Baton Rouge Youth Baseball in Trouble?

one of those state of the art Cal Ripken fields is being built in the area and it's going to take Drillers down.

LINK

ymca

I thought Drillers was closed down.

Someone told me that the new owners of the property where Drillers is located have delayed construction and have leased the property to someone.

Went by Drillers about a month ago and some teams were playing ball. Those new fields up the road looked far from being ready, but then again I'm sure they have sodded them by now.

I've coached baseball in this town for seven years, and I can tell you I couldn't be more dissatisfied with:

1. The VAST array of leagues in this town (there's too many!!)
2. The lack of information out there for parents and coaches.
3. The lack of organization support from leagues to HELP coaches run teams.
4. The cutthroat nature of recruiting kids to play for you, and the mercenary attitudes of parents who always have an eye on another team.
5. The emphasis on competitive baseball, at the expense of simple recreational baseball.
6. The unwillingness of BREC to assume leadership in providing an outlet for recreational ball.
7. The lack of proper public facilities to play baseball. You can thank BREC for that. Grass infields, anyone? It all starts at BREC!
8. The lack of availability of practice fields for kids to practice (not play games!) on.
9. How some teams are all one-school, one-church or, worst of all, one-race teams. People exclude themselves here through baseball.

My team is going to play in the Cypress Mounds league this year. Even though it's a little more competition-focused than most leagues in town, at least I know my kids won't break their ankles on BREC's hole-filled and animal-turd-laden "fields."

When I was a kid growing up, my town had ONE baseball league. You signed up as a player... you did a mass try-out and the coaches drafted the players, to ensure competitive balance. I know people tell me it's impossible to do that in Baton Rouge, but you could do it with 5 or 6 leagues as opposed to one. The problem is nobody WANTS to do it. Especially not BREC, who doesn't want to be bothered with league administration. They will tell you they rely on private leagues because they can "run things better." The truth is, they're too lazy to lead youth sports in this town. They don't care.

I wonder how many BREC tax renewals would pass in this town if people knew the truth... and that's that BREC does NOT run the leagues in this town. They cut the grass in this town. And they don't even do a good job at that.

If someone offered me a chance to coach in a league like the one I grew up playing in... I WOULD JUMP AT IT.

I have seen the plans for the new Cypress Mounds fields. It is going to be a very nice facility.

The owners are committed to putting forth a first class league. I think they got the same people to their fields that are doing lsu's new field.

Not sure how expensive it will be to play there but I do know it will be a nice place for kids to play baseball.

Where I grew up there was one park on your side of town. Anyone could sign up to play relatively inexpensively, the teams were coached by dads and everyone went into a pool each year to be drafted.

There was one elite travel team per park per age group - the best of best of that age group. It was expensive so not all the best of the best played. Then after the regular season of the park league an all-star team was formed out of the park teams and they played competitively the remainder of the summer (it was subsidized by the city so not so cost-intensive).

But, that's the basic model for baseball across the northern half of metro ATL. All following in the footsteps of the East Cobb Yankees.

It's pretty cost effective for my team. My per-player fee is only $100 per player. Covers 2 jerseys, cap, league fee, insurance and equipment for one season.

Oh... and one more thing. There's room on my team for one more 11 or 12 year old, for those who are interested...

I think the entry fee to the park is $2... but they give you a coupon for a free drink, so it evens out.

I also think you can buy a season entry pass for $30.

5 of the 6 fields are ready to go.

The season starts April 14, and lasts about 20 games... until June 15th or so.

Like I said... there's room for 1 or 2 more on my teams. If you have a 10, 11 or 12 year old, I might be able to fit you in.

Send me an e-mail: writingtiger@hotmail.com

shite i'm from LC, which has one of the best little league systems in the US (no joke), and even it is being affected by the travel team era

SLC produces some great little league all-star teams, but any kid could play in SLC and i don't believe it was expensive