To the Editor,

It took some time, but the changing of the guard is almost complete.  

Rhode Island and the rest of America is in the final stages of its shift from its old baseball culture to the emerging culture of soccer. 

 It's like the baton is being handed off from the Baby Boomer generation to Gen. Z and Gen. Alpha.  From those in their 60s and 70s to those born after 1990.

 While football was always a steady and growing presence in their lives, the Baby Boomers and Gen. X loved baseball.  It was the "American game."  The game of Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle.  The game of peanuts, and Cracker Jacks that captivated a nation throughout most of the 20th century.  It was played by almost every kid in every town's Little League, far outpacing its only real competitor, Pop Warner football.  

Baseball's popularity in the second half of the century was easily explained.  We had spent the first half of the century running furiously trying to feed our families during the Great Depression.  Then we ran even faster trying to dodge bullets in World War II.  The second half of the century was a time to slow down, time to relax for a while. Time to enjoy the slow game of baseball.  

 Soccer was an unknown, foreign sport, almost totally absent until the waning years of the century. 

 But as the end of the century approached and with it the arrival of the internet and the expansion of satellite communications, globalization was finally reached.  Suddenly we were one world for almost everything from commerce, to travel, to sports.  

Unfortunately for many older Americans, it spelled the approaching demise of baseball's popularity and the rise of America's fascination with soccer.  Why?  The world had found speed.  Everything had become faster.  Travel, trade, communications, diplomacy, and yes, sports.  Young Americans grabbed the brass ring and became internationalists themselves, relishing the speed of the new world.  It was only natural that they would also embrace the speedy game of soccer. 
 No longer were Americans willing to sit in the stands or in front of a TV to watch the slow-moving game of baseball when the rapid and exciting game of soccer was now there to compete with football.

 At the local level, this phenomenon was marked by Rhode Islanders' refusal to do what had to be done to keep its minor league baseball team, the Pawtucket Red Sox, in our state.  Simultaneously we welcomed minor league professional soccer, the Rhode Island FC.

 And after years of arguing and finally refusing to build a new baseball stadium to replace McCoy Stadium, we pretty quickly agreed to build a new stadium to house our nascent soccer team.  Was it a good tradeoff?  Time will tell, but with our rising number of soccer-loving immigrants and with Rhode Island FC's first-year advance to the USL's championship game, success is likely.

 Yes, Baby Boomers and Gen. X'ers will lament it, but baseball is a disappearing sport.  Its demise will be slow, but it's inevitable.  Just as America exported baseball to the world after WWII, the world has now exported soccer to America.  And we love it. 

 I guess it's a good thing. 

Lonnie Barham

A Warwick Baby Boomer