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re: The reality of travel baseball
Posted on 5/29/26 at 8:40 am to Epic Cajun
Posted on 5/29/26 at 8:40 am to Epic Cajun
quote:
I just think if you’re going to pour energy into making your kid good at a sport it would benefit them more if you chose a country club sport that will still be relevant after they graduate high school. How many of these kids pick up a baseball after they graduate high school?
wait so we should only play sports we will play later in life?
and to add.....of course academics should play a part in which college you choose but you do understand there are lots and lots of really good smaller schools right?
also you need to factor in ROI.
but why have college sports at all? why have hs sports at all? if all that matters in life is what job you get and experiences dont matter....why not shut it all down?
This post was edited on 5/29/26 at 8:46 am
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Posted on 5/29/26 at 8:43 am to LemmyLives
quote:
This is a legendary level of parenting fail, if this is where a kid's aspirations end up.
wait its a legendary level of parenting fail if a kid decides he wants to live in Louisiana after college? wtf?
quote:
Nah, it's more that their kids can barely read, but spend 20 hours a week at the ballpark. Less of a problem with girls in dance, in my experience.
yea I dont really give a frick what you experience is. There are plenty of kids that play sports but are also high academic.
quote:
Boys will also eat an entire family sized container of Oreos if you let them.
this is the dumbest response i have seen on this board, congrats
Posted on 5/29/26 at 8:45 am to armytiger96
quote:
From my experience for the most part travel ball parents aren't concerned about college or pros, but instead are trying to put their kids in a position to make their high school team.
Which is kind of sad in and of itself. If we spend thousands of dollars and travel all over the state/region, it will all be worth it when Ryder is playing HS baseball. And I say this as someone with a child who plays what I guess would be considered "travel ball".
If your child truly loves the game and it is his/her favorite thing to do. Great! Then the expense and time commitment for them to enjoy being a kid is worth it. But to try to justify the expense in furtherance of such a "lofty" goal of playing ball in HS is a bit ridiculous IMO.
Posted on 5/29/26 at 8:53 am to supatigah
I have a bunting cage in the backyard for Mattingleey and Khash to train. No one will tell me that they will not be playing against each other in the NL East in 15 years.
Posted on 5/29/26 at 8:57 am to supatigah
im not a travel baseball baw, but i wonder how many travel sports haters are sending their kids to private school their whole life just to end up at lsu?
Posted on 5/29/26 at 9:05 am to Jenious
quote:
I would say 10% of travel ball players go on to play college ball(across all divisions, JUCO, etc). But 95% or more college baseball players have played travel ball. Especially if they're American.
Your point is valid but only 10% of high school players play college at any level.
From my anecdotal evidence very few "Travel Ball" Players get to play in high school because its so competitive.
Posted on 5/29/26 at 9:07 am to armytiger96
quote:
From my anecdotal evidence very few "Travel Ball" Players get to play in high school because its so competitive.
people are also forgetting that while high school ball is fun and players can gain some recognition, it does very little for your actual recruiting process. You still would need to do a ton of showcase stuff and camps to get on the map... speaking for the normal very good talent trying to get recruited. Not speaking of the 6'3 left throwing 97mph gas.
Posted on 5/29/26 at 9:08 am to Epic Cajun
quote:
I just think if you’re going to pour energy into making your kid good at a sport it would benefit them more if you chose a country club sport that will still be relevant after they graduate high school. How many of these kids pick up a baseball after they graduate high school?
What if it's just something they love to do? Some kids love hunting and fishing, some love video games, etc. All things parents might spend money on and the kids spend a lot of their free time doing.
Why can't they play travel ball and a country club sport? A kid on my son's baseball team won his country club's kids golf championship
Posted on 5/29/26 at 9:11 am to TheRouxGuru
quote:
Like the one guy who said he quit baseball at 8 because someone’s mom said that he was ruining her sons chance of playing for skip bertman at LSU - there’s about a 5% chance that story is true
How would an 8 year old be ruining another 8 year old's chance at college baseball? Was he making out the lineup and burying the other kid on the bench?
Posted on 5/29/26 at 9:19 am to rockchlkjayhku11
quote:
im not a travel baseball baw, but i wonder how many travel sports haters are sending their kids to private school their whole life just to end up at lsu?
thats different bro!!!
honestly this is the OT where everyone encourages their kid to go into the trades.
its where you are more than likely to find people who have zero problem spending 8-10k on hunting leases but have a huge problem with their kid playing something that might to away time at the camp and getting drunk.
also where they bitch constantly how others spend their time and money
Posted on 5/29/26 at 9:21 am to rockchlkjayhku11
quote:
private school
This is pretty much a requirement in Louisiana due to the state of public schools.
