why does the interest level among our youth seem to be declining in the inner cities across the country?

There are probably several reasons, but here is the main one as I see it. Culturally other sports have taken a higher position in the eyes of young black children. They see a high percentage of black athletes in the NBA and NFL and want to be like them. Many of those athletes are flashy and celebrated, while most of the remaining African-American baseball players are pretty low key. Plus, it is much easier to buy a basketball or football and play a small pick-up game with a few friends than it is to buy a glove, bat, and baseball(s) and try to find a dozen friends with gloves to go play baseball.

Too many video games; kids would rather play baseball on their Xbox than live......isn't that a shame!!!

because LAX...

It's called democracy. Kids are making their choices and they are not picking baseball. It's not because of the lack of field's. Baseball does not have to be played on a well groomed grass field with nice dirt on the base paths. In the cities it is often played on well maintained asphalt school yards that have high fences surrounding them.
Quite honestly most kids think that baseball is a boring game that requires a lot of time to get half bad at. The kids would rather play a game that they consider to be more exciting and grants gratification faster.
It's called democracy. The racial demagogues and political pundits whose livelihoods depend on controversy , don't want to hear that simple reason. They are the hammers of our world who regard everything that doesn't fit their pre-conceived notions of what is true as a nail,
nails of course must be hammered down.
Today kids have the opportunity , they're not picking baseball , let it be.

For some time now, MLB has done next to nothing to appeal to this demographic. Yes, the RBI (Reviving Baseball in the Inner cities) program has been going for some time, but it's a drop in the proverbial bucket.

Unfortunately, urban demographics in the US being what they tend to be, this is also reflected in the declining number of black players in baseball.

An excellent question in general, and particularly so for this weekend.

I know a lot of people bring up money- and that may be true enough- but I think the NBA does a far better job marketing to the inner city than major league baseball does. Plus, the fact college basketball and football are higher profile and give out more scholarships makes those sports more appealing than baseball does.

I think if baseball is serious about making inroads in the inner cities, teams must send more local scouts looking for potential talent- maybe get a few football or basketball players with borderline college talent and have them play baseball. One thing forgotten about Jackie Robinson was that he was a multi-talented athlete- played basketball and ran track at UCLA before joining the Negro Leagues.