re: Travel baseball vs. Rec league/school ball (for kids 12 and under)

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Your kid is either good enough for the show or isn't. The idea that a travel coach will be the difference for high school, college, or the pros is laughable at best.

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This

I have been sucked into the USSSA baseball deal, and my 11 y/o is now out of it, and I believe what you say above. He plays league baseball, and gets some private instruction. Reason he got out was he discovered tennis, and he is doing quite well in both without overexposure in either.

The other thing to me that is really laughable is the bastardization of the game that takes place at lower levels in order to simply win the $2 USSSA tournament rings. There are so many coaches that have absolutely no freaking idea what they are doing.

My kid has some size and enjoys playing and shows aptitude, so we are going to take a route similar to when I was a kid (70's-80's) and roll with that.

I completely disagree with the idea that if you don't play travel ball you won't be good enough for high school.

Kids have a window of opportunity, a golden age to easily learn skills. I would agree that having a good coach during those years is very important.

But if you aren't playing the best kids, and you're that good, I'm pretty sure you'll stick out anyway.

I never knew playing high school baseball was so important to people

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One of my son's coaches tried to recruit him to a select team. $1,900 a yr, you buy your uniform and pay for all travel expenses. 63 games a season I said F##K that

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Is $1,900 a normal rate? How much do people spend on travel ball?

That is exactly right

Just had to try to figure out how the "travel" player who plays second for this 'elite' team can't perform the basics of the position

my boy is just ok, I was called by three teams this winter.

But now you have a situation where the talent is diluted and everyone is suffering, High school will suffer because of it too

Little Joe never got to play short cause he was on s team with the coaches don for the last five years and was pigeon holed in left

That's for the entire team. My son is playing there this year. Divide that number by 10 and it was very reasonable.

ETA: not sure if you're talking about their travel teams or their league. They have a league where all games are at traction.

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We all know baseball is just a sport for kids who are to slow and weak to play real sports like basketball, football, track, and wrestling.

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Maybe where you live.

It probably is. I don't know. I know that for a few hundred bucks we got in. Nice facilities. don't know much about competition level but when I look around the other teams seems to be pretty good.

Does anyone have kids who play baseball all year around? I know a parent who forces his 11 yr old to play fall ball and the kid hates it. Evidently last year the kid was pitching in a game & was so pissed at his dad the first few batters the kid just floated the ball before getting pulled out the game. Anyway, the dad is a huge douchebag that will frick up his kid.