re: The case against Travel Ball by Dr. James Andrews

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And the next person that says to me "you can't even make the high school team unless you play travel ball" may just get punched in the throat.

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This is the thing that killed me when I coached USSSA ball. I coached for a very long time, from age group 4 all the way to 14, and my team was never anything more than a AA league team. I refused to get caught up in the tournament scene. I didn't feel that the "elite" talent needed a coach like me. They had plenty of avenues to play and get coaching, and travel ball was one of them. I felt my mission was to make the game available to kids who wouldn't ordinarily play or be able to play. Poor kids, out of shape kids, kids cut by other "competitive" teams who were ready to quit, those types. But I could never seem to get a really good player to stick around, particularly at the younger ages. Their parents would tell me, "Well, we want Johnny to play high school ball, and the only way to make the team is to play travel ball."

Of the 14 kids on my AA league team's 14-year-old roster, six of them went on to play high school ball... without ever having played an inning of travel ball.

The #1 indicator of whether a young player will be a high school or college player is his love for the game. If your kid would rather play baseball than do anything else - video games, hunting and fishing, music, etc... if you have to call your kid in at night because he's out playing baseball with his friends... if he would rather watch baseball on TV than Star Wars or Family Guy... then he has a real shot at making a high school team or beyond.

Looking back, the thing that I realize I did right was that I kept my average players playing until they could get "good." They didn't burn out. They peaked right when they entered high school. Man, did they suck at age 9... but they outlasted so many other players. Hundreds hung up their cleats before mine did. There really are other ways to make a high school team. Parents of younger players need to hear that message now more than ever.

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Of the 14 kids on my AA league team's 14-year-old roster, six of them went on to play high school ball... without ever having played an inning of travel ball.

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Yeah, I have seen kids with minimum to no experience in baseball try out, make the team, and eventually start a year or two down the road, over a bunch of Travel Ball All Stars.

Honestly, my daughter has gymnastics one night per week, and my son will typically have baseball/soccer/whatever he is playing at the time 2 nights per week, in addition to church and that already feels like we're giving up too much family time, and we haven't even gotten to the actual competitive levels yet.

Its all we can do to get homework done, get them fed something that doesn't come from McDonalds, and get them bathed and in the bed at a reasonable time on the off nights...

I'm surprised how many people are in support of this article and not complaining about the pussification of America.

I can't stand forced specialization these days. If you kid loves baseball so much that he wants to play all the time, good for him. Those are rare though and it really is sad when you see these parents that think their kids are going to the bigs. I knew a guy that was always looking for extra routines for his kid to develop his arm, the kid was fricking 5.

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It's talent vs only good because of more reps

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I generally agree with this.

The key is to have both of course, which is really rare.

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Don't they try to push the baseball recruits to TOPS if they can get it, anyway, instead of offering them athletic schollies?

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Baseball has only 13 full schollies for 25 players, so any LA player that can get TOPS uses that, and they can give the tuition waiver to an out of state kid. They split them up

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the idiots who live through their kids and spend thousands of dollars and give up all of their families weekends will never listen to anything

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This always blows my mind.

The travel ball parents have a lot in common with beauty pageant parents.

I'm the President of a Babe Ruth league here in Jacksonville and I can tell you that most of the travel here is complete horse shite. I've taken our rec all-star teams out and beaten teams that end up going travel.

It's so watered down that it's pathetic. I get coaches all the time telling me that the rec team should play in USSSA tournaments because our team would be competitive.

We lost a kid at the park that didn't make the all-star team. He ended up at a travel baseball park on the "B" team. "B" team travel??? Think about that.

It's a money grab around here and from what I read it's like that in many places. Coaches getting paid $170/month ++. It's just crazy.

Having said that, my son is on a travel team now just to go to Cooperstown because the parents at our park weren't interested. We'll quit travel the minute Cooperstown is over.