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I addressed that in an earlier post. Most good HS aged athletes participate in multiple sports, with aspirations of playing one of them in college. Unfortunately there are no full athletic scholarships for Baseball as there are for Football and Basketball.
That can certainly be a factor when an elite HS athlete has to choose a sport.
Of course some of the very best HS Baseball players that are talented enough to be drafted in the early rounds will opt for the signing bonus.
I don't think this addresses my point. My point was that MLB players are far less nationally recognizable than they were in the past and that this has hurt its overall popularity among youth.
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The percentage of Americans who say baseball is their favorite sport to watch is at a low. Fewer baseball players have crossed over into wider popular culture than did a couple of decades ago. There is no Derek Jeter or Ken Griffey Jr. at the moment.
By almost any measure, baseball players just aren’t well known. ESPN’s annual ranking of the most famous athletes in the world includes 13 basketball players, seven football players, several cricket players, two table tennis stars and zero baseball players. And ESPN is a media partner of M.L.B.
No baseball player ranks among the 100 most followed athletes on Instagram, according to the company. The top baseball players are Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz. Both retired in 2016. The most followed active player is Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels. He has 1.5 million followers. LeBron James has almost 44 million; the N.F.L.’s Odell Beckham Jr. has 12 million.
Obviously, it hasn't always been this way. Ken Griffey, A-Rod, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Derek Jeter, Randy Johnson and Cal Ripken were all household names once, or at least close to it. I don't know if the change is because baseball simply doesn't promote individual players, but whatever the cause, it's clear there are no real baseball stars. I can't even remember the last time I saw a baseball player in a movie, promoting a video game or endorsing a product.
Also, when baseball stars do get endorsements, they are telling you to come down to Big Jim's on Route 4 to take advantage of a 10% discount on the 2019 F-150 or Chevy Equinox. They're doing mostly local ads while NBA and NFL players are appearing in commercials that get aired during the Super Bowl.
I think it is line with the dumbification of the population. This is tongue in cheek, of course, but I just have little attraction to other sports. I like basketball and hockey, but baseball blows them away so hard in my opinion that its almost inconsequential. So I'll (jokingly) say its because we have become a nation of idiots.
Hockey has always been a niche sport, yet requires more skill than football/baseball/BB.
Love playing baseball, but like many have a hard time watching.
Pitchers are allowed to hold the ball too long.
Are you sure about this? If so, that surprises me, especially with some of the major powers in the sport.
The NCAA sets the cap at 11.7 for Div1, and less for Div 2. Up to 28 players can be offered scholarship money, so the max is 11.7 scholarships divided up between 28 players. Of the 300 Div 1 baseball programs not all of them fully fund those 11.7. Some may only do 7 or 8. They can run any where around 25 to 60 percent partial scholarship.
In the rare occasion you hear of someone getting a full ride it would be a combo of athletic and academic scholarships.
Now Div3, even though there are no athletic scholarships, schools can offer tuition credits and in many cases D3 players are getting a better deal then D1 or 2, but of course D3 is less competitive with not much exposure.
Sometimes JUCO programs are the way to go. They will often offer a free ride and players maintain their "draft eligibility" through out the two years they play. At 4 yr colleges players are not draft eligible until after their 3rd year. There are some really good JUCO programs in the warm weather states such as Florida, Texas and Calif.
Probably the pace of the game. Entertainment in general has become more action packed, video games are more reactive than plan oriented. If you watch older sit coms such as The Bob Newhart Show, you'll notice that the laugh lines are spaced out much further and there is more exposition between to set them up. Today's sit coms have a laugh line nearly every other line.
Baseball on the other hand involves a lot of standing around doing nothing unless the ball comes your way when you are in the field, or your turn at bat arrives.
Finally the payoffs are much faster in football and basketball. Straight out of college you can make the team and start getting paid big bucks right away. In baseball you sign a contract and then you may have to spend two or three years in the minors, not making much money or living large.
This and this is even the case with those that are talented enough to go far in the game.
I didn't read the whole thread, but even if one has the talent to make it, it may take much longer than if they went the Football or Basketball route. So, the length of time it would take to make it to "the League" is likely an aspect as well.
As for the cultural part in the OP, I think that what I mentioned just above plays a part in this, as well as scouts have really gone after Afro Latino players with more vigor, as you can get the same type of athlete, but perhaps "on the cheap". So, the players have just changed a bit in terms of ethnicity, not necessarily in terms of race.
Full disclosure, I actually played in HS and it was crazy to see that when I played, my suburban school would have more black players(3) than urban schools that had above average to predominant percentages in the area.
Pretty much the case. This is also the age of instant gratification. Who wants to play a game with so much strategy before every pitch and every batter. To me, this constant mind games between the 2 teams is what makes the game so interesting.
Football has more strategy than baseball. You don't hear nearly as many complaints about it being boring.
My nephews love playing baseball, and all three are on the same team. The unusual thing is that they are identical triplets and all three are outfielders. Can you imagine three kids that look almost exactly alike playing on the same team?
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