football and basketball you can at least out athlete people but it doesn't work in baseball.

Baseball is also expensive now. It is very unusual to see someone like Hunter Renfroe who doesn't do the travel team almost year round. I know several people that is what they use most of their vacation days on is baseball tournaments.

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Some of the best players in the world come from very poor countries.

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Originally Posted by Interpolation_Dawg_EX

You topic is fine minus the ignorant beginning statement. Just like the other thread, generalized statements about a group of people tend to cause issues. Yes, there are ton of black players in the NBA and NFL that are athletic as hell, but it's dumb to suggest that the best athletes are majority black in the entire USA just because they play in sports that are more visible. What about hockey players, tri-athletes, or the like? Are they not as athletic?

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It's not ignorant if it's true. Watch this.

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Originally Posted by Tbonewannabe

Baseball is just a lot different than football and basketball. A lot of times the best "athletes" aren't the best baseball players. Wade Boggs and John Kruk would not have played above high school in anything but baseball. Naturally speed helps in the outfield and on the base path but even then there are baseball abilities that makes it less important. Football and basketball you can at least out athlete people but it doesn't work in baseball.

Baseball is also expensive now. It is very unusual to see someone like Hunter Renfroe who doesn't do the travel team almost year round. I know several people that is what they use most of their vacation days on is baseball tournaments.

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Good point. I don't want to get wrapped up into the whole "race" thing, but just trying to be honest, a lot of the things where African-Americans generally have athletic advantages (primarily speed and jumping ability) are not primary elements of being a great baseball player. Certainly speed is an asset even in baseball but it is not as central to all parts of the game like it is in football and basketball. I just think a lot of African Americans do tend to focus more on football and basketball where they generally excel more and that takes away the numbers that focus on baseball.

Those countries also aren't obsessed with American football and basketball. They play soccer or baseball. I think it just boils down to be competitive now you have to play a sport almost year round. Baseball takes years to make the big leagues. We see the journey of the #1 high school guy signing with a college in football and basketball. Then they are still famous and then they walk on stage as a high profile pick in the draft.

NFL Draft and NBA Draft are great marketing for the sport. I think it appeals to most kids no matter their skin color. In our ADD society it is hard to do something knowing if you are good you will still fail 30% of the time.

Also if you can't throw it 90+ or hit a curve ball you have no chance of going pro.

As an African American with a young son I think it's 3 major factors that have lead to this.

1. The lack of availability & opportunity to play in the inner city. Most inner city kids don't play baseball because it's expensive & it's not readily available. There are courts & basketball goals everywhere but very few baseball fields.

2. To most kids baseball is the least exciting of the Big 3 sports. Me & my son have watched all 3 & attended all 3 & baseball is the hardest to keep him focused on for an extended period of time. The action is non stop in football & basketball not so much in baseball. Even soccer is constant motion. Like someone mentioned kids in todays society get turned off extremely quick & it's hard to keep their attention.

3. There just aren't many African American superstars for African American kids to look up to. When I was growing up you had Ken Griffey Jr, Barry Bonds, Barry Larkin, Tony Gwynn, Andre Dawson, Cecil Fielder, Dwight Gooden, & so on. There were guys of all different physical abilities & appearances that pretty much every kid could relate to somebody. Ask any African American kid in America I guarantee they know Lebron James or Cam Newton but I bet you close to 50% wouldn't be able to tell you who Andrew McCutchen is.

I hope this changes & I'm going to push my son more towards baseball & basketball because of the safety of it but it's a definite uphill battle for baseball.

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Originally Posted by Ifyouonlyknew

As an African American with a young son I think it's 3 major factors that have lead to this.

2. To most kids baseball is the least exciting of the Big 3 sports. Me & my son have watched all 3 & attended all 3 & baseball is the hardest to keep him focused on for an extended period of time. The action is non stop in football & basketball not so much in baseball. Even soccer is constant motion. Like someone mentioned kids in todays society get turned off extremely quick & it's hard to keep their attention.

