Why baseball is losing children

[dbronstein]

Yeah it might be a more kids a quitting LL not baseball...there are other options, although here in the Northeast LAX is taking a lot of really good athletes boys and girls that would normally be playing baseball and softball.

Think about it 20 years ago how many kids played LAX, now there are over 750K.

At least thats the kids that play sports but kids are just lazy these days to gotta play video games.

Same in Denver. Lax is huge here.

I think overall it's as people said, there's probably some decline as other sports are becoming more popular, and it's exacerbated by the migration to travel ball. So the rec league participation is declining while travel ball is booming.

 

[dbronstein]

Personally, I find something wrong with the idea that 8 and 9 year olds are playing 100 games a year, plus practicing 2-3 days a week. But that's just me.

It's not just you. The explosion in Tommy John surgery (among pros, college and HS players) is a direct result of this. The damage is occurring when they are 12 and 13, not after they are drafted and their pitch counts are tightly controlled.

 

[soonerfan1966]

i believe one of the reasons for the decline is the way the parents were treated when they played sports in their youth. example-when my son moved up to high school baseball, the coach picked his varsity team by whether he knew the kids parents or not. gathered them all in a big room and in front of each other. how many of those not chosen would put their children through that.

 

[canyonjoe]

Our little league just had to add a majors team and a few minors teams for this season, but our area is growing a bit. over 650 kids in little league.

I think what hurts us a little is that they moved Little league all stars to double elimination tournaments. It's made the all-star season longer making the leagues
stop playing in in early June. For us that means we have to play games in April on nights when it's just miserable. It's not uncommon for it to get into the 30s and we've
played more than a few games in light snow. Our fields are on a ridge so the wind is always strong. . I loved baseball, but seriously don't know if I would have played if all my games were like this. Now our fall ball season is the exact opposite where it's beautiful out for most games.

 

[maddball44]

I live on the east side of Cincinnati. The Knothole league my son played in is dying fast. They've started their own tb organization. So now they are both; tb and rec. It seems to be doing well. The fields are filled with games again. Another Knothole league, down the road, has made itself the home of a large, established tb org. Again, mixed and doing very well.
I think people are looking for more then what rec has to offer. Personally, we left because every year we were taking on 3-4 new first year players. So it was a bit of Ground Hogs Day in order to get them up to speed.

 

[dbronstein]

I think people are looking for more then what rec has to offer. Personally, we left because every year we were taking on 3-4 new first year players. So it was a bit of Ground Hogs Day in order to get them up to speed.

That's the whole point or rec - to give everyone who wants to the opportunity to play. That's how it's always been. The different is today there is travel ball for the kids (or parents) who want to play at a higher level. Back in my day, there weren't any other options. Everyone played rec until HS because that's all there was.

 

[Lenski]

I live on the east side of Cincinnati. The Knothole league my son played in is dying fast. They've started their own tb organization. So now they are both; tb and rec. It seems to be doing well. The fields are filled with games again. Another Knothole league, down the road, has made itself the home of a large, established tb org. Again, mixed and doing very well.
I think people are looking for more then what rec has to offer. Personally, we left because every year we were taking on 3-4 new first year players. So it was a bit of Ground Hogs Day in order to get them up to speed.

I noticed Knothole was dying. It appears they only have 4 regions now. When I played there was almost 40 districts and no regions. TB and AABC has really taken its toll, not to mention kids focusing on one sport. About 10 years ago I was talking to Ron Oester (Former Cincinnati Red 2B). He was talking about how he averaged between 12 and 18 games a year in Knothole and when the season was done it was football season. That's how it used to be until you hit HS.