BASEBALL MISSING OUT ON YOUNG FANS
In a way, it is sad to me to see what has happened to the sport of baseball.
As a youngster I have many many memories.
Playing wiffle ball in my back yard with my friend Todd Lustik for countless hours. There was a point in time when my parents had bought a cheap plastic wiffle ball pitching machine. It was cheap but effective, and a lot of fun if my memory serves me correctly.
The rules of the game in my stadium were pretty simple. First base was the trunk of the willow tree. If you threw the ball and hit the tree trunk, it was an automatic out. Second base was the laundry pole–same rules, or you could hit the kid running the bases with the ball. Hit the runner, you got an out.. Third base was the maple tree or a base that we threw on the ground–third base really didn’t matter, as there were few plays at third in our game.
When we weren’t playing that game, Todd or numerous other friends in my neighborhood would play catch with me. We would do infield and outfield drills–fire a ball hard onto the ground to see if your partner in the exercize could field your throw. Then he would do the same to you. After a few of those, we would fire the ball into the air as high as we could throw it, to simulate pop ups. It wasn’t hard but it was realistic.
When Todd Lustik or Marty Kerstein couldn’t come over, I remember finding fun practices down the street. Haz Humphrey lived about five houses down the street from me, and I remember numerous after dinner nights of “Hot box” with Haz, Jan Novoselski and I.
Growing up, I played in the Irondequoit little league, an Ir4ondequoit church league, KPAA (Hodak Park athletic association) .
Bottom line was…whether I was interested in an organized league or not, baseball was a HUGE part of my life.
That has all changed now. For better or worse, I don’t think you will hear those kind of stories anymore.
When was the last time you were driving down the street, and saw a couple of kids throwing a baseball back and forth? When I was a kid, it was a common occurance. Now, you rarely EVER see kids just having a catch.
It is a shame, and I don’t honestly know what to do about it. Kids aren’t going to have my memories of wiffle ball or hotbox, because those games have faded away. Far fewer “wiffle balls” have been produced in the last ten years, compared to 20 or 30 years ago.
The thing that kills me is….I LOVE the game of Baseball! I was brought up with it, tutored in the fine art of the sport, and made a fan for life by my father.
It is SUCH a great game, and is being ruined by the current leaders of the game. Sadly, football has taken over the American conscience. Once the NFL starts, baseball is put on a back burner.
Being a fan of both sports, I can totally understand it. The NFL is the ruler of the roost right now. I really think that baseball can turn back the hands of time though, but it has to happen soon.
Being a 40 plus football fan, I have to admit that it will be tough for baseball to change things. I just hope that basebal starts with the young fans. What 10 year old knows what the term “hotbox” is anymore? Hardly any. That is the group the sport has to develop again if it hopes to succeed nationwide.
Nothing against football…..but it’s a shame how baseball has decimated its youth base over the last twenty years or so.
