re: If the travel baller in your life has a birthday coming up

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They didn't like that I could afford it and I chose not to. They thought we weren't committed because I'm wasn't wasting $600 on bullshite for my kid to keep up with the Joneses.

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That's too bad you found a shitty program with poor culture. In my experience, programs like that are run by dad coaches with limited experience to running organized baseball program dedicated to developing players. When drip overtakes fundamental baseball, you should look elsewhere.

My son is in his 5th year of select ball. Until this year, he was probably the smallest kid on the field every single game he played. He has always been extremely undersized for his age. His last season of rec-ball was 10U. The dad's in rec-leagues gave him zero coaching and treated him like a burden -- all because their DNA gifted sons were bigger, faster, stronger -- at 9 years old.

We found a program that doesn't care about size and forbids any player from saying, "I'm a pitcher" or "I'm a SS" or "I'm a (insert favorite position)" -- it is simply, "baseball player". Our program is character first, baseball second. Learn the game, learn how to work hard, be accountable, and become a baseball player -- the position specific player doesn't happen until 8th grade. Even then, he wants all players to be as versatile as possible -- so very rarely do you see a player buried in right field "because that's what you do with players that suck".

All of the people that post non-stop negative comments either (A) have zero experience with travel ball except what they see on social media or (B) tried it and had a terrible experience because the program's philosophy was built on 'building ring winning teams' instead of 'building men'.

My son has been on some gawd-awful teams, but we have stayed with the same program because of the positive culture. It took two years to get to a .500 season. He now has a box full of rings that he has no clue what tournaments they were from -- the wins have never been the focus. He wants to have fun and get good at the game that he loves more than anything. Yes, he still has the same "I want to be a MLB star." dream that he had when he was 8. But his goals are much simpler: leave the game on my terms, play as long as I can.

It is my experience that most of the people we encounter every other weekend are very similar to us and have the same values. The professionally run organizations tend to cultivate a more positive approach, whereas the dad-run teams are louder, arrogant, and scream at every pitch like their kid just won Game 7 of the WS against the Yankees.

I truly don't get bent out of shape when I see the hate toward select ball. Most of it is regurgitating social media hyperbole.

Except the travel ball names... braxton, paxton, jaxxon, easton, cutter, boomer, and plenty more are pretty spot on when you see a lot of these rosters.