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Message
re: Kirk Herbstreit slams Travel Ball culture
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:39 am to lsu777
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:39 am to lsu777
quote:
you wouldnt hold your kid back academically, why would you with sports?
Because academics will have a lasting affect on your child's life.
With respect to the lasting affect of sports, you can get the leadership and teamwork aspects without pouring all of the time and effort into travel ball.
By the time you are 25 years old it will matter zero that your child spent all of those hours playing baseball, the same can't be said about academics.
This post was edited on 8/11/25 at 11:40 am
3
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:39 am to lsupride87
quote:
You have to make decisions for your kids. But decisions that take away opportunities in life because it isn’t convenient for you is selfish IMHO
You see it differently and the world will continue to spin
this
you put it better than me
downshift values fishing and hunting over allowing his kids to pursue their passions.
him and many others claim travel ball parents are just living through their kids but will brag about getting their kids seriously into fishing, hunting, golfing etc without seeing the irony.
if my kid came to me today and said...im quiting baseball and i want to play golf everyday or fish everyday...I would say ok and we can revisit after some time away from baseball to make sure you still feel the same way.
it sounds like from his post...he would not be ok with his kid coming to him at 10 and saying....I dont want to fish anymore, I want to start practicing baseball 2-3 hours every day and playing as much as possible.
but hey Im sure the travel ball parents are the ones living through their kids....like i wouldnt love to be on the course every weekend over sitting in 90 degree heat all day.
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:41 am to lsu777
quote:
downshift values fishing and hunting over allowing his kids to pursue their passions.
This isn't about pursuing a passion though, this is putting that passion to the level of disrupting the entire family's schedule. You miss out on all kinds of experiences and activities for just one kid's passion. That kid can still pursue their passion at a much lower level without doing that. This isn't an all or nothing situation.
This post was edited on 8/11/25 at 11:42 am
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:43 am to Epic Cajun
quote:
Because academics will have a lasting affect on your child's life.
With respect to the lasting affect of sports, you can get the leadership and teamwork aspects without pouring all of the time and effort into travel ball.
By the time you are 25 years old it will matter zero that your child spent all of those hours playing baseball, the same can't be said about academics.
i guess you just skipped over the rest of the post right? because i said academics are 1000x more important but the analogy still stands
if you could afford it and you would allow them to pursue the best academics they could. if you could afford both you should allow them to pursue both.
and i could do the your line with anything. should we just ban all sports? what about fishing? hunting? anything we deem time wasters that wont matter once we are 25? anything that cost money that wont matter once we are 25?
will taking that vacation to disney when they are 8 matter when they are 25? nope....same for any vacation...should we get rid of those too?
do experiences and pursuit of passions not matter anymore?
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:44 am to lsupride87
quote:
Because herbie was talking in way too broad of generalization and people took his diatribe out of context. Anyone that thinks herbie put his sons in the local rec league is insane
Herbie probably had nannies, cooks, tutors, drivers, and god knows what else to raise his kids and get them to everything. Herbie really shouldn't be lecturing people that don't have the freedom he had in how they raise their family.
I mean that goes for all of us here too though. We all have different priorities and different ways we want to raise our kids.
This post was edited on 8/11/25 at 11:45 am
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:46 am to lsu777
quote:
so if you are in lafayette area can you please point to the school to send your kid to that has high academics and doesnt have behavior issues but also isnt a sports powerhouse?
ESA?
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:48 am to Epic Cajun
quote:
Because academics will have a lasting affect on your child's life.
With respect to the lasting affect of sports, you can get the leadership and teamwork aspects without pouring all of the time and effort into travel ball.
By the time you are 25 years old it will matter zero that your child spent all of those hours playing baseball, the same can't be said about academics.
This seems so obvious, im shocked you have to explain it.
Athletics are extremely important, and I absolutely loved my experience playing high school sports. But all of the benefits were intangible and indirect. The actual sporting part of it was the least impactful
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:52 am to Epic Cajun
Truth is a school like Ben Franklin is an excellent school
Same with Baton Rouge high.
Same with ESA
But it takes a certain type of kid to enjoy that. I would have been absolutely miserable there. So would my kids. If your kids or others like that type of environment (arts , engineering, etc ) that’s great
Same with Baton Rouge high.
Same with ESA
But it takes a certain type of kid to enjoy that. I would have been absolutely miserable there. So would my kids. If your kids or others like that type of environment (arts , engineering, etc ) that’s great
This post was edited on 8/11/25 at 11:53 am
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:53 am to Dam Guide
quote:
This isn't about pursuing a passion though, this is putting that passion to the level of disrupting the entire family's schedule. You miss out on all kinds of experiences and activities for just one kid's passion. That kid can still pursue their passion at a much lower level without doing that. This isn't an all or nothing situation.
ok what if i only had 1 kid??
what if every kid plays travel?
the dad going hunting every weekend in the fall is that not disrupting the family schedule? what about golf every weekend and driving range in the afternoon?
how is what you quoted not the same? when the dad leaves the kids with the mom and goes hunts every morning and afternoon in season...how is that not the same?
and sure you can do less, what you choose as a family(which i said 100 times already) should match your families commitment level.
and what are you going to do when they get to HS...lets say they do make the team....or just play football where they have saturday morning film, sunday afternoon walk through, practice every day, friday night games?
what about the mandatory summer workouts every single day, many times 2x per day?
if you dont want to be a sports family....im ok with that, especially if your kid is not extremely passionate about it.
if downshift has a kid who absolutely loves fishing and hunting and doesnt want to play sports and they spend every weekend pursuing that...im good with that. im not ever going to criticize that.
but non sports parents who party every weekend and leave their kids at home or who hunt and fish or golf every weekend fricking love to chirp at parents of sports kids. Or just like in this thread...parents of kids who arent as good love to chirp at the parents of the kids who are good.
this whole thread is non travel ball parents criticizing parents of kids who play travel ball.
