re: Do 90% of these kids really need to be on these competitive travel ball teams?

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no meaning I’m upper middle class...most people i know have boats

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Whoooooaaaaaa.... sweet flex bro.

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you don’t have to stay in hotels bro. they have some tournament within an hour drive of anyone in south LA every single weekend. you don’t have to play every weekend.

entries are 10 per adult and you dont have to do concessions. eat before and keep drinks in the car if you aer that poor.

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1. Not everyone lives in South Louisiana... awesome for you, but just asking the questions. Where I live it is probably close to $8k annually all-in based on travel. And this is from what I have been told by co-workers and relatives that do it. If you spend $8k annually from 8-18 years old... that is a solid amount of money. Again... I realize that isn't everyone's reality. And because I dont live in South Louisiana, its not the same with regards to making your high school team.

2. This is about the third time in this thread you have made a comment about people being poor and needing to focus on getting a better job. You have no clue what kind of job I have. I personally COULD swing $8k a year... doesn't mean I want to or will if I don't see the value in it.

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the world series comment shows how clueless you are.

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How? Are there not multiple "World Series" Tournaments?

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but absolutely learning to field extremely hard hit ground balls, long fly balls, line drives, hit the ball in the gap knowing I can’t hit an infield pop fly for a hit....yea it helps.

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Can they not learn this by taking them in the back yard and hitting fungos to them? Can they not learn this through tee work? Cage work? Practice? It would be tough for you to argue that Japan doesn't produce some of the most pure baseball players in the world... evidence by their success in international tournaments at all levels... take a look at their methods. They don't play a ton of games. They practice... ALOT.

As for your other points...I'd say the same thing for all those other sports. I don't believe that specialization is the correct route. I also don't believe that the majority of travel ball coaches and organizations are in it for the right reason. I believe that it is all a big money grab. Again... if you go back through my posts in this thread I have never once called it all bad. If a kid gets to 14-15 years old and decides all he wants to focus on is baseball, then more power to him. At that age I feel like he can make that choice. I don't like what I see from parents making the decision for their kid at 8 years old. That is what I have an issue with.

And while I may not have kids playing travel ball, make no mistake I have been around it plenty. When I started my umpiring career 15 years ago, I was calling those tournaments every week... and I mean EVERY week. I no longer call travel tournaments, for a myriad of reasons, but the main one being the level of arrogance from coaches, parents, and players and the lack of respect that stems from the mentality that "I spent $2k on my kid to be on this team, I'll yell and scream as much as I want." I now only call high school and college baseball... and I can tell you that the habits being learned at a young age through that type pf behavior, are trickling into the game at a rate that is unacceptable. I can tell you that almost every issue I've had in the past 10 years with a player, if the parent is acting out about how it is handled on the field by an umpire or coach, the parent is wearing a "travel ball" hat or shirt about 85% of the time. That isn't coincidence.

As someone whos kid played AAA and majors ball, I agree with what 777 is saying. He may be more passionate about it than most, which is why he defends it the way he does, but he's not wrong. I think the thing that most are missing is that he's talking about kids making the team at really really good baseball high schools.

Schools that are nationally ranked in baseball.

I think my son said there were something like 5 or 6 teams from Louisiana that are top 15 nationally. It's crazy how good they are. THAT'S the schools he's talking about.

My son's high school team just won state in 3A. Just about all of those boys played on the same Majors travel team for 4 or 5 years.

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And traction did not water down their teams. Their black and 14u national teams are as good as ever. But kids have other options like pelicans and rays in the area that are still good.

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Traction has something like 4 teams in 14u. That’s very definition of watered down.

And their national program is brand new.. I’ve had multiple kids play through that organization and they do a good job but they have a lot of bills that require lots of teams..with less and less teams coached by paid coaches they do a good job of getting baseball guys to coach their sons.. the knights organization has become worse . Way more watered down with no consistency in facilities across the different areas they branched out to.. knights are probably still the best high school summer organization but they’ve done that by buying coaches of the the premier high school teams

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Traction has something like 4 teams in 14u. That’s very definition of watered down.

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Yea but they have always had a couple teams in each. Black is still the best other than the new national team.

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And their national program is brand new.. I’ve had multiple kids play through that organization and they do a good job but they have a lot of bills that require lots of teams..with less and less teams coached by paid coaches they do a good job of getting baseball guys to coach their sons.. the knights organization has become worse . Way more watered down with no consistency in facilities across the different areas they branched out to.. knights are probably still the best high school summer organization but they’ve done that by buying coaches of the the premier high school teams

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Yea I get the bill pay thing but it also helps getting as many kids quality instruction if possible

Also what is knights doing? Don’t they still have the national team? And they have been having the JS teams cause they make it super easy.

They been having the youth teams too and been all about more and more teams. They do have a lot of quality teams too though in each division.