Blacks in Baseball (HBO Real Sports)

[jerichoholicninja]

The last two posts are very true from what I've seen in my 8 years of coaching high school baseball. Most of the kids we get are great athletes who play at least one other sport in school. The problem is baseball takes more than athleticism to be good at. Probably more than any other sport it takes individual mental discipline beyond memorizing a play from a playbook. Situations change in an instant on a baseball field and that standard 6-4-3 double play all of a sudden becomes a pickle between 2nd and 3rd and your pitcher and catcher need to realize their job isn't to just stand and watch. It's not like football or basketball where you can allow your athleticism to take over. I'm just dumbfounded and the total lack of baseball IQ that our kids have and that says nothing about their inability to throw a baseball more than 60 feet.

[Patrick425]

The last 3 posts were excellent. I can back it up with my experience with my son. My son is now 17 and plays varsity baseball at his high school. He started playing organized baseball at 5 and I coached or helped coach from the time he started until he entered HS. I think about the kids that he played with back in grade school and how many of those kids are still playing in HS. It's a small handful for many of the reasons mentioned above. Because it doesn't have the constant action that other sports have, most kids that don't have a real passion for the game, usually quit before HS. Most of the kids on my son's HS team really enjoy the game and that's why they still play. They try to play it as much as possible including spring ball and fall ball (we live in a summer HS baseball school district).

 

The term little league gets thrown around a lot as a general title for youth baseball. Little League is the name of an organization. Many communities don't even have little league (Waukesha, for example). Select baseball is much more prevalent that Little League baseball (at least in southeast Wisconsin). Select is kind of misleading as many "select" organizations are really not that "selectful". Many will field as many teams as they need to as long as they have enough parents willing to coach. Two of the biggest differences between Little League and Select is that A) Little League tries to form teams of equal talent where Select organizations may have A, B, C, etc teams at each age level and B) Aside from the LL organization's "All-Star" team, LL teams tend to just play teams within their same organization where Select will play other select teams from other communities, enter local tournaments, and sometimes will even travel out of state to play baseball.

 

Jericho's point about mental discipline is so true. There are not really many "set plays" in baseball. You may go most of the game without a ball being hit at you, but when the ball is hit to you, you are suddenly thrust in the spotlight and you better know the situation and what you need to do. You need to mentally stay in the game at all times regardless of how much action there is.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

Jericho's point about baseball IQ rings very true. I think it's tougher as a softball coach versus baseball, but a big problem we find is kids just don't watch as much baseball. I would watch every Brewers game I could (and still do) as a kid. Today's kids just don't watch as much. If they aren't watching it, it takes them longer to pick up those IQ aspects of the game.

 

For softball you really have to have a parent that searches it out. We'll record Wisconsin games on BTN or UCLA games. My daughter would never sit down and watch one on her own.

[3and2Fastball]

I'm a 12U Travel coach in Southern Wisconsin. In the Tournaments we play I see quite a few Black kids, especially from Rockford, Chicago & Milwaukee

[reillymcshane]

It's so many things. Competition from football, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, etc. Baseball is difficult to organize (and expensive to maintain) in the inner city (no fields, or the ones set up aren't always cared for). Cost (at my son's high school it costs over $1,000 for a season - tough for lower income families). And then there's what Chris Rock is talking about - Baseball is boring and stodgy. Baseball is not sexy. It just isn't attractive to young kids (especially blacks).

[jerichoholicninja]

Another thing that just occurred to me during my JV game tonight. Baseball is the only sport where you don't have free substitution. In football and basketball you can rotate guys during the game so even the end of your bench is going to get in at some point. In baseball once you're out, you're done. I think I do a pretty good job of getting equal playing time to the bottom third of my roster but I still feel bad when I'm not starting the same guys over and over again or giving them that token at bat at the end of a blowout.