Lacrosse reason for baseball's decline?

In Kim Mikus's column, "Has video killed the baseball star?" she argues that computers and videos are the cause of declining enrollment in baseball and softball programs by children in the area. As a parent of teenagers, I certainly agree that long hours are being logged on these technologies by our children, but I also think Kim has missed a major trend in the suburban sport scene.

Lacrosse, a sport similar to hockey and basketball was invented by the Native Americans and has long been the bastion of east coast prep school elites. Over the last five years, the sport has exploded in Illinois, with much of the growth coming from the West and Northwest suburbs. Dubbed the "Fastest Game on Two Feet" lacrosse has everything baseball lacks. It's fast paced, high scoring, everyone is involved at all times and in boys lacrosse it includes full contact. Everything the Adrenaline Generation is looking for when they finally get off the couch to participate in a sport.

More and more park districts are offering lacrosse in direct competition to baseball. At the state level, the IHSA will be sponsoring a state tournament for boys and girls for the first time in 2011. The IHSA also has lacrosse on their new sport "watch list" and the sport is quickly approaching the 75 school participation level required to make it a sanctioned sport for both boys and girls. Baseball's and softball's loss may be lacrosse's gain. One analysis of the current trend came from a T-shirt I saw on a lacrosse field last spring, "Lacrosse, it's what real men play during baseball season!"

With this kind of sentiment, let's not jump to the conclusion that baseball is a bell-weather of our children's athletic participation.

Gary Voyda

Naperville