Don’t Fall for Travel Ball
Little League season is upon us and as a coach for my boys’ team, I’ve had something on my mind for quite some time. In keeping with my direct, no B.S. manner of speaking I’ll be blunt. Travel sports is a scam! Yes, you read that right, it’s an absolute scam and total ripoff! Don’t get me wrong I love coaching youth sports, especially getting to really shape, mold and make a difference in children’s lives, including my own boys. Let me clarify; I’m not digging on coaching or sports, just the concept of year-round travel sports for young children. I have a different take for high school aged kids and I’ll cover that later. If you’re a parent who has a child playing in sports, whether it’s baseball, soccer, tennis, you name it, it’s no longer seasonal anymore. Kids are expected to train 365 days per year instead of being able to have fun and play and just be kids–all in the name of money. It has become a racket, a dirty scheme.
I love sports, obviously. I’m a firm believer that children should play some form of team sports. Being part of a team brings out the best in kids. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve coached kids who walked onto the baseball field for the first time and couldn’t look me in my eye or let alone say one word to me. These kids had zero confidence. They had never played a team sport or picked up a baseball in their lives, but by the end of the season, I saw these kids significantly grow in confidence, athletic ability and even their ability to interact with others vastly improved. Sports teaches kids the concept of a team where they develop social skills, learn and understand failure, perseverance and how to win with dignity and humility. Some discover they’re leaders, they become independent and understand the true meaning of competition. I firmly believe that kids who participate in team youth sports in a healthy manner are equipped to become successful with some even destined to become our leaders of tomorrow.
However, over the last twenty years, I’ve seen an alarming trend in youth sports: year-round travel sports. It seems to me that the entire thing has become a system of monopolizing kids’ sports. It has become a huge business opportunity for many wannabe pro players to cash in on kids by taking advantage of parents’ desires for their children to become a pro athlete. These guys instill fear and doubt in parents. They tell them their kids will never get a shot at the pro ranks without their much-needed coaching and counsel. In reality it’s all just a ruse in order for these no talent hacks to make a cheap buck. Many of these coaches will sell you on how they were destined for the Big Leagues but a devastating injury kept them from their dream. In reality they may have been the back up right fielder on their high school baseball team. So in their attempt to hold onto a game that didn’t want them, or they were never good at in the first place, they found a way by making money coaching and scamming parents. It makes me want to blow chunks when I listen to the instruction from these travel ball coaches. Believe me, I’ve heard a bunch of stories from parents and kids alike about the poor instruction that these morons are giving.
I’m saddened when I see parents fall for this trap. We live in a society that screams perfection. There is undue pressure on kids that begins at a very early age. In order to get into a high-end college, you must start at a very young age getting straight A’s, playing sports, playing an instrument, belonging to all the right clubs and having as many extracurricular activities as possible. All with the expectation that by doing this your will score a first-class job making hundreds of thousands of dollars immediately upon graduation. ALL BULLSHIT! In many cases, these poor young men and women end up with crippling college debt which takes years if ever to rebound from. They start life already buried. I believe the traditional educational system is a broken and majorly flawed system screaming for reform, but that’s for another blog. The travel ball system is no different. It can be beneficial for high school aged and sometimes junior high kids, but the little ones, ages six to twelve, it’s the worst thing you can do for them. I’ve seen and heard stories about parents who spend thousands of dollars to get their kids on the best travel ball squad in their areas. I know a guy who coaches travel ball in Texas. Parents and their kids fly there from all over the country for the whole summer. They spend large amounts of money on travel, on their monthly rental home and the travel ball coach’s program that costs thousands of dollars. And he has many squads for kids 8-14. These parents honestly mean well, but are getting suckered into this travel ball scam with lofty promises of getting their child on the starting high school team, a division 1 scholarship, or even in front of area big league scouts. It’s all such bullshit. The odds of any kid becoming a Major League Baseball player is staggering low. Check out these stats:
- High school senior players who go on to play NCAA men’s baseball: Less than three in 50, or 5.6 percent
- NCAA senior players drafted by a Major League Baseball (MLB) team: Less than eleven in 100, or 10.5 percent.
