I have a couple thoughts on this very topic having seen it up close and personal. A lot of my son's friends bailed on baseball after the 9 year old season.
1. The growth in youth lacrosse is hurting baseball because of the scheduling conflicts - spring sports. But i think the growth in lacrosse hurts football more in the long-term.
2. As bad as it is for little league baseball, the decline in youth football is even worse and likely to get worse.
3. Again from personal experience it's not just that single parents can't/don't play catch with their kids. It's that two-parent families don't do it/don't have the time either. When I was coaching I could only work with the kids so much and told the families you've got to throw/catch with your kids on days we don't have practice (which was most days).
4. Baseball is one of those sports very hard to just pick up and you have to have some skill development to be an active participant. Kids don't play pick up games like we used to.
5. I absolutely think the super specialization and how the best baseball kids get creamed off into better teams/leagues is a big impact. The converse is also true. The mediocre kids get shunted aside and aren't given the time to develop or play in a skill-appropriate level. They wind up quitting rather than keeping with it.
It's a shame cause I loved playing baseball as a kid, my kids love playing it, and there is nothing more american than little league.
