Minor Leagues: Older Sports Players Often Inspire the Youth To Exercise and To Play a Sport

I have heard it said that most people that go to games don’t play, such that it was argued that professional sports don’t do much.  Rubbish!

I would bet that if you asked any of the high school and college students that attend Cape League games whether or not they have played sports; the answer is almost certainly a definite yes.  So, while the elderly might not be pulling out their baseball gloves and tossing the ball around because of the Cape Cod Baseball League, the fact is that these college students are huge role models for young sports players.

In fact, I can remember all the way back to when I was taking a baseball clinic at the Mass Maritime Academy, where we were to get some training from Cape League players.  To us, the youth that played baseball, getting lessons from Cape Leaguers was a dream.

The fact is that boys and girls should see players at all levels of play.  To see a team play that is better than you is often inspiring.  The other day we saw American Legion Post 188 play Orleans.  This level of play is made up of high school and college players.  Alex, my 4 year old son, being just 4 probably isn’t going to notice much of a difference between these levels of play.  However, just as I can hope that he might one day aspire to play in the Cape League, or at the Collegiate level, I can bring him to games where high school players play.  These sorts of things are very inspiring, especially for the youth.  And, likewise, if we are to become more physically fit as a nation, chances are that we won’t inspire too many 30 year olds to pick up soccer that did not play in high school.  The fact is, they have already been inspired by varsity teams, and teams like the Crusaders.  However, grade school players, then possibly we have a better chance at becoming more physically fit as a nation.