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Edited on Wed Oct-26-05 04:00 PM by theHandpuppet
Take my own community as an example.
I live in an older, blue-collar neighborhood which is so well-mixed it would put the bridge of the Enterprise to shame. Unfortunately, most of the schools in this part of town are older and cramped for space, with absolutely no athletic fields for the elementary or middle schools. What limited space there is always used for basketball courts and even though they may be pretty run down, it's a place for kids to gather, socialize, and participate in sports at any time of their choosing. Any kid with ten bucks for a basketball can participate.
Football is highly encouraged and subsidized at the middle and high school levels. At that point any young man wanting access to superior athletic equipment and training can make his ticket via football which, like basketball, also brings with it lots of local publicity and college scouts. Participation also brings you "respect" among your peers. How many kids attend their school's baseball games by comparison to football and basketball?
The problem with getting more of these kids involved with baseball is a multi-fold one. First of all, you must have playing fields. That kind of available, open space is hard to find in-town, but go to any of our newer, lily-white 'burbs and the schools all have baseball fields as part of their athletic facilities. It's hard to get kids like those of my neighbors involved with baseball when there is nowhere to play.
Second, playing baseball can be expensive. I know many kids in my neighborhood who could not possibly afford a decent glove, not to mention bats or unis. Suburban kids have no problem getting sponsors for their teams, but finding coaches and sponsors for inner city teams is tough.
Third, baseball needs an image overhaul. This may seem trivial, but it's time baseball players stopped looking like dorks in grandpa's gray flannel pajamas (especially the porkers!). No kid wants to look like that -- they want to look cool. You have to market yourself these days, and baseball looks and dresses like they're still stuck in the 1890's. Tradition is a fine thing, but not when the cost is cutting off your own nose to spite your face.
Fourth, making it to the majors seems like much too long a journey for a kid who, if he's a high school or college standout, can enter the NFL or NBA draft before their 21st birthday and be signed for multimillion dollar contracts. Even good, collegiate bb players can spend years in the minors barely making a living wage.
Fifth, media exposure. This gets back to the marketing angle. Football and basketball get the lion's share of prime TV exposure. The only time most folks tune in for baseball is during the playoffs and the World Series. Greater media exposure goes hand in hand with greater opportunities to make loads of cash via marketing everything from shoes to sports drinks. Only a handful of bb players like Derek Jeter can muster that kind of marketability.
Sixth, baseball is strictly a warm-weather sport. Unlike basketball, which could be played at any time at indoor facilities, or football, which is a fall sport and therefore has the advantage of being supported as a "school activity", baseball must rely on organized voluteers who run/coach teams during the summer months when most of the audience is comprised of parents rather than peers.
Anyway, this outlines just some of the problems which have to be addressed if baseball expects to attract more kids, especially minority kids, to its ranks. The problem is only compounded when the volunteer pool is small; ie, if your dads didn't play baseball as a kid then you are less likely to find coaches among their ranks. So the problem becomes generational.
Unfortunately, I don't see any quick fix to these problems. Communities such as my own simply don't have the money to establish or maintain baseball fields for kids. Nor do they have the sponsors or volunteers to take up the slack.
All I can say to Joe is, if bb is really concerned about recruiting, some of those multi-million dollar players and owners ought to pony up and put money back in to their communities so that all children, everywhere, can have their own "field of dreams".
(Lastly, as an aside -- I'm a big admirer of Joe, having been born and bred a Reds fan. He's a great bb announcer, and I only wish he was the play-by-play man for the Series!)
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