- High school senior players eventually drafted by an MLB team: About one in 200, or 0.5 percent. Drafted baseball players almost always go to a minor league team. These teams abound; there are over 150 of them, compared to 30 in the majors. The big leagues have 750 players, yet the 2004 draft alone took 1,500. Hence some estimate that only one in 33 minor leaguers ever makes it to the pros. If that’s correct, the chance of a high school player making the big leagues is one in 6,600, or 0.015 percent. That’s slightly better than a thief guessing your PIN number on the first try, which is roughly one in a million.
I can’t tell you how many of my boys’ friends’ parents have called me and asked if their kid should play travel ball. These kids, in some cases, are only 8, 9, or 10. My answer is always a resounding NO! I had a conversation with a father about this travel ball subject just last year. He told me he had a freshman son on the high school baseball team and that the only way players were allowed to play for that particular high school was for the kid to have played year-round travel ball. Can you believe it, they made it mandatory! I wonder how many of those high school coaches got kickbacks or even coach travel ball themselves.
When I was a kid, Little League was a place where you could play on a team with all your friends from school. My mom would sign me up for fifty bucks which paid for the season. Our league would allow us to put together our own teams. There were no evaluations, no drafts, no recruiting; just a desire for fun, growth, learning, playing, and competing. I had so much fun playing with all my friends from school, even though some seasons we really sucked.
Now in today’s youth sports, we evaluate every child, we hold drafts, we judge these kids as little as six years old. I’ve been to many of these drafts over the last several years and it always entertains me. So many dads take this so seriously. You dads that are obsessive, ask yourself, “why?’ Did you not get to play because you weren’t good enough so you want to live vicariously through your kid, shoving your dreams down your kids’ throats? It’s gross to witness coaches who load up their eight to ten-year-old teams by recruiting the best athletes around the area. They then go undefeated for the season by dismantling the other teams every week. What are you teaching a team like this? They will never get better if they continue to prey on weaker teams. Once they get older and everyone else catches up with them they will be in for quite a shock. It certainly doesn’t teach humility or the love of the game. It only teaches a warped desire to win at all costs. Baseball is a game, let’s not forget that and kids want to have fun. The notions of destroying other teams or building dynasties aren’t what kids want or even know anything about. These are the sick desires of fetish parents, and coaches who never played the game themselves. Just ask many former or current pro-player, coaches and managers what they feel about youth travel sports and all the other antics like drafts and such that go on. They almost universally think it’s ridiculous and absurd that kids aren’t allowed to have fun anymore. Here’s a few examples of pros speaking out against travel sports.
Jered Weaver, former MLB pitcher, Tweeted on January 23:
My 5 year old son had tryouts for baseball the other day..tryouts??? aren’t you supposed to play w your friends and have fun at 5??? I hope he likes golf better.
Chicago Cubs World Series Championship manager Joe Maddon said:
I hate the specialization of kids when they’re on these travel squads that are only 12-13-14 years olds that are only dedicated to one thing, traveling all the time, paying exorbitant amounts of money to play baseball with hopes of becoming a professional baseball player. I think that’s crazy.
Doug Carpenter has more than thirty years of experience with professional baseball as a player, coach, and scout. He is now a scout with MLB’s Cleveland Indians. He absolutely echoes my every opinion on this subject in this brilliant take:
Let your child play all sports (football, basketball, soccer, etc.). It helps round out their overall athleticism. When the baseball season is over THROW the glove in the closet! You will be amazed at the passion shown when baseball season rolls around again. Can you make them better? Yes. Can you push them too hard? YES! There is a fine line between the two and unfortunately, most parents don’t know where that line is. Major League Baseball players are very blessed athletes and there is more than just “ability” involved. Makeup, instincts, fundamentals, and work ethics are just a few factors that also affect player upside/value. How many times do we hear, “Oh…that Bobby is gonna play in the Big Leagues.” Reality check: there are only 750 Major League player jobs available during the season. And if Bobby is a shortstop he has to be one of the BEST 30 IN THE WORLD or he is not going to be a Major Leaguer. I think it’s less than .001 percent of kids playing youth baseball get the chance to be a Major League Baseball player. Yes…a lot of kids get the opportunity to play in the Minor Leagues (I did so for 7 years) but unless you got a big bonus, as the band Boston once sang, “you barely make enough to survive. Bottom line: let your kids be kids. Let them enjoy all the sports. If they are meant to play pro ball…their natural ability will one day allow them the opportunity. I am a firm believer that Major League Baseball players aren’t made…they are born.
