Bryce Harper

[Hot Springs Bathers]

As for declining interest I see a change in the positive direction. I have served on the board of our Boys & Girls Club for 20 years, we are the local baseball program.

Our numbers dipped a decade ago and now they are soaring again. We started a Fall baseball league about 5 years ago and we have to force them to end it at the end of October so the fields can rest.

We hear over and over again from parents that they want to keep them in baseball to stay away from football. I have heard for all of those 20 years that soccer is coming on and it will replace baseball. Baseball numbers here in the south are a multiple of soccer. I attended a high school soccer game last year and their were 30 people in the stands and all of the moms were on their phones or reading a magazine.

Youth baseball including the travel teams, or as I like to call them "buy your kid a position teams" are growing each year.

Baseball is alive and well.