Do kids play baseball anymore?

[bork]

I'm wondering about this after going to a family reunion today. I brought along a tee and nerf balls and bat. My 3 year old can hit pretty well off the T and rarely hits the tee. (as long as he doesn't do his full body windup). He can hit them pretty far.

 

Other kids older than him barely knew what to do and were knocking over the tee every time. Do kids play baseball any more? I used to play it all the time growing up, but it seems like kids play soccer or some other sport now.

 

Or is my son just a prodigy http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif He bats righty, but seems to throw better lefty (knock on wood). http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[hawing]

I don't have first-hand experience since I'm not a parent, but my 7-year-old nephew plays in Wiota (SW Wisconsin). He was playing catch with my brother (his dad) and my S.O. on the 4th of July and looked good to me. And he's a lefty, I might add. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[LouisEly]

I went by a park with a couple of little league size diamonds a couple of weeks ago on a weeknight in San Francisco and it was a ghost town.

 

Then again, most people in SF either don't want to have kids (D.I.N.K.s), can't afford to (since you can't find a house for under $1M), or can't have kids (same sex).

[splitterpfj]

I coached youth baseball for five years, 2001-2005. There are definitely less kids playing than in prior years, and most of the ones who do are there because their parents made them sign up.

 

My first year in the town I'm in now, none of the kids knew where shortstop was, and they thought that if you played one of the bases, that meant you stood with your foot on that base.

 

Um...

[Braunisfuture]

west bend its still pretty popular for kids to play baseball, usually the diamonds are taken around here

[razzzorsharp]

Short Answer: no.

[JimH5]

I suspect not.

 

I never see kids just playing baseball for fun. Occasionally I'll drive past a park where there is an organized league game going on, but in my neighborhood, we used to play either softball, football or basketball nearly every day after school, and during the summer--and I just don't see that going on anymore.

 

Too bad for today's kids, as I had a terrific time running around and playing sports.

[Point Beer Is Best]

Why be outside playing in nice weather when you could be playing video games!

[splitterpfj]

When I was that age, if you drove past the park where the diamonds were, you might find 70 bikes parked there, with three diamonds packed with kids. That simply does not happen now.

 

On the video game comment....my mom teaches 3rd grade, she has real difficulty getting the kids to understand the difference between the war footage they see on TV, and the video games they play.

 

They'll be talking about the war, and a kid will say "Yeah, I saw that on level 4 of such and such game." Mom will stop things and say "NO! Those are real people in Iraq, like all of us, and your parents and cousins, etc...THAT IS NOT THE SAME THING as your games."

 

No kidding, a decent percentage of the kids do not get the distinction, no matter how many times they go over it....that scares the heck out of me.

[jaybird2001wi]

I remember back in my day as a kid, I used to be outside every day doing something. Me and my friends used to have neighborhood baseball battles at the nearby elementary school park against the neighbor kids in the next area of our city for fun.

When we weren't playing baseball, we always used to dig forts and also have koolaid stands and trade baseball cards. I am only 24 yet the stuff I did in the late 80's and early 90's were oddly similar to the stuff my parents did back in their day.

When Mortal Kombat first came out, the only kids who played it were the "outcasts." Now it seems like everyone plays these games.

There probably wasn't a day that went by during the summer that I didn't play baseball. Only when it was raining, me and my friends decided to watch movies or play Legos.

Welcome to the video game age fellow Brewerfan.netters, where kids are disillusioned with not only sports but also society as a whole.

[uecker9]

Kids around here must still play. Cross Plains - Babe Ruth state champions! All the credit belongs to Peavey!

They loaded them up on firetrucks on Saturday night and paraded them through town. That was pretty cool.

I believe we have more baseball diamonds than soccer fields, that's a good thing.

[Invader3K]

I'm not a parent or a teacher/coach, but I would think a lot of it depends on how involved the parents want to be with their kids. Let's face it...a lot of times parenting these days involves sitting your kid in front of the TV, or playing video games, like others have mentioned. I think people don't have as much time to devote to playing catch with their kid, or getting them involved in a youth baseball league, unfortunately. I'm sure there are still plenty of places where there are active little leagues and such, and that has to do with parents wanting their kids to participate.

[rluzinski]

So, kids aren't playing football and basketball as much, either?

[MadisonBrewerBlue]

one word...soccer... http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/eyes.gif

[hauser42]

I totally disagree with the soccer comments. Most kids now days can play both sports.

 

I have three sons between age 10 - 5 and they my oldest two play both sports and next year my youngest can also play both. When I go to games I see a lot of the same kids playing in both games.