Washington Post columnist Fred Bowen remembers asking Cal Ripken, Jr. at what age he started playing baseball year-round:
When I signed a professional contract at 18.
The Hall of Famer told him. Ripken also happened to be an all-state soccer player in high school. Where do you think the shortstop’s legendary footwork comes from? And come to think of it, injuries never really seemed to be much of a thing for Cal, did they?
Speaking of injuries lets dive into the epidemic of Tommy John surgeries for so many young MLB pitchers. According to Wikipedia, in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s only fifty-two Major League pitchers had Tommy John Surgery. From 2000 to today that number has exploded with a staggering 307 players going under the knife. Travel baseball has been around for quite some time, but it didn’t become obsessive and now mandatory by some of the high school coaches until the mid to late 90’s. I think there might be a correlation between the rise of it and the birth of the self-esteem movement. Society now bombards and pressures parents into making sure their kids keep up to a level that is turning these kids into obsessive maniacs over a sport that more than likely they will never play as an adult. Then as if society’s pressures aren’t enough, you have the parent who has to live vicariously through their children. They couldn’t make it so they’ll burn their kid out doing something they couldn’t or even wouldn’t do, yet now think they 
should have. So you can see these shocking Tommy John numbers directly correlate to the increasing pressure of young kids pitching year round. These are real numbers, facts, and if you’re offended because you’re one of these parents or hack coaches, I don’t care. Facts don’t care about your feelings. A human arm isn’t designed to make that motion on a consistent basis. It’s imperative that the arm has an offseason to rest, and heal. If you insist on your child playing travel baseball I highly recommend he doesn’t pitch, and only plays a position. Because trust me, the majority of those coaches who are getting paid handsomely don’t give one shit about your kid’s arm. He only cares about wins, and dollars so he can pay the bills.
When I was in high school, I didn’t just play baseball, I also played basketball and tennis. I’ll admit now that I only played tennis to impress a girl who also played but after a season of tennis my footwork was better, it made me quicker and ready for the next season of baseball. As it pertained to baseball, I’ll also admit that I wasn’t the best player on my team. As a matter of fact I was a scrawny high school shortstop that hit .300 with only a single home run his senior season. These are hardly the stats of a future big leaguer. To expand on the irony of my high school years I want you to guess what you think I was better at, baseball or basketball? Well, it was the latter and I was good enough that I received a scholarship to attend a division 2 school in Kansas to play basketball. Needless, to say I didn’t take it. I could shoot but I was like Woody Harrelson in WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP. Even with the other opportunities, I went with my passion and held a vision that I would be a Major Leaguer and ended up walking on at Vernon Regional Junior College in Texas. The rest is history.
Where travel sports can be beneficial for some is in their high school years. I didn’t need it, but some high schoolers can hone skills, etc. They’re old enough now to be making the choice themselves, it’s not some frothy parent or guilt shaming coach forcing it on their parent. So if you’re a high schooler and think it can be helpful, sure try it. I still recommend playing other sports to hone your skills as a baseball player will more than playing solely baseball itself. I realize this may sound weird but it’s the truth.