Posted on 5/29/26 at 9:43 am to NIH
The major tragedy of it all IMO is that back the 90s / early 2000s, there would be a distinct regional or local flavor to teams. All gone now. Soccer for instance, in Houston, you'd have small/mid size local clubs representing areas like the inner city, Woodlands, Kingwood/Humble/Atascocita, Klein, Cy Fair, Katy, West U, Sugar Land, etc. Each would field a few teams for each age group and the top team would be highly competitive.
Some of these local / regional clubs would gather all the best players largely from a few large high schools. So everyone would know each other, grew up with each other, etc. Was fun. Get to know the competitors as well as you see them in the high school circuit. Now you have these mega clubs with 10 teams for each age group, each team representing 10 different parts of the city / schools
Now you have five mega clubs with facilities all over the city, grabbing kids from all over the city. Sucks. Many time the top level team doesn't allow you to play high school soccer.
Some of these local / regional clubs would gather all the best players largely from a few large high schools. So everyone would know each other, grew up with each other, etc. Was fun. Get to know the competitors as well as you see them in the high school circuit. Now you have these mega clubs with 10 teams for each age group, each team representing 10 different parts of the city / schools
Now you have five mega clubs with facilities all over the city, grabbing kids from all over the city. Sucks. Many time the top level team doesn't allow you to play high school soccer.
This post was edited on 5/29/26 at 9:48 am
Posted on 5/29/26 at 9:53 am to supatigah
I knew a family like this back in my hometown. I won't reveal too many personal details as people know of him and his family on here. Dad played some college ball at a tiny school. D3 maybe. Made his oldest son live and breathe baseball growing up. He was always doing some tournament. Got to walk on at a big name program (I initially thought he got a scholarship the way it was presented) and didn't really have any playing potential and basically within a year just quit baseball just like that. I thought maybe he would've tried transferring somewhere smaller, but as far as I know he didn't. So after 15 years or so of gunho baseball it was all gone.
Posted on 5/29/26 at 10:02 am to supatigah
My problem with travel ball is that money and time could be dispersed so much better into the small towns that all these teams are coming from.
If that money, time, and effort were to stay local instead of going to the World Series of the month you'd have:
-better rec league competitions and facilities
-more vibrant downtowns. Spend disposable money where you live, not in whatever town has a baseball complex every weekend.
-better country club participation, both from a dining and tennis and golf standpoint, so you have kids that are more well rounded both athletically and socially
-better church attendance and participation. This is a huge problem IMO. You're teaching all of these kids to turn away from religion and to athletics.
-competiton within the town. Business being proud of their rec league sponsorship, kids wanting to play for certain teams. Example: I played for the same rec league team my dad did, and my dad was my coach. That's awesome to me.
ETA: Also hot take incoming: Most of your kids aren’t even playing baseball. They’re pawns in the game of see what coach is most willing to just run the bases incessantly because the kids are going to make enough errors that recklessly running the bases eventually pays off.
If that money, time, and effort were to stay local instead of going to the World Series of the month you'd have:
-better rec league competitions and facilities
-more vibrant downtowns. Spend disposable money where you live, not in whatever town has a baseball complex every weekend.
-better country club participation, both from a dining and tennis and golf standpoint, so you have kids that are more well rounded both athletically and socially
-better church attendance and participation. This is a huge problem IMO. You're teaching all of these kids to turn away from religion and to athletics.
-competiton within the town. Business being proud of their rec league sponsorship, kids wanting to play for certain teams. Example: I played for the same rec league team my dad did, and my dad was my coach. That's awesome to me.
ETA: Also hot take incoming: Most of your kids aren’t even playing baseball. They’re pawns in the game of see what coach is most willing to just run the bases incessantly because the kids are going to make enough errors that recklessly running the bases eventually pays off.
This post was edited on 5/29/26 at 10:22 am
Posted on 5/29/26 at 10:03 am to MobileJosh
quote:
Why do you pathetic losers obsess over what other people and their kids do?
Found one.
Posted on 5/29/26 at 10:08 am to prostyleoffensetime
quote:
better church attendance and participation.
Was a big reason my son didn't play travel ball and only did rec ball. Wasn't just that, many different reasons, but this was definitely one of them.
Posted on 5/29/26 at 10:25 am to prostyleoffensetime
quote:
-better church attendance and participation. This is a huge problem IMO. You're teaching all of these kids to turn away from religion and to athletics.
Where we're at, almost all the baseball leagues (rec, travel, academy, whatever) have a strict rule about not having any games before noon on Sundays for this very reason. I am honestly surprised that places in the Deep South play baseball on the first half of Sunday. Half the kids on even the best teams wouldn't be there for a 10 AM Sunday game where we're at.
This post was edited on 5/29/26 at 10:26 am
Posted on 5/29/26 at 10:33 am to supatigah
Just a bunch of dudes living bicuriously through their sons.
Posted on 5/29/26 at 10:43 am to Christopher Columbo
quote:
bicuriously
I think you meant "vicariously"
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