 

We are constantly outside practicing both sports and my oldest sons are very good hitters for their age. They also show a better understanding of the game as they watch games with me and also work on all skills not just hitting. Lot has to do with parents being active with their children and good coaches. Nothing is worse for young players than coaches that don't teach them without making it fun.

[FVBrewerFan]

Quote:

---

I totally disagree with the soccer comments. Most kids now days can play both sports.

---

 

I disagree with your disagreement. Baseball season often intersects with soccer season. Coaches tend to be very inflexible about missing practices in one sport to attend the other. So very early on many kids have to make a choice.

 

Secondly, I have no proof but I feel strongly that the video games age (and perhaps parental coddling) have steered kids away from baseball.

 

In a video game they have total control of the action. They can manipulate the game to win. Baseball is difficult. They will strike out, they will drop a pop-up. It's possible to really struggle or frankly be a "bad" player. In soccer, it's difficult to make a "bad" play. You're always involved. Same with basketball. You can contribute almost regardless of skill level. In baseball you may not have a ball hit to you the entire game. You may only get 2 at bats.

 

That's why less kids are playing baseball in my opinion. With that said, youth baseball (and HS baseball) are alive and well in the Fox Valley. The numbers in Little League are growing in fact. I think the difference is that tthere's a relatively small core group of kids who love baseball and nobody else plays at all- in lower leagues or "just for fun."

[pogokat]

Basebaall is still huge in the south...but you rarely seee kids playing a pick up game...i believe it has something to do with the perceived cost:

 

a soccer ball is like $15 bucks...

 

a baseball bat, glove, and ball are well over $100---sometimes well over $500

 

of course, the baseball crap can be purchased on the cheap, but most people buy nice stuff...because of this, you'll rarely eet a ten year old who doesn't play organized ball that even owns a bat, glove, whatever...

 

here's what i say:

 

use your influence as a much as possible...when i worked at an after school center, i got 4 gloves and a bat really cheap and we played baseball almost every day...when i was a pe coach, we played wiffle ball in the gym after weight training every day...kids still enjoy baseball...its fun...its just that basketball and soccer "seem" easier and less stressful, so that's what most kids think of first

[TheCrew07]

To answer Russ's question, no in my opinion kids aren't outside playing games of much of anything anymore. It doesn't matter if it's basketball, baseball, or football. It's much easier to sit on the couch and play the video game and think it means something. I remember getting in trouble because we didn't want to come in the house, whining to mom because there was still daylight left. Somewhere along the line that script has gotten flipped, and now kids have to be forced to go outside.

 

The seniors in '98 were our last class of kids that had a good understanding of sports as a whole. When you play everyday, even just pickup games, you learn the nuances of the game. We have to teach everything about the sport now, and it's weird for me, because somehow these were things I always just understood. I'm sure someone pointed us in the right direction at some point, but mostly we just played hard and figured things out on our own as we went along.

 

For example, I was talking to the kids about baseball and the Brewer's struggles last season on a long September bus trip out to MN for a Big Ten football game. The conversation gradually turned to the struggles the highschool team has been having, which led me to ask questions about pitching. I was shocked to learn that they had no idea to try and work both sides of the plate, low and away, up and in and so on. The kids that pitched were "just trying to throw strikes" and the catchers basically let the pitchers call whatever they wanted. That was little league baseball, but by the time we were playing Babe Ruth that sort of mentality was gone.

 

The simple truth is that if one doesn't play the game and one doesn't watch or listen to the games, then one doesn't know anything about the game.

 

I don't want to comment on Soccer as my opinions would cause more trouble than it's worth.

 

I also game and always have, but being good at the game for real always meant more to me than being good at the video game. Gaming was just an extension of the competition if it was raining or if we had to come inside for the night. Even when I was older and in high school, we'd game only when we didn't have other options.

[Invader3K]

I do think soccer's popularity has a bit to do with it. I know it's not the same thing as baseball, but I played on a boy's city league softball team one year in grade school, and the following year the program was cut because too many of the same kids were playing soccer. So, yeah, it does have an effect on other sports.

[TerraceReserved]

---"I remember back in my day as a kid, I used to be outside every day doing something. Me and my friends used to have neighborhood baseball battles at the nearby elementary school park against the neighbor kids in the next area of our city for fun.

When we weren't playing baseball, we always used to dig forts and also have koolaid stands and trade baseball cards. I am only 24 yet the stuff I did in the late 80's and early 90's were oddly similar to the stuff my parents did back in their day.

When Mortal Kombat first came out, the only kids who played it were the "outcasts." Now it seems like everyone plays these games.