Something else that is happening to young kids because of year round travel ball is burnout. I have a personal experience in regards to this. My oldest son, Jayce now ten, showed great promise as a baseball player from ages six to eight. One particular season he was invited to play in a travel ball team, and I was asked if I would volunteer to coach. I was initially against it, but I asked Jayce if he really wanted to do it that I would do it with him. His answer was, “Yes.” Now mind you, we had just finished playing the spring Little League season which lasted a few months. With him adamant on playing travel ball, we went right into another three-four month season. The schedule had us at two practices a week, and usually a tournament every weekend. Midway through Jayce began to complain about not wanting to go and I’ll admit, I was getting tired of going. It was all consuming, every single weekend, there was no time for life. To make matters worse, Jayce was missing out on school work. He fell behind in math forcing me to hire a tutor. Then something happened, I still remember the day. We were supposed to go to practice and he was against it, I told him he had to and he said the magic words, “I hate it.” There it was, my boy who had loved baseball so much before, now despised it. I had made a tactical error by having him join at his age. It wasn’t the game that burned him out, it was the intense scheduling, the non-stop in your face competition, and I was to blame. Yes, he said he wanted to play, but come on, he was a kid, an eight-year-old, they don’t have the mental capacity to make these type of decisions. I had gone against my better judgement and let him play. I was heartbroken and pissed. I should have known better. I was an ex-athlete and pro who knew that travel ball is bullshit yet I let myself get hooked thinking that maybe…well don’t just let my years of being a pro convince you, let my own experience be a guide, don’t do it.
I’m a two-time World Series champion, played professionally for thirteen years, yet I never once played travel ball nor wanted to. Hell, my mom was a single working mother raising two kids. She couldn’t have afforded it even if I had begged her to. Trust me if your kid is good enough you don’t need travel ball. However, if you’re looking for a sure fire way to burn a kid out or you’re a hack, wanna-be coach or dad who always dreamed of playing but couldn’t cut it, then sure, sign your kid up for travel ball at six and take every ounce of joy away from the game for them. Turn them into another sad statistic, with a major overuse injury by the time they’re twenty. But there is another way, be an example, stop the madness, let your kids play a diversity of sports, let them play have fun and learn. Let them be kids! And if they show they have a real natural talent then nurture it without turning it into a damn job for you and the kid. Remember people, your kids only get to be kids for a short period of time. Allow them to relish in their youth, joy, and innocence. Don’t force them to grow up too fast. I promise you’ll regret it if you do.
Thank You! I hear so many horror stories about year-long travel ball. I Love my son, and I Love Baseball, but the last thing I want him to do is burn out. I wanted to enroll him in a trial session of youth wrestling but he didn’t want you do it. He’s 6! I didn’t force him to. Asked a few times, but the answer was always no. We will try again next season. He loves Baseball and for the last few summers I pitch foam balls to him in the back yard. He’s played t-ball, but wants to be… Read more »
This is very insightful and very well written. You’re right “the lure” for semi-athletic 7 year old can be ferocious. After reading this blaugue the main thing that sticks out to me (As a coach of my oldest daughter (12) for 6 years and my middle daughter (8) for 3 is the BURNOUT! I’m going to have a heart to heart with my oldest first and make SURE she enjoys this as much as I do. Thanks again for the great advice!
People that hate the writers thinking, either are part of the group getting paid or have been sucked into the mindset.
I saw the link on a Facebook group for select baseball. They were bashing it to say the least.
And people who love the writers thinking are probably not part of a good experience. There are good and bad programs at all levels whether local or travel and the success depends on the people running them. Pros and cons either way. If the situation is bad for your kid, get him out no matter local or travel. Parents still have to parent. If it is a good situation then have at it as long as it is a positive experience for the player/parents. This writer obviously is doing things right in his community to get the results he shares.… Read more »
U are putting all travel programs in one big boat! Pisses me off to no end when peao do exactly what your doing. I run a travel org in the Bay Area. Guess how much money I make? $0 what u fail to realize is that there are a lot of leagues out there that do not have a few things. Number one is coaches. Your son is lucky, u understand and can teach the basic fundamentals. 95% of the happy go kicked coaches are just that, happy go lucky… they know nothing about baseball. Then they play against a… Read more »
Case. In. Point.
And you were the backup right fielder on your high school team that thinks this is best for the kid.
He’d be right too!
You obviously do Not know who this is. lol! It may help in the future to do some homework before you start on somebody. He’s right, the travel baseball at the age of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and even 12 is crazy. After that you do what’s best for the individual. They need nothing more than a good league with basic fundamentals. Which, if you watch local high school games you’ll see that 99% need basic fundamentals desperately.
Agree with a whole ton of this. My 13u team in south Florida takes the whole summer off while other teams play another 40 games, and has since we started travel. Most of my kids play other sports in middle school also. The problem is that because of travel, rec has become unplayable.
