Sandlots/Little League are vanishing

Just wondered if anybody agrees or has noticed this phenomenon. Basically, I grew up spending most of my free time as a kid playing baseball during the the day on a sandlot field used later for Little League. I played Little league, Pony League, High School and then in college. Later I coached my daughter. I mean now kids show for one practice if that and maybe later in the week a game. You know what..now I never see groups of kids gathering to play on the few fields that exist. All of places I played were torn down to make room for housing. I know video games, soccer, movies, even crime ect have taken their cut at this. What do you think?

I totally agree. Also, add to the fact that parents can't just let their kids go outside unsupervised anymore without the fear someone will report them to child services. It also seems like most parents are distrustful of each other anymore. They are distrustful of who they let take care of their kids.

Then there are all the warnings given to parents and kids about not letting the kids talk to strangers, about kids being kidnapped even at the bus stops, and etc. We have become a paranoid and distrustful society.

It is definitely not like in the old days where most parents could let their kids go out, and tell them to be back home by a certain time.

Kids don't actually want to play sports anymore of any kind. I bet that within the next few decades all you will probably see many high schools start phasing out their sports programs because kids just aren't as interested. It seems that kids now-a-days want to be able to be the champion of what ever it is without working toward it. We all know that that won't happen with sports so kids don't play. They'd rather play games on playstation and xbox.

Oddly enough, I remember when I was in high school (which was only a few years ago), us athletes couldn't tell you every statistic in sports, but all the non-athletic kids could down to what style underwear a particular play wore.

Shalom,
Tom

reply to post by BlackProjects


I grew up pretty much the same way. We'd play baseball on the church lot, football in any half-way level fied, and basketball on the school grounds. We'd shovel the courts clean of snow, and rake the baseball fields, etc.

Our "teams" were the guys from your immediate neighborhood, playing against another neighborhood, or the guys across town.

I don't see that kind of play much nowadays. But that is because sports has become so organized and much more of a training ground for kids as a career path. It's not unusual for youngsters to be up and awake at 6AM for some ice time. The competition is much more intense these days.