I think he has a point on basketball. There are a lot of pretty mediocre American players, guys who are pretty far from sniffing the NBA, earning a pretty decent living abroad. A lot of countries can produce a couple good players, but they have a real problem filling out rosters, so they have to turn to a lot of Americans.
Fair enough. We have a genuine basketball culture here; players playing pickup games, learning from neighbors, family members, etc.
Sorry to stay off=topic but what colors are the Chargers uniforms? 1038891272436473856 is not a valid tweet id
This year's participation numbers are out. (I've been doing this for 12 years!) Decline in overall HS sports participation for the first time in 30 years, and baseball was not spared. Boys soccer continued climbing, though (but at a slower rate, less than 3,000 added, where the recent average had been closer to 8,000). The gap is less than half of what it was only 4 years ago, so at the recent rate it would close completely in 3-4 years. I will re-run the longer term trend line and put the graphs in when I get a chance. Code: Year Soccer Baseball Gap 1972 78,510 1974 98,482 1976 115,811 1977 115,811 1978 141,070 1979 132,073 1980 133,649 1981 149,376 1982 161,167 1983 162,504 1984 173,423 398,608 225,185 43.51% 1985 180,281 391,810 211,529 46.01% 1986 196,028 393,905 197,877 49.77% 1987 203,984 406,046 202,062 50.24% 1988 208,935 407,630 198,695 51.26% 1989 218,973 412,825 193,852 53.04% 1990 220,777 413,581 192,804 53.38% 1991 228,380 419,015 190,635 54.50% 1992 236,082 433,684 197,602 54.44% 1993 242,095 430,401 188,306 56.25% 1994 255,538 438,846 183,308 58.23% 1995 272,810 440,503 167,693 61.93% 1996 283,728 444,476 160,748 63.83% 1997 296,587 444,248 147,661 66.76% 1998 309,484 449,897 140,413 68.79% 1999 321,416 455,305 133,889 70.59% 2000 330,044 451,701 121,657 73.07% 2001 332,850 450,513 117,663 73.88% 2002 339,101 451,674 112,573 75.08% 2003 345,156 453,792 108,636 76.06% 2004 349,785 457,146 107,361 76.51% 2005 354,587 459,717 105,130 77.13% 2006 358,935 470,671 111,736 76.26% 2007 377,999 477,430 99,431 79.17% 2008 383,561 478,029 94,468 80.24% 2009 383,824 473,184 89,360 81.12% 2010 391,839 472,644 80,805 82.90% 2011 398,351 471,025 72,674 84.57% 2012 411,757 474,219 62,462 86.83% 2013 410,982 474,791 63,809 86.56% 2014 417,419 482,629 65,210 86.49% 2015 432,569 486,567 53,998 88.90% 2016 440,322 488,815 48,493 90.08% 2017 450,234 491,790 41,556 91.55% 2018 456,362 487,097 30,735 93.69% 2019 459,077 482,740 23,663 95.10%
Remembered to update the trend line. Gap fall is right on trend, so nothing really changes except that the R-squared is higher, due to addition of more data. Still projected to hit zero approximately 2024.
Here's one I did earlier. I think 1990 was the year of peak enrollment at high schools. Taking out the top 2 Linear trend. It shows soccer catching baseball by 2021. This just emphasizes the trends.
You need to look at socio-economics of participants...until the proletariat participates at a high % we will not produce enough top players to be relevant. Baseball demo is trending down = continued production of elite talent despite numbers dropping.