Changing Face Of Baseball
Detroit middle-schoolers are lukewarm toward sport
On a panel of students, boys are more interested in baseball than girls, but most agree it's boring.
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DETROIT -- Anthony Johnson, a sixth-grader at Robinson Middle School, considers himself a baseball fan.
"I like basketball and football, but baseball is fun, too," he said. "The best part of baseball is having fun, and sometimes you knock (the ball) over the house and lose it in the field.
"The worst part is breaking a window. One time we broke one, and we all ran -- I was scared half to death."
But Anthony did the right thing. He went back and 'fessed up to the homeowner.
"He said it was OK," Anthony said, smiling at the memory. "He said not to worry, he'd pay for getting it fixed."
That's the kind of story kids have been telling for well over a century, the kind that made baseball America's pastime.
Anthony was among 81 Robinson Middle School students who participated in a Detroit News discussion about the game. Overall, the students' interest level appeared to be tepid, with boys somewhat more interested than girls."Baseball never really interested me," said sixth-grader Christian Luckett. "Most of my life, I've played basketball."
Classmate L.C. Baker added, "The game takes too long. I can't see a whole game on television -- I'd probably fall asleep."
Another sixth-grader, Cheyenne Charles, doesn't care for the sport "because the Tigers haven't won a World Series" -- in her lifetime, at least.
But a closer look at the responses finds some trends. Among boys, for example, the older the student, the greater the interest in the game. "I like the feel of the game -- and the jerseys are sweet," said eighth-grader Devon Ramsey.
Said classmate Delonte Jones: "It's, like, America's pastime. It makes you feel good and have fun."
Overall, kids who had been to a Tigers game also expressed more interest than those who had not.
"It was fun -- I liked it a lot the way the crowd was cheering," Jacqueline Dixon, a seventh-grade student, said of her day at the ballpark.
That's why the club reaches out to kids extensively, Tigers spokesman Cliff Russell said, dispersing 50,000 tickets to community, educational and charitable groups and offering discounts to Little League and other clubs.
The hope is to change the opinions of kids like Robinson seventh-grade student Khari Jones.
"Baseball is boring, and I don't understand it," Jones said. "But I feel that way about a lot of sports."
You can reach Fred Girard at (313) 222-2165 or fgirard@detnews.com.
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