Shocker:
By Howie Lindsey
Baseball is Becoming
Hip Again
Photo by David Harrison
THEY SAY EVERYTHING OLD
IS NEW AGAIN.
Such is the case for America’s Pastime.
Long ago declared dead – or at least dying –
the sport of baseball is currently undergoing an
incredible renaissance (and the Louisville and
Southern Indiana area are a perfect example of
the new hip-ness of this American original, but
more on that in a minute).
First the stats: The Sports & Fitness Industry
Association’s new report shows baseball
and softball combined to rank as the most
participated team sport for 2016. Not football,
not basketball, not soccer – baseball and softball.
In fact, baseball/softball saw growth in
participation rates over one-, three- and five-
32 EXTOL SPORTS / JULY 2017
year periods in a time when most sports are
seeing falling numbers since 2009.
“The narrative that you hear is, ‘Decline,
decline, decline,’” said Tony Reagins, Major
League Baseball’s senior vice-president for youth
programs. “To see the numbers where they are,
it’s really exciting. And we’re not going to rest
on our laurels. We’re going to keep pushing and
try to get more kids playing.”
Baseball and softball showed an average
annual growth of 6.5 percent over the last five
years and an 18.1 percent jump from 2015 to
2016.
Tom Cove, president and CEO of the Sports
& Fitness Industry Association, told Fox Sports
recently, “If we got one year of 18 percent, we’d
think, ‘There’s something weird about that.
That’s odd, not in sync with other team sports.’
But when you see a three-year average that was
strong and a one-year average all trending in
the same way, all growing, then that’s when
you analyze that something is going on here.
It seems to be gaining momentum.”
Gaining momentum? Bas eball? It is
happening.
Let’s look at our local area. The Great Lakes
Region of Little League Baseball includes
Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio
and Wisconsin.
Teams from Kentucky or Indiana have won
the Great Lakes Region and advanced to the
Little League World Series 11 times since 2001,
including the famous Valley Sports team in
2002, Jeffersonville in 2008 and North Oldham
in 2011. The New Albany team was awarded the
title in 2014 after the Chicago team that knocked
them out of the tournament was found to have
fielded ineligible players.
And how about softball? The Youth Softball
Nationals have been held in Elizabethtown,
Ky., just 45 minutes south of Louisville, the last
couple of years. Teams from 40 states and five
countries participated in the tournament last
year. Youth softball has been strong in Kentucky
and Southern Indiana for years and dozens of
travel ball teams from our area are competitive
nationally.
The rise in youth participation is translating
to high school as well. For the 2015-16 school
year, the KHSAA recorded baseball as the most
popular sport with 7,499 participants followed
by basketball (6,716) and then track and field
(7,144). On the girls’ side, softball registered
5,846 participants, trailing only volleyball (6,366)
and soccer (6,016).
We are seeing a rise on the collegiate level, too.
The recent Super Regional between Louisville
and Kentucky drew back-to-back record, capacity
crowds of 6,325 fans on Friday and 6,327 fans
on Saturday.
In softball, both Kentucky and Louisville have
been ranked in the Top 25 nationally, and UK
made a Super Regional this season in softball.
As more kids in the Louisville Metro area are
trying and sticking with baseball, we are seeing
an all-time high in local talent.
Adam Duvall, from Louisville Butler High
School, was a 2016 MLB All-Star for the
Cincinnati Reds and participated in the 2016
Home Run Derby.