Ps. Why you do lale like that lol
In our experience, travel ball is a good option for kids that want/need more. It is a great option when local teams lack good leadership/structure. Parents need to be mindful of costs, coaches, time etc., but if the kid loves it don’t shy away. You however are making some very good points. Kids benefit from youth sports and it sounds like you have had many good experiences suggesting you were blessed with connecting with kids and can coach as well. All part of the overall positive experience. Not all kids are that lucky to have that leadership, whether local rec… Read more »
My son started travel ball at the nine-year-old age. I had him participate in all the local instructional leagues: T-ball, pitching machine and coach pitch before we considered even going onto travel ball. Why should I spend a whole weekend in a town 100 miles away on the whims of a 5, 6, 7 or eight-year-old son? Talk about a long weekend. When he could appreciate the money being spent and the time being allocated to travel ball did we even think about getting into it. We only joined a travel team that played approximately every other weekend. We started… Read more »
Loved the article. Feel the same way. I feel like the odd dad out there always saying no to all these hacks asking my son to play on their travel team.
You have shared my thoughts exactly. My daughter started travel ball on a B level team. Stayed on it and learned a bit. She’s now playing DIII college. She was an ice skater. She is still a soprano with a killer voice majoring in voice at the college. The kids need to be well rounded. If the player is going to be a major leaguer, they will be with or without travel ball. Either they have it or they don’t. I coached a few exceptional high school baseball players. One or two went on to double A ball. They were… Read more »
I’m calling a little bull on this. Unfortunately, I don’t like travel ball as much as the next guy, but unfortunately that is the era that we are in. I too, remember playing local rec ball with my friends. We shared two bats, catching gear and 4 helmets. Those were definitely good times. But those days are long gone. Things change, people change, the game has evolved. The real reason for the blog is exposed near the end in the last paragraph, and pretty much sums up the sense of anger from the author. He is so mad that he… Read more »
What a douche bag response.
You’re the only one to come away with that opinion.
I’m a mom. I never played baseball or softball and do not regret not playing. My son is 10 and does year round travel. He also plays football and basketball and video games and rides his bike. He started in a rec league, then part time travel. We left because the coaches (dads) reached the limit of what they could teach the kids. I don’t think he’s going to the majors (he does), but he is working with coaches and trainers that are teaching him baseball while developing his character and teaching him 21st century life skills. He loves it… Read more »
I enjoyed the article, and agree with many of Mr Huffs thoughts on it. However, our experience has been mixed when it comes to travel ball. Our older son is now in high school and grew up in a dad coached rec league, who by 12, had outgrown that league and the dad coaching and needed a travel program to take the next step in his development. There were 30 kids trying out just for the JV team, all of which, with the exception of 2, were from different travel ball teams. I honestly believe that without the reps and… Read more »
Love this. Just released a book found at Dontcutmykid.com That touches upon this very subject. Having been in performance and healing for 20 years I’ve seen the trend chang to epidemics in ALL sports. Little did my dad ever imagine that a surgery he had in 1974 they named after him, that was supposed to be for the professional to continue his career would be happening in youth more than pros. Concussions, pediatric ACLs, stress fractures, medicated for anxiety and depression due to their inability to perform in youth sports, it’s a race to the bottom, and the kids are… Read more »
Yes, more people need to stand up and speak out. Most parents I talk to don’t want to do it but feel like they have no other option or their kid will get left behind. So frustrating and really has taken the joy out of youth sports! Crazy. And it’s the parents that are doing it! Speak up and let the kids be kids while they still can.