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To your point #2 I think this is a societal issue that has hurt baseball and there is probably no going back. Its just the microwave culture we live in. Whether its video games, non-stop action movies, etc., it seems (especially with young males) that if there isn't constant action or instant gratification then they are bored. 50 years ago this wasn't a problem but it certainly is now. Baseball lives for the big moment but there is a lot of downtime in between and you also have to appreciate the strategy of the game. Not a good combination with the action overload of today's world.

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Originally Posted by maroonmania

To your point #2 I think this is a societal issue that has hurt baseball and there is probably no going back. Its just the microwave culture we live in. Whether its video games, non-stop action movies, etc., it seems (especially with young males) that if there isn't constant action or instant gratification then they are bored. 50 years ago this wasn't a problem but it certainly is now. Baseball lives for the big moment but there is a lot of downtime in between and you also have to appreciate the strategy of the game. Not a good combination with the action overload of today's world.

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This is why soccer will probably overtake baseball as the #3 sport in the US. Combine that with immigration of soccer fans and you can see baseball receding.

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Originally Posted by Tbonewannabe

This is why soccer will probably overtake baseball as the #3 sport in the US. Combine that with immigration of soccer fans and you can see baseball receding.

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Yea, soccer is kind of an enigma in my view. There is non-stop action but there is very little scoring. Soccer, at the highest levels anyway, is like watching baseball if every baseball game was 2-1. But soccer certainly doesn't lack for action and movement and add to that point that youth soccer doesn't usually have the lack of scoring that international soccer does.

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Originally Posted by Tbonewannabe

This is why soccer will probably overtake baseball as the #3 sport in the US. Combine that with immigration of soccer fans and you can see baseball receding.

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When do you see soccer overtaking baseball in the U.S.? I don't see this happening anytime soon. Despite all the games and 30 teams, mlb avg'd 30,895 in '14, which was up 533 per game. MLS with only 19 teams, avg'd 19,148 over many less games. Attendance was up though 554 per game. Interesting that baseball and soccer increased the most in attendance with football down 280 per game.

There is no comparison between mlb and mls in TV money.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major...cer_attendance

I think baseball is in a good place right now. They'll make some changes and the pendulum will swing back to offense some, and it will grow more, but I definitely think it is still the #2 sport in the country, above basketball.

Soccer continues to grow in popularity, but it may never catch the big 3 here. But even still, MLS attendance/popularity isn't a good judge and probably never will be. EPL, La Liga, Champions League, World Cup, etc. are all far more popular here than MLS.

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Originally Posted by msstate7

When do you see soccer overtaking baseball in the U.S.? I don't see this happening anytime soon. Despite all the games and 30 teams, mlb avg'd 30,895 in '14, which was up 533 per game. MLS with only 19 teams, avg'd 19,148 over many less games. Attendance was up though 554 per game. Interesting that baseball and soccer increased the most in attendance with football down 280 per game.

There is no comparison between mlb and mls in TV money.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major...cer_attendance

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As a kid that was raised on baseball, I think it is receding in popularity (stats back this up). If I step back and look at it objectively, baseball can be very very very boring. Games can last 4 plus hours. With soccer you know how long the game is going to last and there are no commercial breaks. Soccer is perfect for keeping the attention of the "ADD" generation..baseball is not.

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Originally Posted by smootness

I think baseball is in a good place right now. They'll make some changes and the pendulum will swing back to offense some, and it will grow more, but I definitely think it is still the #2 sport in the country, above basketball.

Soccer continues to grow in popularity, but it may never catch the big 3 here. But even still, MLS attendance/popularity isn't a good judge and probably never will be. EPL, La Liga, Champions League, World Cup, etc. are all far more popular here than MLS.

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I agree, but the MLS is really starting to take off. Average attendance is up again so far this year. Atlanta, LA, Minnesota, and Miami/other city will be in soon to make it 24 teams. League cap keeps getting larger and player/owner agreements are improving (albeit at a slow pace). Eurosnobs will be sweating in about 10 years when MLS can start to steal some good players from Serie A, BUndesliga, Premier League etc.

No time soon but most kids play youth soccer more than baseball. Add into that soccer is the biggest sport in the world and it will more than likely happen eventually.

I grew up baseball first, basketball second but I just don't see kids doing that much anymore.