GUILFORD — A summer ritual unfolded this August in Williamsport, Penn., when the 58th Little League World Series got under way. Sixteen teams from nine countries competed for the most-sought-after championship in youth sports.
But in the United States, where the game was born, fewer young people will notice. Coaches and youth sports organizations say a lot of American kids are losing interest in baseball.
Some youngsters are lured by the speed and individual glory of such extreme sports as skateboarding, in-line skating, and stunt bicycling. Others are riveted to their chairs by computer games, including some that simulate great baseball games.
And many are simply choosing other team sports with more action and faster play. Once America's signature sport, amateur baseball now ranks sixth behind basketball, soccer, softball, football, and volleyball in number of players, most of whom are youths, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.
* * *
This is not to say baseball itself is suffering. Major League Baseball is thriving, with attendance up 10 percent over last season. And travel ball - baseball played by youths who go on the road to compete - also is growing in popularity, siphoning talented players away from Little League.
In all, it seems that the stereotypical sandlot game on sunny afternoons is slowly disappearing.
The effects are most obvious in Little League, an association of baseball teams for various age divisions of boys and girls ages 5 to 18. Little League guarantees all participants time on the field.
And now a little history into one of our oldest pastimes.
Little League, which provided the training ground for Major League stars Tom Seaver and Gary Sheffield, was born in 1938 when oil company clerk Carl Stotz in Williamsport, Penn., worried that his nephews were too young to play organized baseball.
Stotz created a three-team league. By 1949, the league had grown to roughly 300 teams. This year, league officials say, more than 2.2 million kids will play on about 12,000 fields in 76 countries, according to the Little League Web site.
* * *
In the small community of Windham County, we may not have an influence across the country, but we can on our own younger people - those who represent the future of our country.
If we can leave a positive impact of the lives of even the 80 children that play in Brattleboro each year by providing them a safe activity to participate in, we can provide them a better future - and maybe even a chance to succeed.