re: Can someone explain the different Usssa classifications

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Unless you're sandbagging in AAA, anything below Major is honestly no better than your local youth league. Major is what travel ball was meant to be as far as competition level. Most AAA and pretty much all AA teams are bad to terrible.

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This is completely false. There are very good AA teams in Texas. The only difference in Texas is the depth of pitching even at the younger age groups.

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Wow, 5 downvotes for my post questioning whether travel ball is good for the game.

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Don't sweat the small stuff. Let them feel superior.

It is definitely good for the game but it's up to the parents to keep this whole thing in perspective. Even above average kids will still get no looks whatsoever. Trust me, I know.

The Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi areas are still stuck in a time warp so it's in the best interest of some families to extend the visibility. Travel ball fills this need.

My son has two teammates who traveled and lived in Atlanta every summer to compete. That paid huge dividends for them as the culture is different in those areas with regards to baseball recruiting.

Y'all must be talking high school kids because my kid was on a AA team and honestly I saw kids on his team who could play for anyone.

These threads always seem to devolve into a referendum on travel ball. My take from having seen both:

Both rec (ie: municipal, LL, Pony, etc.) and travel have good things about them.

If you are in an area with a good rec system, it can be kind of magical - mature established parks with good shade trees, grass fields as opposed to those skinned infields you see in some parks used for travel ball, kids playing with and against their friends and schoolmates. Younger brothers and sisters playing on the playground or playing with a stick or balled up aluminum foil under the trees. The best of the kids from the different teams joining together for the Allstar team.

Travel can be a lot of fun, meeting and getting to know different people, getting, a couple of short trips to tournaments (even more fun if you have a couple of parents who like to cook for a group).

But as some has said, bottom line is that Travel is a money making proposition. It is designed for profit. Rec, at least if you are in a good area, is designed as a community organization. Nothing is perfect but to me it can be much more enjoyable.

As far as the benefits of travel - I'm no expert so this is my take - I haven't seen any great improvements in the quality of the top baseball players the country is putting out since the advent of travel - either compared to the time before it or compared to other countries.