Some points I do agree with like it being crazy expensive and some travel coaches are complete garbage. On the flip side travel ball is where all the talent is. If you want good competition then you have to do travel ball. I’ve coached Rec league and I’m coaching travel ball now. Rec league was fun, but hardly a place for good players to grow when half of each practice is focused on one or two players that can’t play the game and don’t want to be out there. It was tolerable at ages 5-7, but after that the kids… Read more »
My issue is this: If your kid is indeed talented but does not play travel, then some school teams do not consider them at all. I’ve seen this happen to a PHENOMENAL middle school girl…a pitcher (and no, not my kid) whose middle school would not even CONSIDER her, because she only played recreation ball. The irony is that the middle school team who would not have her, lost the City Championship to my daughter’s middle school team, and my daughter’s team was a mix of girls…just as many recreation leaguers were on the field, as travel team girls, and… Read more »
Totally agree with everything you said! My daughter played intramural softball… we were clueless about how good she was until the coaches said, “she should be on a travel team.” She was 14 at the time! We educated ourselves about the “travel world” and signed her up. She loved it, she thrived, she was seen during a game by a D3 college coach who literally pulled her off the field and begged her to come play for her in her junior year. We knew nothing.. we visited the school, loved the coach, they offered some nice academic money… and that… Read more »
People can agree and disagree with this article and both are right. It all depends on the travel team you are playing for. They are not all the same. One program in my local town costs $1200 to play and the other was $150 plus tourney fees. Both provide more instruction for a player than the run of the mill dad who is coaching just to help out the local LL. My problem with Little League is that it has become to liberal. It is about being fair, and not caring if you win or lose. I teach my kids… Read more »
Travel ball has destroyed our varsity baseball program. Our school district has a significant number of low income families. We have at each grade level a singular travel ball team consisting of 12 players from the class. These players are “the team” with high hopes of a state championship someday unfortunately by the junior/senior level we are lucky to have 6-7 of the original 12 playing and the majority of the 5-7 are no longer (if they ever were) the best athletes in the class. I have coached for 50 years in the community and am not certain baseball as… Read more »
I can understand your viewpoint,somewhat. But, that’s where it ends. Our kids play travel ball and it’s been great. Number 1, we wouldn’t play if the program didn’t align with our beliefs and expectations. In season sport takes precedence, no questions asked, end of story, take it or leave it, but it’s never came to that, bc The Program has the same beliefs.
I don’t understand parents complaining about this. Either find a good travel ball program or don’t play, very simple.
Great article. Can’t think of one point I disagree with. Only thing I didn’t see mentioned is the fact that a lot of this for the parents. It’s a clique/social hour/weekend for a lot parents. It is really quite funny to watch.
This up is right on the spot. Let the kids play what sport they want (baseball, basketball, football, ect. This will produce a well rounded and hopefully injury free young adult.
totally agree. travel baseball is absolutely nuts and waste of precious family time. my experience was that it was a bunch of dads who teach bad mechanics and strongly favor their own kids. baseball does require repetition to become better but the extra experience can be obtained in a summer camp outside the control of helicopter parents. other sports should be played and enjoyed. let the kids be kids and have fun. keep the helicopter parents away from your kid. stay out of travel ball at least until the kids are close to or in high school. that’s when sports… Read more »
Thank you from an athletic trainer
Thank you from an athletic trainer.
Your an idiot !!!!
Your probably a daddy ball Little League kinda guy whose kid got cut trying out for a travel ball team.
Funniest comment so far. The derp factor is strong in this one.
Good on Frank. Where we live lots of kids make a travel team. Lately, it’s more about whose parents can pay those club fees.
You are a moron Haha Did you ride the pine or something?
Less is more, played with Eric Young at Rutgers, he never played baseball until 9th grade, 5ft 10 , played in MLB for 20 years, you can throw all the money at it all you want but you can’t buy talent.
I like that you said that taking your kids to sports clubs can help them gain more confidence in themselves and the ability to interact with others. My wife and I have been talking about taking our kid to a sports club so that he can develop his skills. I’m going to look for a place where I can take my son to develop his skills.
Former Player, Coach HS, Club and LL for 20 years. With all due respect, the title of this articule is not right. There is good Travel Teams, and bad. There is good LL Coaches and bad. There is good HS Teams and bad. There is Private Baseball Coaches with Profesional background that can’t teach at all…The reality is more simple guys, If you want your kid to just have fun and be active and he has no inclination to pursue a career in Baseball just have him play Little League. Why would you pay for Piano lessons if your Son… Read more »
Travel ball is fine after they get into their teens. Before that age it’s nothing more than an ego trip for parents with misplaced priorities.
