Youth Sports Participation - State of Play in the USA

How to Increase Youth Sports Participation (and why it matters)

After a large decline during COVID, youth sports participation is back on the rise.

But overall, participation is still down compared to pre-pandemic levels. And even worse, the United States has a less-than-stellar report card when it comes to youth physical activity.

Participating in sports has been found to increase both physical and mental health among children. In fact, a recent study shows that 58.4% of parents found that their child's mental health greatly improved as a result of involvement in sports. And, 71% cited improved social well-being.

Unfortunately, 27% of parents reported that their child lost interest in playing sports all together.

https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/state-of-play-2022-intro

LET THE KIDS PLAY!!

MLB Wins over Expected Wins pre and post adoption of Moneyball by Charles Slavik

https://public.tableau.com/views/MLB_WINS/Sheet1?:language=en-US&publish=yes&:toolbar=n&:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link

The legend of Moonlight Graham

 

“We just don’t recognize life’s most significant moments while they’re happening.” - Moonlight Graham (Field of Dreams)

Archibald Wright "Moonlight" Graham (November 12, 1876 – August 25, 1965) was an American professional baseball player and medical doctor who appeared as a right fielder in a single major league game for the New York Giants on June 29, 1905. His story was popularized by Shoeless Joe, a novel by W. P. Kinsella, and the subsequent 1989 film Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, and featuring Burt Lancaster and Frank Whaley, respectively, as older and younger incarnations of Graham.

As the movie suggests, somewhat tragically, Graham came close but never reached his dream. But Graham, played by Burt Lancaster, famously says, 

“If I‘d only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes, now that would have been a tragedy.” 

Stathead: HOF Spotlight

 

Once again, not sure what the voters are looking for. I think Kent checks all the boxes and yet he is on his next to last year on the ballot. 

They made Ortiz's case on the same day. Why not, keeping Bonds out is good enough for most of the electors because they care more about how players treated the media than almost anything else. 

HOF Candidate Spotlight

Jeff Kent 2B/3B/1B | 1992 - 2008 | NYM, TOR, CLE, SFG, HOU, LAD

 MVP   5x All-Star   4x Silver Slugger 

WAR: 55.5 Better than 36.4% of HOFers Black Ink: 0 Better than 0.0% of HOFers Gray Ink: 71 Better than 11.7% of HOFers HOF Monitor: 122.5 Better than 40.5% of HOFers JAWS: 45.62 Better than 35.0% of HOFers at 2B

Jeff Kent enters his 9th year on the ballot. After hovering in the teens for most of his eligibility, he has made a jump in the last two cycles and peaked at 32.4% of the vote last year. Kent was an average starter for most of the 1990s, not finding his peak performance until joining the San Francisco Giants in 1997. During his 6-year Giants tenure he finished in the top 10 of MVP voting 4 times, including winning the NL MVP in 2000 over his teammate Barry Bonds.

Kent provided a lot of offensive value from a traditionally weaker position of second base. Kent hit 351 of his home runs as a second baseman, the record holder by a decent amount. Kent was not a top defender at the position, only surpassing 1.0 defensive WAR in his 1997 season. That being said, his total value was the best among 2nd basemen for a time. From 1997-2005, Kent recorded 42 WAR, with the next closest 2nd baseman being Craig Biggio with 32 WAR in that time span.

 

Luciano, Murphy lead next wave bound for Bay

Sounds like Luciano, Pomares & Matos replace Bart & Ramos, who need to produce at MLB level. No sleepy on Harrison (LHP) or the 5-9 C Aurebach. :) 

When the smallish kids open eyes, that bears watching.