quote:5. A case is often made by those here that that the quality of baseball is impoving as the quantity decreases. They will tell us that as the chaf is weeded out earlier and the "better" players gather to play regionally and nationally at younger ages the quality improves. They will tell us that this is a good development for baseball. That local and community and zip code baseball is just too weak to develop quality baseball. In this scenerio, many local programs may suffer, in many scenerio's local programs may fly if "national" players return to play locally.
I fully agree that people make this case but I completely reject it based off my own experiences. There are many out there that think they can look at a 10 year old and decide/project then and there what type of future some may have. How absurd is that? Pro scouts cannot even project how some 18 year olds will turn out yet there are those who think they "know" at much younger ages. I believe baseball takes years and years and years to properly develop let alone separate the "wheat from the chaffe."
I am totally against elitism in the sport. I have no problem with kids travelling but also strongly support the local youth leagues. Nobody is smart enough to know what is in store down the road and I want to see kids play the sport for as long as humanly possible. Perhaps we need to encourage more travelling out of the local youth leagues to foster more participation.
There have been many great points raised in this thread. Declining school enrollment certainly can explain things here in the North. I do believe baseball is a hard sport to participate in the spring time and it indeed suffers from competition from other sports. I argue the biggest competitor is football. Some kids are being pressured into year-round workouts which conflcits with baseball especially in the summertime.