Baseball is "right sport for a democracy"

In an interview with George F. Will by Robert Costa (Wall Street Journal, April 10-11, 2010), Will talks about why baseball has always been one of his life's passions ("more than any other sport, a fan's enjoyment of baseball is a function of how much he understands the nuances"). He also talks about the roles of fathers:

Mr. Will also worries that baseball is fast becoming an extinct tradition in this country. The game, he says, is losing talent not because other sports are better but because so few are still teaching the craft to Little Leaguers and high-school stars. With baseball, "you don't just need a hoop and some black top," he says. "You need a field that takes some grooming. But the teaching and the grooming require fathers, and they're gone. That's one of the problems in baseball right now. No one wants to talk about it, and it is related to the problem of the vanishing African-American baseball player."