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:53 am to lsu777
quote:
and i could do the your line with anything. should we just ban all sports? what about fishing? hunting? anything we deem time wasters that wont matter once we are 25? anything that cost money that wont matter once we are 25?
will taking that vacation to disney when they are 8 matter when they are 25? nope....same for any vacation...should we get rid of those too?
do experiences and pursuit of passions not matter anymore?
Obviously we don't need to ban anything, but there are diminishing returns on the positives that are drawn from playing team sports. Sure, if it's "fun" for your kid then go for it, but I don't think it should be to the detriment of the rest of the family. There needs to be a balance.
And honestly, I chose to send my kid to a school that is less academically rigorous and structured because I want her to be a kid. She can and will be successful without having to lose the innocence of being a child. We don't have to min/max raising our kids
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:54 am to Dam Guide
quote:
That kid can still pursue their passion at a much lower level without doing that.
Well that’s just insane. Sorry buddy…I know you had big dreams and did everything to make them come true…but I feel like a trip to Tuolumne is a better use of your time. You can just do it at a community college instead.
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:54 am to Epic Cajun
quote:
ESA?
do you think those kids only played rec? and you understand how expensive that is right? avg family couldnt come close to affording that.
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:55 am to Lgrnwd
I know about a dozen or so travel parents and everyone of them are over the top. About half of them are doing it for themselves vs their kids. I am not saying all are like this just the ones I’ve met.
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:58 am to Lake08
One of these threads is eventually gonna give lsu777 a heart attack
Posted on 8/11/25 at 11:59 am to Sun God
quote:
One of these threads is eventually gonna give lsu777 a heart attack
All for his kid to be a PM at Turner Industries is the part that absolutely cracks me up
Posted on 8/11/25 at 12:00 pm to lsu777
quote:
do you think those kids only played rec? and you understand how expensive that is right? avg family couldnt come close to affording that.
You asked a question and I answered it
Posted on 8/11/25 at 12:00 pm to lsu777
quote:
downshift values fishing and hunting over allowing his kids to pursue their passions.
him and many others claim travel ball parents are just living through their kids but will brag about getting their kids seriously into fishing, hunting, golfing etc without seeing the irony.
if my kid came to me today and said...im quiting baseball and i want to play golf everyday or fish everyday...I would say ok and we can revisit after some time away from baseball to make sure you still feel the same way.
it sounds like from his post...he would not be ok with his kid coming to him at 10 and saying....I dont want to fish anymore, I want to start practicing baseball 2-3 hours every day and playing as much as possible.
That's a ridiculous stretch.
The only rule around here is you finish what you start. Otherwise, I don't care. I detest soccer, and my oldest plays soccer, and I show up and help the coaches with what they tell me to.
BUT, nobody in this house is going to be making decisions at 8 to 14 years old that significantly affect the rest of the family. Mom and Dad make those decisions.
I would have loved nothing more than to do track and field all year. There are clubs for that. They cost money and time. Dad wouldn't allow it. In hindsight he was absolutely right to not support that or any of my other ridiculous pre-teen ideas about what I SHOULD be doing.
The idea that your kid should be able to do whatever they want to do is bad parenting.
ETA: And before you say it, I could have done T&F in college. I wasn't terrible. And all that would have gotten me in the long term is less time to work and pay for college.
My dad taught me very early on that everything has a cost and you can do whatever you want on your own terms. Find a way to pay for it and you can go to Paris if you want. That isn't 100% the right way to do it IMO, but it's more right than just blindly supporting whatever hair brained hopes and dreams I had as a pre teen or teenager or even a young adult.
This post was edited on 8/11/25 at 12:04 pm
Posted on 8/11/25 at 12:01 pm to Mingo Was His NameO
quote:Well it doesn’t matter what he does because if his kid was going to be a ceo or cfo the cream would just naturally rise to the top right?
All for his kid to be a PM at Turner Industries is the part that absolutely cracks me up
Posted on 8/11/25 at 12:01 pm to Lake08
quote:
I know about a dozen or so travel parents and everyone of them are over the top. About half of them are doing it for themselves vs their kids. I am not saying all are like this just the ones I’ve met.
quote:
Lake08
Hey dude, you only played D1 baseball. You aren't qualified to talk about travel ball.
Posted on 8/11/25 at 12:01 pm to Epic Cajun
quote:
Obviously we don't need to ban anything, but there are diminishing returns on the positives that are drawn from playing team sports. Sure, if it's "fun" for your kid then go for it, but I don't think it should be to the detriment of the rest of the family. There needs to be a balance.
while i do agree, just like mingo said...HS sports for the most part dont have long term implications for 95% of kids, it does teach them how to set goals, pursue them with a passion, how to work as a team, learn to win and lose.....it also exposes you to how a lot of society is. many will do the bare minimum and talk shite about those that choose to pursue greatness
quote:
And honestly, I chose to send my kid to a school that is less academically rigorous and structured because I want her to be a kid. She can and will be successful without having to lose the innocence of being a child. We don't have to min/max raising our kids
well im the opposite. I push my kids really hard academically. much more so than sports and send them to high academic schools. eventually my middle and younger will prolly end up at public school but its one with a great academic program. I require them to maintain 4.0 if they want to play sports. if they make a B, they have the next quarter to bring it up and some form of punishment...if they dont, sports are over for the year. luckily we havent had to do that.
i have boys, sure they need to be a kid but they should be pushed to be the best they can be. Some kids that may be all Bs, others it might be Bs and Cs and others it might be all As. depends on the kid.
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