There probably wasn't a day that went by during the summer that I didn't play baseball. Only when it was raining, me and my friends decided to watch movies or play Legos.

Welcome to the video game age fellow Brewerfan.netters, where kids are disillusioned with not only sports but also society as a whole. "---

 

Jaybird, my childhood experiences were pretty much a carbon copy of yours. I did that stuff in the late 90's early 2000's. Our summer consisted of playing baseball, whether it be games, home run derbys, groundball contests, or simply playing a game of catch. We also made forts, had lemonade stands, and collected/traded baseball cards. We even played Legos all the time on rainy days.

 

But my point is, that yes, there are less kids who play baseball. But there are still plenty of kids who do. It wasn't too long ago that kids like me were, and I'm sure theres more kids that will.

[rluzinski]

In a video game they have total control of the action.

 

You might want to pop online to play some of those kids in Gears of War. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

I guess I have a different perspective than those who want to blame video games for the supposed decrease in sports interest by the kids. I grew up playing video games... and baseball... and football. I loved them all. If anything, I might have watched less TV than the kids in the 70's but I don't think I spent less time playing sports.

 

It's not like before video games, there were no other alternative sources of entertainment. I'm 30 now, so maybe things have changed but I found plenty of time for all my childhood hobbies.

[Fatter than Joey]

I guess I have a different perspective than those who want to blame video games for the supposed decrease in sports interest by the kids. I grew up playing video games... and baseball... and football. I loved them all.

 

I agree. I am 36 and played a ton of video games as a kid, I also played a ton of BKB/FB/Baseball, and would have probably played soccer as well, had it been as popular as it is today. I don't think that kids necessarily play more videos games today, better ones for sure.

 

I think the biggest difference as far as kids are concerned, is the internet/TV -- when I was a kid, most kids had only the 3 network channels, and probably 2 of them did not come in very well, and of course there was nothing like the internet back in 1982.

 

Baseball was also way more popular than other sports at that time. Over the last couple of decades baseball has lost a lot of its gloss and TV slots.

 

What I see locally, is a real half-assed approach to youth sports overall, where practices and games are poorly run and managed.

Which leads me to conclude that the real difference in my opinion is that parents today are playing WAY more video games than parents 25 years ago. My dad, for example, would have rather embraced free love and joined a hippie commune than play Intellivision. Today I think a lot of the 20-40 year old parents probably play as many video games as their kids, and that is probably where video games have their largest impact.

 

As a side note -- My son and I have a lot of fun playing MLB and Madden on the PS2, and he has learned a lot about the rules of the game and strategies by playing these games. When I had MLB on the Intellevision, you really could not learn anything about the real game, but today's games are like simulators where you can create scenarios and show your kid why it is important to start running on contact with 2 outs, etc... I can honestly say my son has a better understanding of pitching and blocking schemes at 8 years old than I ever did.

[Samurai Bucky]

I have to try and keep this in perspective. Like many of you (I'm guessing), I work during the day in an office and don't get out and about to see if any kids are playing any type of games. There are times after work or sometimes on the weekend where I see three, four, five kids playing at a diamond a few blocks from my house. I hear of a few kids playing downtown in our village because they have fences at those fields.

 

I grew up in a town of 1200 people, so I didn't play organized baseball until 4th grade. We had YMCA basketball when I was in first grade and there were rudimentary forms of wrestling tournaments, too. For some reason, it seems like there are more organized leagues in all sports. Perhaps some kids don't play it for fun as much. Maybe parents pressure their kids more? I don't know.

 

Part of it might be a time thing, too. I played baseball / strikeout at least five of the seven days during a few summers. Why? Because when I was a rug rat, my Dad took me out and played strikeout with me. Are parents taking the time to play ball with their kids outside of an "organized" environment? If there is free time, it seems parents are opting to go on vacation or do something else.

 

I have three daughters (10, 8, 5) and a son (3). We try to get out almost every day to do something in the back yard. Many times, the kids will ask me to pitch tennis balls or whiffle balls to them (scoring points with Dad!!!!! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/happy.gif ). They also venture out to playing amongst themselves, too. Unfortunately, there aren't many kids in our neighborhood to play ball with.

 

I probably didn't answer the question. Maybe it is because I really don't know. One thing I do know: I see more kids playing pickup games of baseball and basketball than I do playing pickup games of soccer.

[TheCrew07]

I agree that you can do both... but like I said, for me and my friends video games were option 4 or 5, for the kids I'm coaching now it's option 1 or 2, depending on if they have a girlfriend or not.

 

It's different for everyone, just like anything else, however I'm very comfortable saying that the majority of my boys have spent more time on the console than the field or court, and that's why we haven't been very good.