re: Travel teams eroding community baseball

I think a simple concept for parents to think about is this: If the sport costs more in middle through high school to play than you will ever get in return for a scholarship, you should find a different sport.

You should see some kids after they are done with soccer. They paid 3-5k a year growing up, then their scholarships don't cover crap. I've met quite a few disillusioned soccer parents who felt cheated.

In the years my kid played travel ball....

We never played more than 15 weekends. And 15 was the high mark......

The average was 11

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In the years my kid played travel ball.... We never played more than 15 weekends. And 15 was the high mark...... The average was 11

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I am pro this amount. Summer fall winter spring ball is not happening for mine.

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I've been coaching baseball in St. Charles for 5 years

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I finished about the time you started. I coached teams when I was younger before getting married and having my own kids and the teams were loaded...but travel ball wasn't big at all and was mainly after we finished.

The rec dept tries hard but in baseball everyone wants their kid in travel thinking they'll be the next great player. Soccer has the same issues, both my kids were pressured to move to NOLA Premier teams but neither did. The travel at that level of soccer is ridiculous.

This started almost 15 years ago in certain areas. Its destroyed kids of limited talent ever playing at a young age. Very sad

I have a question for those that are coaching or have been coaching at a somewhat high level for a while now. My son is 4, and he and I are in the backyard all the time hitting/catching/throwing, etc. (subtle brag) I am working on his switch hitting and he can hit from both sides of the plate with me tossing it to him overhand. He can throw the ball with some force and is decently accurate when he actually tries. However, I can't get him to catch the ball most of the time. He'll either do the kid thing and jump away from the ball if it goes too high, or he will try to jump up at the same time as catching it.

How can I teach him the fundamental basics of catching a ball tossed up in the air? I have him hold his glove as if he is making a basket catch. Is it too early to try and teach him other ways to catch pop ups? He knows to stop the ball with his glove and to get in front of the ball on grounders. Also, I played baseball all through high school and have been playing intramural softball since I joined the military so I feel I have a decent amount of knowledge when it comes to the sport of baseball. However, I know that I couldn't teach my son how to throw a curveball, slider, sinker, etc. As I was not a pitcher. Same applies for hitting in terms of reading the pitch out of the pitchers hands. What are some sources that I could either read or look up that would help me later on down the road to help my son be the best he can be?

As far as reading the pitches out of the hand, etc. I understand that will come later on down the road, but whose to say that his middle school or HS coach will have that type of understanding? I want him to be able to have that knowledge well before he reaches that stage. Our backyard games are a blast. He hits the snot out of the ball and then in order to get him out I have to hit him with the ball. That to him is "tagging him out". Of course I don't use a real baseball nor do I throw it hard at him. We use little Fisher Price balls for that.

I taught all my girls at very beginning to switch hit....my theory is they don't know what to do Why not teach them now instead of trying to learn later..as for catching what type ball are you using? Try a tennis ball or even a whiffle ball and first let him catch bareheaded once he gets hang of it add the glove...as for the information part...go online and look up successful coaches they usually have sites showing basic drills to use. Once he gets older enroll him in QUALITY camps and not just money makers

Oh he loves baseball. It's the only sport he wants to play outside. We tried Soccer for 1 year and he quickly lost interest in it and it's been baseball ever since. He watches games with me, he knows certain players already (his favorite player is Chipper Jones and now it's Freddie Freeman). More than watching on TV he LOVES going to the actual game. I think we've been to at least 10 games since he's been born. I'm not going to be that pushy dad that screams at his kid for not doing something right, I just want to set him up early for potential future success by getting him the fundamentals early.

I agree with the article. However, i disagree with the opinions that all travel ball is bad. I think there are many cases, as others have discussed, where kids are being ruined. When i was a kid arguments are great for recalling our child hood memories, but there are a lot of things about "today" that are different from "yesterday". How many of us are reading this thread on a portable device? If travel ball is eroding communities, how do you keep them from completely washing out? Or is the money grab so big now with the baseball industry that community level ball has no chance at surviving.

I coach a team that plays "travel ball". We will play 8 or so tournaments which equals 30 or so games. We spread those tournaments over 4 months. We encourage kids to take a couple months away from the game after the season and play other sports. We will offer fall fundamental days where we will have one night a week for 6-8 weeks to do skill development. Again, participation in other sports is encouraged, if you have a conflict with other sports then you miss our workouts. Come Mid-January, we start 2 days a week. Then we will go 3 days/week in February. Once we start playing, we will practice a couple days each week. Spend more time teaching and enough time playing. As a family it has been better for us. We have 4 kids and having the weeknights in the spring for school work has been better for us. We don't have to get the whole family out for practice.

Whether you fish, hunt, play football, run track, softball, baseball, cheer, dance, rodeo, golf, tennis, soccer, basketball, or any other sport or activity,it costs money and time. How you spend yours is your business. But don't rail on somebody for doing something different and don't get mad down the road if you decided not to and yours isn't able to play because he didn't. Of course, there are those that are exceptions and are just gifted, but they are few and far between. Likelihood of my son(s) playing in the big leagues is slim and none, much less high school. Doesn't mean we can't teach life and make memories on the baseball field.