We live in an age of rapid change.

Things are moving faster than a Aroldis Chapman fastball.

It wasn’t long ago when phones were connected to a wall, when you slipped a cassette tape into a contraption called a Walkman to listen to music and you watched a television show when the network said you were going to watch it — no TiVo or Hulu back then.

The sports world is changing just as rapidly — sometimes for the better and, well, sometimes not.

When I was young, there was little else to do other than playing sports. We played kickball in the cul-de-sac, played football in the abandoned field and Wiffle Ball on a makeshift diamond in our backyard, an overturned picnic table serving as the backstop.

We didn’t have PlayStation or Facebook or Twitter to occupy our time. We didn’t have an iPhone with a million game apps.

The only “Angry Birds” we knew were the ones flying away from our batted ball.

But now there are a million distractions for kids.

I have noticed a sharp decline in the number of multisport stars in Butler County high schools.

This might be due to the fact that every sport is year-round now. That’s another change. When I was in high school, football season started in August and ended in November, basketball season started in November and ended in March and baseball season started in March and ended in May.

There was no overlap. There were no summer camps, summer leagues, open gyms.

But I think the major reason why multisport stars are fading faster than the VCR is because of the sheer amount of other stuff to do.

To me, that’s what makes the multisport athlete even more impressive these days.

The sacrifice they must make is even more staggering.

Some other things in sports that have quickly changed:

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Instant replay: Some hate it. I like it. If you have the technology, use it.•

Instant information: Thanks to Twitter, you get an immediate insight into the mind of our favorite athletes.Sometimes, that’s way too much information. And some athletes should just keep their emotions — and typing fingers — in check.•

Alternate uniforms: It used to be teams had a home uniform and road uniform. That was it.Now, a team like the Oregon football team has a (ugly) uniform for every day of the week.Yellow socks. Really?•

ESPN: I remember when the worldwide leader in sports actually gave me sports news without tossing in a million catch phrases like “Boo Ya!” and “Winner, winner, chicken dinner.”Then again, MTV just took the music out of its name, maybe ESPN should remove the sports.Sometimes, change isn’t good.