[Truthsearcher]

Mostly because black kids are more into basketball and football these days.

Baseball is really not an urban sport, it takes too much space.

[dfwgator]

Kids used to play stickball in the streets.

[nascarnation]

Loot N Shoot is also a widely practiced sport in the ‘hood.

[Political Junkie Too]

Baseball is really not an urban sport, it takes too much space.

Growing up in white suburbia, I can think of a few more reasons why baseball may not be popular for African-Americans:

1. It takes too many kids to make it a game. You really do need 9 or 10 kids to play, even if it's not two actual teams.
   • You need at least a pitcher and a catcher, a hitter, first, second, and third basemen, and a couple of outfielders.
   • You can cheat on a short-stop and an outfielder, or you fill all the positions and rotate people around so everyone gets a chance to hit.
   • At least that's how we used to do it when we didn't have 18 kids in the neighborhood. Eight or nine of us would go down to the park near our school and just hit the ball around.
2. Baseball is truly a team sport - there is little opportunity for one guy to stand out and dominate everyone else.
   • Basketball seems to me to be geared towards the showboating player, the person who always wants the ball, who always takes the shot. You can't do that in baseball; the mechanics of the game just doesn't support it.
3. You need more equipment to play baseball.
   • In baseball you need a ball, a couple of bats, and every kid needs a glove. A catcher's mask would be nice, too, to be safe.
   • In basketball, you need just one basketball for everyone to play.

-PJ

[dfwgator]

Baseball is really not an urban sport, it takes too much space.

That's why they played Stickball in the streets.