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re: Do 90% of these kids really need to be on these competitive travel ball teams?
Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:16 pm to lsu777
Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:16 pm to lsu777
Man these threads usually don’t disappoint.. I’ve seen all forms of travel ball with my kids having different skill Sets and reasons for playing.
The one thing people overlook is that rec ball ends in most places between 11-12 ..
Not a big deal if your kid is good and want to keep playing as they probably already played tournaments and or travel ball..
The sticking point are those kids that want to keep playing but either aren’t good enough or dont desire the top end tournament style. The result is that you are forced to play tournaments bc it’s the only available scenario to keep playing.. thankfully this can be done close to home all across the south..
The one thing people overlook is that rec ball ends in most places between 11-12 ..
Not a big deal if your kid is good and want to keep playing as they probably already played tournaments and or travel ball..
The sticking point are those kids that want to keep playing but either aren’t good enough or dont desire the top end tournament style. The result is that you are forced to play tournaments bc it’s the only available scenario to keep playing.. thankfully this can be done close to home all across the south..
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Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:28 pm to Cali-to-Death Valley
Year after year, these coaches fleece these gullible parents out of tens of thousands of dollars. It is such a scam that these parents willingly participate in.
Perhaps they dont give a frick about the cost of travel ball or college tuition. They do it for entertainment, not some investment. Good grief.
Sorry you dont like the way other people spend their money on entertainment.
Perhaps they dont give a frick about the cost of travel ball or college tuition. They do it for entertainment, not some investment. Good grief.
Sorry you dont like the way other people spend their money on entertainment.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:34 pm to burger bearcat
quote:No, It's financed by parents but run by people making money off it.
Everything is structured, and ran by overly obsessed parents.
In the 90s when city, parish/county wreck leagues went coom bah yah they created a vacuum that was quickly filled.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:35 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
quote:
f you don't play on travel teams, then you basically have to give up baseball because even the average kids are getting a million reps all year long.
This is a problem, and it shouldn't be this way.
quote:
It really frustrates me that I have to make this decision for my son at 7 years old and that it isn't based on ability at all.
Correct. The sports facilities breed this. *cough* Traction *cough*
I wonder why???
Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:35 pm to lsu777
quote:
yea since driving a standard is such a useful skill now a days and being able to weld....let me tell you...i use that everyday
i get learning to weld is useful and i do like to fabricate but 90%+ of the population has no use for it. Im an engineer in the plants and still have no use to do it myself
and you act like kids that play baseball cant learn to hunt, fish, grow a garden or learn to cook.
and since you want to throw out stats...should we just disband HS sports all together? i mean seems like a waste if only 6% get to go play in college?
i mean at that rate...might as well get rid of youth sports too cause only like 10% from tball end up making the HS team. might as well get them involved in other hobbies right?
like stated above...i dotn come on here and bitch about people "wasting money" going hunting everytime i see a kid posting a picture of a buck. i dont come here and say...what a scam...they could buy that meat at the store and not have to spend hundreds on a lease, hundreds on guns, on stands, on corn.....think about how much time they wasted plowing that food plot etc etc
the OTs obession with travel ball while having no clue about it is funny. usually these thread are started by people whos kids are my age(40) or who dont have kids involved in organized sports at all. its never done by people involved in travel sports.
Cool story bud. Doesn't change the facts. A very small percentage of athletes make the next level after high school. I'm not saying that everyone is this way or trying to overgeneralize the entirety of players in travel ball... but there is a portion who spend their entire childhood doing nothing but baseball. They don't discover fishing, hunting, skiing, golf, or any other hobby until they are hit with the bitter reality of their career being over. Then they struggle to let go of the game that has gripped the majority of their life.
I am 37 years old. I am a former baseball player, I never played travel ball. My kids aren't old enough for it right now. But I don't see the benefits of it when considering the costs, both financially and in terms of personal growth. I also don't disparage anyone for having their kids play travel ball. That is a decision they have to make based on what is best for their family unit.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:37 pm to Koach K
quote:
It ain’t about the kids.
While my kids were growing up playing sports I was always amazed at the parents who would come up to me and tell me how I should manage my kids sports lives. Many of them, tried to get me to make them only play one sport. I usually responded with a smart-arse answer, like you are answering a question I never asked.
My kids HS and sports experience was their own. I told them to play as many sports or join as many clubs as they could handle as long as they were on honor roll. I told them to enjoy HS and that we were their to support them.
FYI- both kids played travel sports, one in soccer and one in baseball. They both got some great experiences from them and we enjoyed it.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:37 pm to burger bearcat
AA travel ball is all you need to watch. It is awful. AAA is better. Majors is what people think travel ball is. But AA needs to exist to allow small towns to have their kids have a chance to play. Many of these towns do not have enough kids for a full league any longer...but the baseball is horrid.
On a related note, the number of obese kids playing travel baseball is alarming.
On a related note, the number of obese kids playing travel baseball is alarming.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:38 pm to burger bearcat
The problem is rec has fallen off so much any kid with an inkling of desire to play past 12U probably needs to consider some form of travel. The average rec team plays 2x a week and kids get 2.5 AB’s per game. Just not enough reps. Doesn’t mean you need to be on a national outfit and spend every weekend in hotels across the US, but there is a happy medium.
We’ve been lucky in this regard living just outside Nashville. Because Nashville is trendy everyone wants to come here, we only gone up to Cal Ripken experience and will do the Panama City tourney, which is more of a vacation wrapped around baseball. Rest of the time we let everyone else come to us. We are a .500 AA team. Our families are all friends and no one bitches about where their kids play or how much they play. No kid has thrown over 75 pitches in a week, no kid has thrown over 60 pitches in a game.
