re: And the travel ball cliche kicks it up a notch...

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Travel sports. I find it all stupid. Enjoy spending every moment of every weekend at the ballpark. If you want to drop 2-3k for 7-8 year old sports, go for it. I will save my money for vacations.

Maybe i'm different, but i don't recall many moments playing sports when i wasn't in high school. But i do have many fond memories of family vacations, so much so that i'm recreating those with my family. Maybe you're a baller and can afford $2500 per kid per sport and still go on vacations any time you want. I am not. We spend our money on private school and Disney (going in the winter) and Destin.

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so maybe instead of thinking everyone is stupid for having kids in travel sports....maybe you should think...hey everyone is different when it comes to what they enjoy and everyone has different income levels...who am i to judge?

my kids do travel, go to private school, wife and i go on multiple vacations a year, take kids to destin every year and atleast one other vacation

some of us can afford it and not have to sell plasma like another guy claimed

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What sucks is the multiple practices a week. These are 8-9 year olds. It’s over kill.

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Can’t say No and take him out or go to less practices?

yep, we stayed there last year. i liked it. you'll probably run into some bears. its convenient spot. couple wicked turns, the backside road is a better route than the front side road of the mountain.

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Bears? Wtf!!!

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Code for gay sex with other travel ball dads

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Code for gay sex with other travel ball dads

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true story. the only fun we can afford at this point in our lives.

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Thanks buddy. Opening ceremonies suck huh? What about skill competitions? Worth it? We are all staying in a complex with a bunch of nice cabins so lots of family and team activities and will likely cook out meals there most of the week.

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we stayed in a cabin in mountains in big complex, others stayed in town in airbnb along the river.....along the river was way better

yea opening ceremonies and skill comp same time. kind of a waste of the day. i mean i guess its ok but all the kids said they would have rather skipped it and all the parents felt same way. we were warned of that

you will play 2 games 2 of the days, 1 on one of the days

competition can be all over the map....from a Team sosa national team to teams from up north that have crazy good records but actually suck bad

if you can...do what you can to finish top 6 incase it rains. they always keep atleast top 6 for bracket from what i have seen


understand sometimes things are close but take a while to get there due to winding roads and traffic

paula deans sucks

mountain coasters, the sinks and white water rafting are awesome

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Bears? Wtf!!!

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yea half our team woke up every morning with bears around the cabin.

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we played one day at the ripken place which was awesome, remaining days played at some other field that was just an average park.

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its wear farm park

its pretty nice now but not like the main site

oh and the fields are weird shaped and some really big at the main site. WF is normal fields.

WF actually has better background with the mountains in stuff right above it.

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gotta find a local hitting instructor during my time there so cayden doesn't miss a beat. people go rent boats, go on a fishing trip, book a type of house or certain condo on a beach. Go out to eat 3 times could be $800. All sorts of ways to piss money down the toilet.

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i mean the penthouse at Tourquise place in Orange beach is more than that for a week.

between the condo, going out to eat, shopping, golf, off shore fishing, rentals etc could easily spend 6k in destin. like its nothing

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so maybe instead of thinking everyone is stupid for having kids in travel sports..

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I didn't say you were stupid, i said travel sports was stupid. I can compile a list of things within the travel sport realm that leads me to my belief if that would make you more comfortable. I don't know you, so i can't call you stupid.

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my kids do travel, go to private school, wife and i go on multiple vacations a year, take kids to destin every year and atleast one other vacation

some of us can afford it and not have to sell plasma like another guy claimed

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And therein lies one of the problems. Most normal people, aren't balling out of control. My wife and I aren't destitute, we both make a good salary, but as i stated, there are a litany of things that make travel sports stupid, and what you mentioned is 1 of them, in my opinion.

The money. Youth sports doesn't have to cost this much. Travel ball doesn't have to cost this much. However, it will always cost this much or more. Why? Because a long time ago, someone came up with the business plan to charge thousands of dollars for elementary school kids to play a sport, in the guise that it would make them better than the rest and that your kid will definitely be playing at LSU one day as long as you give me $2000-3000 (or more) per year. Because those better off had no qualms with forking this over, they did. And their friends did. And so on and so on. Baton Rouge, with the wannabe bourgies that inhabit this place, all joined in. Now, it's no longer the exception, but its' the rule that once your kid turns 7 or 8, if you want to play competitive sports, its thousands. And because we all think that our kid has to play travel ball now to even stand a chance at playing at any high school, everyone puts their kids in travel ball. What is the money going to? How much to run a tournament for one weekend? I guarantee there is about a 300% markup compared to their operating costs.

So no, you aren't stupid, and you aren't the problem in particular. The problem is what youth sports are now. This is my opinion.