re: Chris Rock explains how baseball got so white and old

At most, kids either have a fall/spring sport or a spring/summer sport..if that.

Travel squad baseball and basketball are too demanding on young people, IO

Chris Rock should go play baseball at Brown Park

I hope that was a sarcastic comment because honestly there's nothing worse than baseball fan who pretends baseball is super complicated to explain why others don't like it.

I think baseball is terrible at promoting their star players.

There also isn't enough homeruns.

Whenever Barry Bonds stepped up to the plate, that was must-see TV.

I would call myself a very casual baseball fan, and there isn't much interest for me. There is t anything that makes me want to tune in.

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Posted by BilJ I hope that was a sarcastic comment because honestly there's nothing worse than baseball fan who pretends baseball is super complicated to explain why others don't like it.

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Yup. It's as bad as the soccer fan treating soccer like it's the vegetables of sports. "It's good for you" "you're unrefined or uninformed if you don't like it"

Baseball is slow. The pitchers got way too good for the batters. There is no promotion of superstars or any advertisement.

This is coming from a guy who loves baseball too.

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Funny Roberto Clemente was considered an African American baseball player, David Ortiz is not currently

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I guess Chris Rock considers African American to be superior to African Caribbean/Latino.

Maybe Mr. Rock accidentaly went to a hockey game.

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I think baseball is terrible at promoting their star players.

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Or at the very least their stars that would draw in certain demographics like African Americans.

We try to get, at least on the middle school level in a lower income area,kids to at the very least try it out after football and basketball is over. I think you see the most hesitancy from African American kids because it just doesn't have the "cool" factor that basketball or football does to them right now. And like you said, I think that has a lot to do with the way it's promoted. Usually once they get on the team they enjoy playing it, but a lot of the time it's just getting them in the door so to speak. Most of the kids that fill out the middle school squads around here are White, Hispanic, or Latino.

Something else I think has played into it is in a lot of areas kids end up on traveling teams and fall ball squads early on and if you're not playing year 'round there's a chance you don't make a high school squad. It's becoming difficult to be a dual sport kid as you get older in those scenarios and if kids are making choices it's usually for football or basketball.

baseball requires patience to play and to watch ... and we are not a society that knows how to be patient ...

it's a great game, tho horribly run by mlb, from the commish down to the umps ...

Chris Rock is right though when he talks about the "unwritten rules" taking some of the fun out of the game.

Some of the most exciting baseball I saw in recent years was when Yasiel Puig burst onto the scene, flipping his bat, admiring homeruns, stealing bases, gunning people out on defense, etc.

He was exciting, and the pitchers and other baseball "purists" threw a big hissy-fit about Yasiel Puig playing the "wrong way" and showboating too much.

I don't care what they say... it was fun.

Baseball should be embracing exciting players like that... not try to turn them into a villain.

Hopefully, with football on the decline, we can get some of our better athletes into soccer. Our national program could use the jolt of new wave talent