I am the father of 3 young children (3, 23months, 10months) and the two older ones like watching baseball and looking through my cards. The problem is that they don't get the chance to see MLB games because it isn't carried by non cable channels on week nights until the World Series. It comes on during weekends, but they are typically napping during weekend games and I am too busy to sit down and watch anyways. I might catch one here and there but not every weekend.
I am not going to buy a cable package just to watch baseball. I can do MLB online, but then I won't get to watch the Cardinals because it will be blacked out. So MLB has made it hard for people like my family to remain fans. I think the main thing that has helped is that the Cardinals have been in two World Series since my oldest was born so she has listened/watched those games. Also the All-Star game is still on non cable tv. As far as "baseball" (as far as the kids are concerned) they are fans because I play softball, and we have a local team that is in the Frontier League so we go to those games.
It is too early to say if the kids will keep enjoying the hobby, but unless they have more of a chance to watch MLB games without having to go to friend's houses then I don't see them growing up to be fans (at least not the way I was as a child).
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