There is a way to do it.
We’ve been lucky in this regard living just outside Nashville. Because Nashville is trendy everyone wants to come here, we only gone up to Cal Ripken experience and will do the Panama City tourney, which is more of a vacation wrapped around baseball. Rest of the time we let everyone else come to us. We are a .500 AA team. Our families are all friends and no one bitches about where their kids play or how much they play. No kid has thrown over 75 pitches in a week, no kid has thrown over 60 pitches in a game.
There is a way to do it.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:38 pm to burger bearcat
Oh my gosh. Kids playing baseball together with their friends who have a similar ability in a structured competitive environment... The horror!
Is "travel ball" perfect? No. But it's infinitely better than a kid wasting his life away in front of a screen, or getting into trouble on the streets.
Is "travel ball" perfect? No. But it's infinitely better than a kid wasting his life away in front of a screen, or getting into trouble on the streets.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:51 pm to thejudge
quote:this
It's a gift. Some people have it.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 12:55 pm to TigerinKorea
quote:
Is "travel ball" perfect? No. But it's infinitely better than a kid wasting his life away in front of a screen, or getting into trouble on the streets.
This is a valid point. I loooong for the days where all kids went home and played sports or whatever outside together almost every day after school. Unfortunately, that is a very rare thing these days. So "travel" sports help fill that void of being with a group of like minded friends multiple hours a week. Even if I prefer the unstructured the the structure of youth sports it's still much better than the alternative most people choose.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 1:01 pm to SaturdayTraditions
quote:
10.5% of college baseball players get drafted at all
That seems too high. There are a lot of colleges playing baseball.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 1:55 pm to burger bearcat
Its been a few years, but when my son played there were "divisions". AA, AAA, and Majors. The AAA was pretty good and the Majors were very good. He played on both AAA and Majors for several years and we saw a lot of very good youth baseball.
Playing better competition and playing for a structured well coached program helped my son. It isn't for every kid nor every parent.
Playing better competition and playing for a structured well coached program helped my son. It isn't for every kid nor every parent.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 1:59 pm to WDE24
SF Bay Area
Posted on 5/22/23 at 2:07 pm to burger bearcat
I had a good friend whose son was a decent ball player. My buddy was dead set against travel ball, until his son got a letter from a local travel ball coach, inviting him (for the low price of $1,700) to be on the team.
Long story short, he had to borrow the money to join the team, and about six months after the season ended, him and his wife had to file bankruptcy for all the credit card debt they had rung up.
And the kid never played an inning after high school.
Long story short, he had to borrow the money to join the team, and about six months after the season ended, him and his wife had to file bankruptcy for all the credit card debt they had rung up.
And the kid never played an inning after high school.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 2:08 pm to wmtiger69
Awesome. That’s exactly how every single travel ball experience goes 
The problem isn’t ‘travel ball’. The problem is stupid people, like your friend
The problem isn’t ‘travel ball’. The problem is stupid people, like your friend
Posted on 5/22/23 at 2:10 pm to ItNeverRains
quote:
Because Nashville is trendy everyone wants to come here, we only gone up to Cal Ripken experience and will do the Panama City tourney
We’ll be down there too.. what age group?
Posted on 5/22/23 at 2:11 pm to SaturdayTraditions
quote:
Cool story bud. Doesn't change the facts. A very small percentage of athletes make the next level after high school. I'm not saying that everyone is this way or trying to overgeneralize the entirety of players in travel ball... but there is a portion who spend their entire childhood doing nothing but baseball. They don't discover fishing, hunting, skiing, golf, or any other hobby until they are hit with the bitter reality of their career being over. Then they struggle to let go of the game that has gripped the majority of their life.
you do realize some kids just love baseball right? and like i said, most are playing more than just baseball
some kids dont have access to fishing, hunting or golf or just find that shite boring
my kids get to do all of the above and play travel as do most of the kids i know.
quote:
I am 37 years old. I am a former baseball player, I never played travel ball. My kids aren't old enough for it right now. But I don't see the benefits of it when considering the costs, both financially and in terms of personal growth. I also don't disparage anyone for having their kids play travel ball. That is a decision they have to make based on what is best for their family unit.
im a former player too, i have 2 that do play 1 that doesnt.
as far as cost..its like $2k or less so it isnt some financial burnden, or shouldnt be and if it is need to find a new job.
as far as perosnal growth...you just said you are nto involved...so how would you know?
Posted on 5/22/23 at 2:12 pm to TheRouxGuru
I wasn't saying travel ball is the problem. Just relaying a story. But I'm sure my buddy isn't the only one who has fell into this trap.
Posted on 5/22/23 at 2:13 pm to ItNeverRains
quote:
The problem is rec has fallen off so much any kid with an inkling of desire to play past 12U probably needs to consider some form of travel.
Unfortunately, in many areas the age is lower.
People complain but provide no alternative. No one is stepping up in areas to make the leagues better.
AA Tournament is League Ball now.
You do not have to travel unless you live in the middle of no where. But, there is a tournament somewhere in Louisiana within driving distance of most places every weekend.
AA Tournament Ball isn't expensive.
AAA and above isn't much more expensive it is mostly more time investment.
People will reference the high dollar clubs like Traction but there are plenty that are very inexpensive teams to play for.
This post was edited on 5/22/23 at 2:16 pm
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