This was mostly a very good article. However, one thing you fail to consider is the level of players these days. Rec ball when we were kids was a lot better. You could say that the proliferation of travel/advanced teams has hurt rec ball, and you would be absolutely correct. However, there is no putting the horse back in the barn. If your kid wants to play and is having fun, then let him play. If he wants to go back to rec ball only at some point, then do that. Another thing: when I was in little league it… Read more »
What all fail to forget is genetics is 90%+ of the overall equation. If you or your wife weren’t great athletes chances are your kid is along the same lines. There are exceptions but few. Spend all weekend playing games…..what a bunch of dreamers….
I like to cover my nipples in tuna fish oil and hang out with my 3 rescue cats.
As a manager of both a travel team and a Little a league team, you literally have no idea what you’re talking about. I certainly advocate for Little League but what you are forgetting is travel ball is for a different type player. Travel ball is NOT year round. Travel ball is real baseball. Little league rules are fine until about age 10 then they should play real baseball. I have coached probably 1000 baseball games and every year my feelings get stronger. It is on the coaches to manage pitching and game play. This article is crazy!
Real baseball is played with 90 foot bases. No child is ready for “real” baseball. Biggest misnomer ever is when people call baseball a “child’s game”.
My brothers and I loved baseball. It’s all we did in the 70s. But we never played more than the 18 official Little League games a year. The rest of the time we played whiffle ball, or tape ball, or 3 on 3 baseball on a made up field. Or we played pickle, or just catch. Even if baseball is your only sport, it shouldn’t always be organized. I’m so glad that travel ball didn’t exist when I was growing up. Otherwise I’m sure i would have convinced my dad to let me play and I would have burned out… Read more »
I don’t agree with everything here but some of the stuff is spot on. My wife and I have 2 sons playing division 1 college baseball. Great kids, well rounded and passionate about playing. My advise would be to guide your kiddos to fun activities with some structure. As they get older and have the capacity and capability to make more adult like decisions allow them to have a bigger part in the process. Our two sons are very different and we helped manage their lives to a certain point and now we get to set back and enjoy the… Read more »
Aubrey, you are 6’4″ 245 lb’s and a gifted athlete. Ypu didn’t need travel ball to hone ypur skills at a tpu ger age just tomake your high school team. 95% of all coaches are taking a guy on the team based on sheer potential….and i doubt you had 45-60 kids trying out for your freshman ball team who were all very good athletes. A normal sized kid can’t just show up for freshman ball tryouts with only having played rec ball in the spring for 3-4 months having received coaching from dads who know nothing about the game. I’m… Read more »
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I agree with most of why you are saying. I get frustrated with parents on year round baseball. I don’t mind the travel ball or select as some call it. As long as its local. Most parents don’t understand that D-1 has very limited scholarships. NAIA gives more than D1 and very seldom do they give a full ride. I think kids should play multiple sports. Plus parents will spend enough on travel to have paid for college. I’m trying not to get started on these guys who give so called ( private lessons). I’ve had parents tell me his… Read more »
Very interesting, my son plays baseball after only playing football since age 4. He started rec in 2018 and wanted to play more, so in 2019 we made the switch because he could play & practice more. We don’t play for the pay, I 100% plan on him receiving an academic scholarship. I know this is addressing a larger group, but I only see a harsh focus on baseball, although you used football images. I have personally seen and experience more of the NFL push on kids from weight training as early as 9 years old. TYFA, TYSA, etc. I… Read more »
You know who doesn’t play travel ball? The kids in the DR are not spending $1000s for their kid 8 year old to play baseball.
Don’t lump all programs into this. I guess your in a state where teams are just taking cash from people and will have 2 or 3 per age group! That’s not how all programs are run. My program has 4 teams total. All my players are required to play a different sport and none of them are allowed baseball activities year round, even our Seniors who are getting looks. Keep an open mind and stop lumping your bad experiences into a SCAM alert.
This is BY FAR one of the STUPIDEST articles I have EVER read. You are putting all travel teams in one box. Not all travel teams take your money. Some will rip you off and travel all the time even if they aren’t good but most teams know their place. Where I live most travel teams that aren’t very good might travel once or twice a year but they mostly play games in local tournaments. Only the good teams travel consistently, mostly because they have to go find good competition somewhere else. Also, rec ball is just a big joke… Read more »
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