26% of parents with high-school athletes think they're raising a pro. (NYT)

[iceberg_is_on_fire]

Parents investing large amounts of time and money in their athletic offspring with the belief that they’re nurturing a possible professional player should take note: Odds are, you’re wrong.

But you’re not alone. An astonishing 26 percent of parents with high-school-age children who play sports hope their child will become a professional athlete one day, according to a recent poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The percentages are even greater among less-educated and lower-income parents: 44 percent of parents with a high school education or less and 39 percent of parents with a household income of less than $50,000 a year are dreaming of the bigs and the majors for their kids.

Those parents are deluding themselves, and possibly cheating their children out of other opportunities if they are demanding a single-minded approach to the game. The National Collegiate Athletic Association puts the real odds right up front on its website, and they’re nowhere near one in four. For baseball, only a little more than half of 1 percent of high school players who go on to play in college will be drafted by Major League Baseball (0.6 percent), and even of those, most will not ever play in the majors — only about 17 percent of draft picks play in even a single big league game. That means only about 1 in 1,000 baseball players who play in high school ever gets a chance in make it big — and the odds of becoming a real star are even smaller.

And that’s baseball. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the odds of going from high school play and then college to become a professional baseball player are higher than those in football, men’s or women’s basketball, or men’s soccer. (The percentages for men’s ice hockey are similar to those for baseball.) Of that 26 percent of hopeful baseball parents, to stick to that example, about 98 percent will be disappointed.

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/...d-isnt-going-pro-now-what/?smid=tw-share&_r=1

 

[triplehate]

This is not wise thinking

 

[the cool]

I don't see the problem here

 

[Whips-n-Chains]

I don't see the problem here

Be positive and supportive but also be realistic and make sure the kid is still focused on education or some sort of trade and understands that becoming a pro will take an extreme amount of work and attebtion.

The negative aspect is that these parents are "banking" on their children becoming pros when the odds are no where near in their favor.

 

[#1 pick]

If you ask those same parents, they will tell you their kid will be a doctor, lawyer, etc. Parents are optimistic for a reason. With that said, these stats are very hard to believe, especially in regards to Football and Basketball. Most parents know if their kid can make it or not. This isn't rocket science. Baseball and Hockey is different. So many kids get drafted. It's just so hard to make it pro.

 

[FSP]

It's okay to dream big and encourage your kids to do big, so lets not blame parents for overly deluding themselves, it probably brings happiness in the short term and ,barring injury, at best I think encouraging sports does more good than harm in the long run. But technically speaking the article has one glaring statistical flaw in it

"For baseball, only a little more than half of 1 percent of high school players who go on to play in college will be drafted by Major League Baseball (0.6 percent), and even of those, most will not ever play in the majors — only about 17 percent of draft picks play in even a single big league game. "

Okay, now lets talk baseball. The majors are NOT THE ONLY PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE. There's the AA, and AAA minors(which are considered pro, since you get paid), and even if not that, there's plenty of pro leagues oversees. The chances of becoming pro are actually not THAT low. Now, making the MLB, yeah, because it's the fukkin majors. The lowest contract is 1 million a year. Of course thats gonna be hard. But the chances of going semi-pro or pro in general isn't tooo far out of reach. I can think about 10 guys that went pro in something from my HS, only 1 is in the MLB. One made the NFL(quit) the other is in the CFL. There's actually a lot of guys walking around that "went pro" in something for a minute. You probably interact with a few and just don't know it. Or maybe you do. You don't have to play 10+ seasons at the highest level to be considered a pro

 

[#1 pick]

I know some poster is going to blame Blacks for not investing in the right thing but most of us Blacks don't invest in the right thing which is the community. Building businesses, schools, etc.

 

[BXKingPin82]

lil kingpin is 6 gonna be 7 soon
if he aint dunkin by 9 he's no longer welcome in my crib

 

[ExodusNirvana]

Eh someones gotta become a cop

 

[BlackBall]

Parents think they're kids are going to take care of them when they get old too, nope

 

[Maschine_Man]

It's okay to dream big and encourage your kids to do big, so lets not blame parents for overly deluding themselves, it probably brings happiness in the short term and ,barring injury, at best I think encouraging sports does more good than harm in the long run. But technically speaking the article has one glaring statistical flaw in it

"For baseball, only a little more than half of 1 percent of high school players who go on to play in college will be drafted by Major League Baseball (0.6 percent), and even of those, most will not ever play in the majors — only about 17 percent of draft picks play in even a single big league game. "

Okay, now lets talk baseball. The majors are NOT THE ONLY PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE. There's the AA, and AAA minors(which are considered pro, since you get paid), and even if not that, there's plenty of pro leagues oversees. The chances of becoming pro are actually not THAT low. Now, making the MLB, yeah, because it's the fukkin majors. The lowest contract is 1 million a year. Of course thats gonna be hard. But the chances of going semi-pro or pro in general isn't tooo far out of reach. I can think about 10 guys that went pro in something from my HS, only 1 is in the MLB. One made the NFL(quit) the other is in the CFL. There's actually a lot of guys walking around that "went pro" in something for a minute. You probably interact with a few and just don't know it. Or maybe you do. You don't have to play 10+ seasons at the highest level to be considered a pro

you can make more money working as a mechanic thanyou can in minor baseball.

and even still making it to another "pro" league is still VERY VERY SLIM

it might bump it up to a full 1% or so but that doesn't make it any easier

 

[MJ Truth]

The problem is that you HAVE to have that mentality (that you're the 1 in the 1,000,000) to make it, but at the same time only so many of them can make it. I think there's a better chance of getting struck by lightning than making a pro league.

 

[No Homo]

True story here..

I have a lil cousin. Since he was a baby doctors knew he'd be tall. His parents spent days on days taking him to practice, games aau toruneys basically shoving bball down this kids neck from the day they saw his height progressing rapidly. He's 6'8 and just graduated from a good catholic bball team here in BK. Hes honestly alright.

Now they're looking for the payoff. Here's where they fukked up like that article says.

So he gets no scholarships from any big schools. Some small school in the midwest offers him a full scholarship. They turn it down..Why? They want big time big name schools so he can go pro

We been trying to tell them by now if no one is paying attention to you to not even get you a d1 scholarship aint no chance..and the poor kid is just following his parents

 

[Loose]

You have to be realistic with what you breed, I don't think my son he's only 5 (could change ) have half of the athletic abilities that I had. But he's much stronger then I was.

 

[G-Zeus]

They ain't caught that fresh prince episode