What can Major League Baseball and players do to get more African-Americans to play baseball?
Question:I want to hear all possible solutions from all races
Answers:
MLB should go on strike/lockdown?
Everyone is a product of their environment. It's what people are exposed to. The suburban and rural portion of our population are more exposed to baseball, tennis, golf, soccer, and football. People who live in the cities across the country are more exposed to basketball. Most blacks live in the city. They are not as exposed to open country and playing field as much as people from other races are. Conversely the game of basketball doesn't need open fields to play in.As we grow up we learn to either attach ourselves to a certain sport or we move on to other interests. The NBA is 88% black. Football is about 65% black. The only way to bring blacks back to baseball is for parents and school officials in the cities to make an effort to expose these kids to the game.
I have issues with Joe Morgan's statements about this topic because he infers that it's some anti black racially motivated conspiracy and that's just not true. A large part of this responsibility falls on the parents of these black children. If they don't expose their kids to the game at an early age than they will never become interested in baseball.
As Hank Aaron said last night, baseball is still the greatest game of them all and I have to agree! Hope this gives you some insight as to what a middle class white guy who loves the games, thinks!
#1 vs #2 FSU vs UNC who u got to win the series?
I am not sure they need to do anything. I think the % of African Americans playing baseball is proportional to the % of African Americans in the United States. I think that people who expect there to be more playing baseball assume that African Americans are better than other races in all sports which is just another stereotype.Women softball in New York state ?
There's enough Affirmative Action BS going on, we don't need it in professional sports too.Will Barry Bonds break his own single season HR record this year?
Most baseball players come from college through the draft. College baseball teams don't make any $. Since they don't, colleges don't award scholarships like they do in basketball/football. If you were good in baseball & football, but were offered a free education by playing football, what would you do?If schools afford more scholarships, you would probably get more minority players. But schools are in business to make $, not give it away, so unless MLB helps out, it's not gonna happen.
I think that MLB needs to advertise the game better. Baseball has been suffering lately with a lack of athletes (no matter the race). All of the better athletes are going to basketball and football. The NBA and NFL do better jobs marketing the game and also don't have the bad publicity of the MLB with the steriod scandal and what not going down. I think with respect to the African-Americans playing baseball, the amount of role models in baseball aren't as big as other sports. I mean seriously are African-Americans supposed to look up to Barry Bonds, who has this villianous shadow cast over him? Because of this kids pick up other sports and imagine being the next Kobe or L.T. not the next Barry.
Should Randy Johnson just call it quits and retire?
I belive the love of the game begins in youth. I can remember rounding up my neighborhood friends and playing baseball in a vacant lot the entire summer afternoon. We were all around 9, 10, 11 years old. Gawd, we had some knock down fights but we had some great times too. Now, where do you find a vacant lot that is safe in the inner city? Parks have basketball nets and there are always kids under those hoops. But, how many set aside a place for a baseball field? There are 12 parks near me. All but two have covered hoops, but no baseball field.Who are the 2 best hitters on the yankees?
This about the 10th time this question has been asked today and that's OK.The first answer is of course that kids from Egypt prefer the pace of soccer.
The real answer is to eliminate the adults from the decision making process.
I grew up Queens in the 50's & 60's and as others have alluded to, we played baseball as a pick -up game. No coaches , no umpires, no lawyers and local rules applied Sometimes it got ugly as far as rulings went but we managed to work things out. The difference between then and now is that kids don't spontaneously play ball because of all the legal crap that denies them access to fields or quality asphalt paved school yards. And if you haven't played on asphalt you haven't played
In contrast; in a pick-game on a basketball court there are no adults and kids go through a learning process and develop skills they need to survive both from a playing perspective and a personal perspective.
I used to coach LL and I used to hear coaches yelling at their kids that a walk was a good as a hit-not in my neighborhood it wasn't . We didn't allow walk's Walk's were for p*y's You either struck out or you hit it .
The net result was that kids learned to take chances and trust themselves and the game was fast-paced and fun.
If we want to get kids of any color back to the game we have to encourage hitting and discourage walking. We have to stop making an exciting game boring by turning it into a confrontation between 6 adults -coaches & umpires - and 30 little kids
If we don't give the game back to the players we will lose a whole generation of kids to other sports.
How far was utleys homer today?
Bring the hip hop culture into the game...basketball was dull in the 70s until guys like spike lee and others used MJ and other nba players along with hip hop music in ads to make the game attractive.They should do the same with baseball...we got some terriffic guys like jose reyes, grady sizemore, CARL CRAWFORD, hanley ramirez, david ortiz (the shaq of baseball).
Get rid of all the Mesicans. There are too many mesicans and souf mericans playin de game.
Are there any current left-handed catchers in the MLB right now? If not, who was the last one?
I'm not saying this to attack you,but I'm sick of people saying it's baseball's fault that blacks like football and basketballWho will win the 2007 MLB awards? Tell me who you think?
lack of access, legalities, no pickup opportunities, lets not forget the excessively over-organized parents taking the fun out, but what i see as the biggest offender is the fascination with urban culture.You see kids playing basketball all the time. its marketed as "the black mans' game" which is a phrase that actually came from an NBA player during the whole dress code debacle. Their words, now being used against them.
The point is, baseball isnt a ghetto sport like they have marketed basketball as being. it doesnt get the glitz treatment, it doesnt get the funding in schools, the only time it really gets any national press at the same level as basketball was during the collusion trials of the 90s and the steroid investigations of the new decade. what a turnoff. the guy allegedly going to break the career homers record has a dark cloud over his head because he may have (very likely did in a large scale if you ask MY opinion) used performance enhancing drugs. Caminiti was just as bad, but at least he owned up to it before he died.
Message: its not marketed as inner-city-ghetto-cool, its not as funded, the childrens level is far to superorganized by a bunch of baby boomers living vicariously, and it only gets negative press nationally in the daily news (not sports stations like espn).
Solution: market market market. contract with cal ripken (truly a knight by any standard), to expand baseball at the grass roots level. the ripken baseball school is a runaway success for those who get involved with it.
expand the training opportunities at a serious level, as opposed to mommy and daddy screaming at the kid to get a hit or his average wont be what they want it to be.
Basketball isnt the only game inner city kids can play.
And in a combined solution with a shot at national news broadcasting, get the damn negative shi...stuff.. off the airwaves and did they bother to mention oh, the TRIPLE play that philadelphia pulled off the other day?
Many things to add, too many more to list, but this would get them started.
play better and less basketball
Does anyone know if and where I can buy a Montreal Expo's hat??
They will have to get better is all I can tell them.It's not MLB that is keeping anyone out,like boxing is now. It's not that blacks,whites or whatever don't won't to be in the big leagues or Heavy weight champ.Seat Numbering at Comerica Park?
I don't see what the big deal is here. What does it matter that all the black players are going to football and basketball? It doesn't seem to me that it is affecting baseball all that much. I think the problem, if you want to call it that, is the lack of opportunity for kids to play. With the increase in urbanization of this country there isn't the space for kids to play. Drive around New York or any other major metro area and there simply isn't anywhere for the kids to play the game. Everyone lives in apartments stacked on top of each other so they don't have a backyard to go play catch or soft toss in like they used to. This affects all races, but with african-americans being more urbanized than most it has the biggest impact on them. I guess as a solution MLB could fund projects to bring fields to urban areas, but it will cost more than they will be willing to spend to buy up enough property to build fields.Someone explain to my brother that throwing wierd ways will mess up his arm.?
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