Nothing beats the start of baseball season, and I don’t mean the big leagues. I’m talking about Little League kids picking up mitts and bats for the first time in months, getting to know new teammates and coaches, and looking sharp in clean uniforms, before the inevitable grass stains sully those white pants and their cleats get caked with mud.
Parents love the fresh start, too. There’s nothing I’d rather do on a sunny spring day than watch my son play baseball. That first game in April always fills me with hope that this might be the best team ever, with the best coach ever, playing the best season ever.
There’s just one problem. My son is 11, and before he even met his team this year, he announced that this would be his last season.
He’s not alone in veering away from youth baseball as he nears adolescence. Two million kids ages 5-12 play Little League, but only 240,000 kids ages 13-18 play, according to Little League Baseball spokesman Christopher Downs. Downs says the organization is working on retaining older players and on involving teenagers in other ways, as volunteer coaches and umpires. Little League has also worked with ESPN to televise teenage divisions’ World Series.
