Personally, I don't have much time for the Cal Ripkens of the world that profit on the backs of easily sold parents while shunning Little League. Little League isn't perfect, but travel baseball is like a smaller, whiter AAU basketball in some ways.
I understand the need for travel teams (we don't even have Little League where I live), but I wish it wouldn't start until age 13 so that kids could (have to) play with their neighbors and classmates in Little League. That's how you make friends and teammates.
Friday will mark the 75th anniversary of the first ever Little League game in Williamsport. Carl Stotz just wanted to help some kids. He was at odds with LLB for years over their commercialization, but made amends before his death.
What he would think of travel ball, no one really knows. I would think that he would say someone took their eye off the ball at some point.
Semi related:
I couldn’t say who started it...but I’m guessing they eventually fed off each other... Seems like everyone I know with kids between 12-18 that play softball or baseball or does band or cheerleading is “going to nationals.”
Just how many national tournaments are there? Is this part of the everyone-gets-a-medal mentality or crass money making? Both I think.
I’m sure the organizers would maintain that the LL World Series shouldn’t have a monopoly on deciding who is the best etc etc...but how long until resumes and college applications hit the round file as soon as the phrase “went to nationals” shows up. I think we’re well on our way to that already. Like that Twilight Zone episode where the gold thieves put themselves to sleep for a hundred years and wake up in a world where gold is practically worthless
What crappy parents. What kid wouldn’t want to stay and play with their friends? Instead a greedy parent pushes the road and no ties lifestyle on a child. Pathetic.
This makes me think of the South Park episode where all the little league teams were trying to lose on purpose so that they didn’t have to play any more.
My kids are all under six so I don’t have this problem yet, but I do want them involved in something. My beef is the mandatory crap that they now have with youth sports. I know people that don’t go on vacation because of mandatory practices or games. And family dinner every evening? Try dad takes a kid to volleyball and they get Wendy’s while mom tales the other two to soccer and they get McDonald’s.
What I find disheartening is the majority of kids who play travel ball are “forced” to by their daddy who dreamed of playing baseball but failed. They want to live vicariously through their child. They push their kids like sled dogs.
This year marks the first time since 2010 neither of my 2 boys is playing baseball. Oldest one is in the Autism spectrum, and our town has no way for him to play without actually competing (he can’t handle the concept of winning and losing.)
My other son, our middle child, is more into hockey anyway...and last year, for his age group (7-8 yr olds), ensured his kid’s team had all the “best” players (of course), to make sure his kid would be in the league champion team.
This year, all the kids from that team are in the “travel” team. So, this year, my middle dude is exclusively in hockey (which, as they start full-ice this year, is going to entail enough travel already.)
My son has played travel baseball for the last 5 or 6 years. We've played in tournaments at the Ripken sites in both Maryland and SC. They are EXTREMELY well run and have always been an extremely positive experience for all the boys (and, no, we've never come close to actually winning one of the tournaments).
Clearly, nether you nor the (no doubt) lib writer of this piece have a clue. You're both taking the most extreme negative stereotypes and applying them universally. In short, you both have no idea what you're talking about - and its hilarious. Hilariously sad, but still hilarious.
I'm laughing at you right now.
Hard.
Really hard.
My nephew is an a excellent ballplayer. (Just got a full ride scholarship to the college of his choice to play ball). He plays first base and pitches.
He’s played travel ball since he was about 8. Lots and lots of practices and games and weekend tournaments.
He fortunately still enjoys the game but I believe he has lost out on much of his childhood. For example, his dad wouldn’t let him climb trees for fear he’d hurt his throwing arm.
But the biggest loss is his relationship with his non-immediate family. Everything in his life revolves around baseball, so much so that he is almost a stranger to his grandparents and cousins (and to me).
What are our children going to be like as adults when we teach them that the game is more important than anything else in their lives? If family doesn’t count? If their relationship with the Lord is less important than their ERA?
My nephew (so far) appears to still have a level head on his shoulders but I’ve already seen some of his team mates descend into the spoiled prima donna mind set. These kids believe that they are the sole reason for existence and several of them have already been in trouble with drugs and the law.
Travel ball is OK, BUT it must be kept in perspective and very few it seems manage to keep the correct perspective.
Nothing wrong with kids playing sports, but it shouldn’t consume their lives, lest they wind up like Todd Marinovich, unable to handle the real world.
little league ends at 12 this starts at 13.
the author’s kid will likely be a fine D2 or D3 player, and there is absolutely no shame in a kid wanting to do as the author states.
Some kids want more.
My daughter receieved a full ride to an out of state D1 school in lacrosse. With her injury red shirt season, the school in question paid for 5 years, she walked away with her Masters degree in addition to her undergrad. And a semester abroad.
Kind of puts the 2K a year for 5 or 6 years in a different perspective.
I’d be willing to wager that Penn State’s baseball team is almost entirely populated with travel league players. That’s how the kids get exposure to the college coaches, by playing those big tournies.
And I’d love to know what the gratuitous shot at Cal Ripken was all about.
my son is in small town little league. And yes, there is always talk of “Travel Teams”.
I guess I’m a dinosaur but I’ll avoid it.
That being said, pitchers are often abused by pitching once or twice a week from March through November. You wonder where the Tommy John surgeries are coming from? Somebody has to pitch to all those position players who are getting all those additional reps. So, parents- guard your son's pitching arm and rely on pitch counts and make sure he gets a chance to rest his arm periodically- hopefully for several weeks at a time, several times a year. Better yet, let him be a position player who just pitches occasionally. His arm will last a lot longer.
Final words of advice, raise your boy to be a lefty. They stay in baseball forever.
My girls (12 and 13) just started with the local fast pitch softball organization. No one is traveling anywhere. I complain about the practice field being 5 miles away and that’s the farthest I’ll travel.