“One Man’s Opinion” by Gordon Curvey

I am a sports fan who loves sports. I grew up loving football, basketball and baseball. But as I get older my love for baseball has really decreased big time.

I see young inner city kids turning away from the sport by age 12 or 13 to play only football and basketball. Young inner city kids do not even know any African American MLB players names!! This is shocking. I know this because I am a Adult School Crossing Guard on the side for the Seattle Public Schools. And I did a poll of about 20 African American kids.

They were about 11, 12 and 13. I asked them have they heard of Matt Kemp or Andrew Mccutchen or David Price. None of them had ever heard of the players! None of them. This is amazing.

But these same kids know who Curry is and who KD and Westbrook and Russell Wilson are etc. They know the number they wear on their jersey and their average per game and more! This is sad. One of the reasons these kids do not like baseball is one thing…it is boring and to slow. Which sorry to say, it is true readers. Lately I have seen too many three hour or more games by our Seattle Mariners. Something needs to be done.

One thing that can be done is a time clock for pitchers. Less than 20 seconds to pitch. Pitchers are taking to long to pitch. Also batters who wear batting gloves have to stop messing with their gloves. EVEN AFTER A PITCH IN WHICH THEY DO  NOT SWING!! This also slows down the game a lot. Maybe it is a habit. But it needs to stop. The Mariners Robinson Cano is guilty of this.

Also another thing that slows the game down is visits to the mound by catchers. There needs to be a limit to this going on. Also when a pitcher wants to put a runner on, why is it the pitcher has to throw four wide pitches? This REALLY slows the game down big time.

Old school baseball fans do not think changes should be made. Leave the game alone. Well I strongly disagree!! Changes need to be made and made now. Three hour games is ridiculous. NBA and NFL games move at a quick pace. Unlike baseball games. If MLB wants to reach young inner city kids again, then they have to make some changes to the game. Let’s hope they do this.