Posted on 10/04/2011 4:30:57 PM PDT by Darren McCarty
A question occurred Monday around the time Juan Cruz was pitching to Nelson Cruz, which was a half-inning after Alexi Ogando got the Rangers out of a seventh-inning jam and one inning before Neftali Feliz came in to close out the Rays. The question was this: Do young American baseball players understand what they're up against?
Every year, hundreds of American college and high school players sign contracts and head out to go to work in the minor leagues. They show up and find the world doesn't look quite the same. Amateur baseball in this country -- especially college baseball -- could be mistaken for a country-club sport. There are shockingly few minorities and not even much in the way of socio-economic diversity. It's an upper-middle-class world, fueled by expensive travel teams, private coaches and the best suburban high schools.
Counting historically black colleges, a recent study by the United States Sports Academy found that 4.5 percent of college baseball players are black, In 2006, there were just 24 black players in the SEC, a conference that includes eight states with a black population of more than 25 percent.
That's the reality, not a judgment. Baseball has become less enticing to African-Americans, a fact attributable either to diminished opportunity (expense/infrastructure/support/coaching) or the allure of other pursuits (basketball/football). College baseball is by far America's most underrated and under-covered sport, but the racial makeup of participants is no different from women's soccer. Players are often groomed more than developed.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
The FIRST baseball strike ruined the game for me. I never went back.
In the US, especially in the north, kids play 10-20 games a year and that’s it. No one plays at the park with friends anymore. If it isn’t a “real” game the kids don’t do it.
I’m only in my 40s but when I was a kid there were always pick up games going on or just kids playing catch, pepper or scrub.
Then there’s the parent’s irrational fear of their babies getting damaged with a hard ball being thrown around. The bats are the stuff nightmares are made of.
You are exactly right. I’ve coached baseball and (God forbid!) football and I can’t believe how bad the mothers are about “protecting” their “babies”. Too many kids from broken homes who have moms that won’t let them do anything.
Where I grew up swimming was not a particularly expensive sport to compete in. There were black kids nearby but they weren’t drawn to swimming. Mark Spitz didn’t make any money at it. (No, I did not grow up in Spitz’s neighborhood). I think Janet Evans and Summer Sanders might have made a few pennies but probably not as much as a professional baseball/football/basketball player.
Hey Clem,
Long time...
Anyway, neither do I but I guess I’m just “nativist” in the sense I don’t really enjoy foreign sports (or really any foreign entertainment other than perhaps Japanese comics/animation) whether they happen to physically taking place down the street or in Brazil.
Many would argue French film is superior to ours... does that mean you should watch it because it could “more entertaining” to you subjectively? I doubt it, you probably would prefer for no conscious reason, watching Harrison Ford or Denzel or what have you saving some fellow commuters from disaster.
You can relate to it more, you can understand where the skill comes from and that similar place of development you went through.
As the article notes, I just don’t see too much special in producing human “robots” in ‘from birth’ production factories that teach repetitive motion practice.
That just isn’t too special to me and I don’t really consider it ‘natural talent’ either.
A young human can amaze in what they can master when forced or driven to mechanical repetition of a certain skill-set.
Seems to me that what’s left for little league are pushy parents with a serious belief that their son is destined for the big leagues.
When I was 8 years old it was all about the fun with a lesson in sportsmanship. Everybody knew everybody and all kids were cheered by all the parents.
Let me micromanage the racial quotas a little bit further. Too many hispanic shortstops, not enough hispanic first basemen.
My son loves baseball and is in “fall ball” right now. I agree that most really active kids are bored by baseball. Ben likes it precisely because it has “down time”, I think, with intense moments spread out far enough that you can get ready for them. Also, he has been exposed to the heritage and the statistics and the Americana of it, through his Dad. When you put that together with being in a league that is less intensely competitive, and he knows many of the other boys from school, and you have a happy baseball player.
I know that’s not every boy’s experience, but there are still enough around. He probably won’t be a pro, but when it’s time to gather a team for the company picnic someday, he’ll be ready.
Also, I don’t think it bothers him that the pros are often Hispanic. If they’re wearing Angels uniforms, that’s good enough for him.
The price of that sort of photography should have come down with digital photography but it hasn’t.
On the other hand I’m glad it hasn’t because I can charge a far more reasonable cost and get buried in work. I just don’t deal with the printing. Instead I provide the digital format and the parents and coaches can have as many prints made as they want.
My favorite player was Latin as my tag indicates and my son loved Sammy Sosa when he was into baseball.
I’m not worried about how many Latins are playing either. It comes and goes.
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