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

quote:

---

I think baseball is terrible at promoting their star players.

---

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.