Manfred: Kids playing sports is vital

NEW YORK — Commissioner Rob Manfred joined forces Tuesday night with such luminaries as tennis star Serena Williams, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Missy Franklin to raise awareness and discuss solutions for a growing concern: An estimated 27 percent of U.S. public high schools will have no sports by 2020 at the current rate of cuts in funding for those programs.

“The most important thing about this evening is for baseball to show its commitment to young people participating in sports,” Manfred said. “We always hope their first choice is baseball, but if it isn’t baseball, it should be some other athletic activity.”

Manfred was a panelist for the “Sports Matter” event conducted by Dick’s Sporting Goods at the Conrad Hotel & Resort in Manhattan. Attendees first viewed the premiere of “Keepers of the Game,” an entry in the Tribeca Film Festival that documents the perseverance of Native American young women playing on their high school lacrosse team in Fort Covington, N.Y. Then panelists talked about leading a campaign to keep kids active, especially those in lower-income areas where a disproportionate percentage of cuts happen.

Major League Baseball community initiatives

Play Ball, the initiative of MLB and USA Baseball, was cited as an example of being proactive in building grassroots interest in sports, along with Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) and the Urban Youth Academy program. Manfred said the significance of MLB’s commitment to youth is twofold.

“Number one, baseball is an American treasure,” he said. “There is something uniquely American about our sport, and we feel we have an obligation to do everything possible to pass the game on to the next generation so that that piece of our culture is not lost. That’s no rap on any other sport; it’s just that baseball is a little different because of its role in our culture.

“Secondly … it doesn’t matter really whether we pick up a percentage point from soccer or lose one to lacrosse. Really the enemy here is electronics and doing nothing. For the past five years, that’s been the fastest-growing category of youth activity: a [youth] doing nothing, not playing any sport. …

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