re: It's Travel Ball Season Folks

Best story I’ve got.

Idiot co-worker and her ball baw “hubby” (her words) got neck deep in travel ball. First as just parents, then him as an assistant coach, then finally him as head coach bouncing from org to org until they found one that made him a head coach.

The grift started with innumerable fundraisers, sales, football squares, and out right GoFundMe requests to raise money for tournaments and shite.

At the peak of the insanity she was taking Fridays off to travel to tournaments and Mondays off for the return travel. In between she was leaving early nearly every day to pick up the kid from school and take her to expensive personal hitting/pitching lessons and practice. She once took 3 out of 4 weeks off in a July to hit three different weeklong beach tournaments - each one a World Series of jackshit of something or another. One of those weeks included a long planned client pitch that she just ditched and went to a tournament they picked up at the last minute.

Needless to say everyone hated her because she was doing about 55% of her job and everyone else had to pick up her slack for no extra pay.

When the hammer dropped she was stunned. Could not believe it. Never saw it coming. Torched a $100k+ job for some travel fricking softball. It was glorious.

My son does club soccer in u10. There is no travel outside the DFW metroplex so it is not that bad. What sucks is the tournaments that take up your whole weekend if they win.

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My son does club soccer in u10. There is no travel outside the DFW metroplex so it is not that bad. What sucks is the tournaments that take up your whole weekend if they win.

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in louisiana club soccer is similar to "travel" baseball except it seems with soccer only the really good kids play club because lot less teams. they usually travel way more than travel baseball does though for sure.

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even the Little leagues around the state are $100 plus to register in many cases and that gets ~12 games. all stars cost too.

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Even 15 years ago, it was about 20 regular season games, a tournament and then all stars so 30ish games per summer for the better players. That’s more than enough for kids 13 and under

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plus bats are expensive as hell, gloves etc its not a cheap game to play.

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That’s the point, when it’s through youth leagues, disadvantaged kids with talent had a place to play and had access to equipment.

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In HS you have to have your won bat and they are $500 a pop.

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Again, 15 years ago, that wasn’t the case. This is objectively a bad thing

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as far as it being absurd, its as absurd as you allow it as a parent.

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It’s the system, I don’t blame parents for wanting their kids included. It’s absurd these are the lengths you need to go to to be included

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your better players are going to be in travel because they are the ones that like the game the most and are going to commit to it and work the hardest and put in the most amount of time.

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And this is fricking retarded. 75% of these kids won’t even want to play the time to get to high school. Another percentage won’t be good enough. The rest outside of the very very top (which would be the very very top anyway) will play high school baseball and then go be a KA somewhere. So you’ve changed really nothing about the outcomes, but made it more expensive and made it less accessible.

And I played travel ball, on a good team. I think it’s fine for 13-15 year olds that want to play and are good as a bridge between youth league and high school, but what it’s turned into is absolutely absurd.

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The shite is ridiculous. I'm going to be so glad when she gets sick of this shite

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What if I told you that you could stop at any time?

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God forbid a parent sacrifice the weekend for a child.

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The problem is, it's rarely about the child.

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Even 15 years ago, it was about 20 regular season games, a tournament and then all stars so 30ish games per summer for the better players. That’s more than enough for kids 13 and under

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30 would be fine if....the competition was there. but when you are 12 and the rec kids are barely throwing 50 its an issue.

not to mention the rules for rec league suck arse and cater to the lower performing players

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That’s the point, when it’s through youth leagues, disadvantaged kids with talent had a place to play and had access to equipment.

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no, thats the deal. the recs dont/cant afford to provide equipment anymore. but lets say they provided 2 per team...do you think that 2 practices a week before the season plus 30 games for total of say 40-42 sessions is going to be enough for the poor kid to keep up with the kid doing all of that...lessons once per week plus hitting at home 3-4 times a week plus strength training?

because its not. the better kids really go to a pitching coach, a hitting coach, practice and then hit 500+ balls a week at home.

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Again, 15 years ago, that wasn’t the case. This is objectively a bad thing

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so whats the alternative? they have fundraisers for both HS and travel and even rec. these parents can get sponsors but for the most part programs cant afford to provide bats anymore and companies are not going to lower the cost. 20 years ago the bats cost ~200 and everyone had one so not sure what you are talking about. its always been a sport that parents provided gear for. Even the poor schools its like that.

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It’s the system, I don’t blame parents for wanting their kids included. It’s absurd these are the lengths you need to go to to be included

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its more the level of play has risen so much...its the only way to keep up. so think about the good programs around the state like catholic, the AP schools, live oak, PVB, Uhigh, the catholic league schools, STM, TC, Barbe, SH, Sulphur, St Louis, Iowa, WM, Benton, Sterlington.......

all those kids have played travel at a high level since they were decently young for the most part, at least by 12u. they all take lessons, practice tons on their own and many even start lifting in middle school

there will be ~30- 50 kids trying out and they will only keep 10-12

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And this is fricking retarded. 75% of these kids won’t even want to play the time to get to high school. Another percentage won’t be good enough. The rest outside of the very very top (which would be the very very top anyway) will play high school baseball and then go be a KA somewhere. So you’ve changed really nothing about the outcomes, but made it more expensive and made it less accessible.

And I played travel ball, on a good team. I think it’s fine for 13-15 year olds that want to play and are good as a bridge between youth league and high school, but what it’s turned into is absolutely absurd.

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for the most part i agree. if you cant afford it, shouldnt chase it until later and only if your kid is really good. plenty of ways to do it much cheaper.

95% of rec leagues end after 12 so kind of have to play travel at that point.

it dumb for a parent of a kid that by 13 cant make a high level aaa team to keep playing unless its just for fun and you have the money. really by 13 you know who the better kids are. there will be a few surprises but not many.

as far as the comment about going to be a KA after HS baseball.....so what. If you are having your kid playing travel baseball assuming it is anything but having them chase their passion and paying for them to have fun....you are screwing up big time.

but that is the case for every kid... and there are those that go on to do very well. if you can afford it, allow kids to chase their dreams as long as possible, enjoy the memories and time spent together.


but i do prefer the way the really big texas schools do it, especially the ones around DFW that have multiple fields and multiple staffs. they keep 100 or so in the program so roughly 35 freshman. allows them to take kids that are possibly late bloomers

but if it makes you feel better....the DR kids are picked at 10/11 and shipped off to factories where they live, go to school and train 6+ hours a day.


but by and large....baseball has mainly been a higher socio economic sport. always.

and i am kind of glad....i dont want to spend my time around a bunch of trashy fricks either or hear people whining about cost and money. If that makes me a bad person, so be it. I wouldnt associate with those people any other time, so if i can avoid it while my kids play...all for it. have to deal with it enough in football and basketball.

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The problem is, it's rarely about the child.

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oh yea...there is just thousands of parents out there who cant wait to force their kid to go play a sport he doesnt like, give up their weekends and spend thousands.......just so they can live through their kid.

i mean who would want a boat and spend time on the water when you could just force your kid to play a sport that cost a ton and is played at the hottest time of the year? All for facebook likes according to mr savage.

do you realize how absurd you sound?

Your forgot the Atlas, Goods, and Bonesaber when talking BBCOR.

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utrip icon fire
bbcor icon meh

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yep...atlas and the new combat in bbcor....fire

the batbros rankings are actually pretty good.

i will say the new catx2 composite in usssa is not really any different than the cat9 comp. pretty much exactly the same. take forever forever to break in. like 500 + hits. stiff AF too.

grown man like Batbro Will can make it have pop but it dont have shite on an icon in the hands of a 11-13 year old.