Baseball dad thread

[Ollie]

Another year of kids 11 and under playing way too many games, their parents thinking they have the next Jeter and spending a shitload of money on travel ball.

So I have 2 kids. They are 27 and 24. They both played travel sports. Daughter played volleyball, son played baseball. While there are parents who think their kids are the next Jeter or whatever sport they are play, most do not, especially as the kids get older. Most of the parents I dealt with were pretty realistic when it came to their kids.
The money spent for traveling, hotels, food, equipment, lessons, etc was pretty crazy and my wife and I would tell people were crazy for doing it, but it was well worth it. Both of my kids look back on their "travel" days as something they wouldn't change for anything. It taught them how to be great teammates, how to prioritize their time, how to be disciplined, how to get along with others even though you may not see eye to eye, how to respect authority, how to deal with life not being fair, etc. Could they have learned those things elsewhere, probably, but it was pretty awesome for all of us and especially for my kids.
BTW, my daughter played on an AAU National Championship team and my son's baseball team was probably one of the best in the state for a few years.
Best tourneys they played in....daughter, Orlando was fun (where AAU's were) but there was one in New Orleans where she played really well that was awesome, great city as well.
My son's favorite, Cooperstown, NY and Southaven, MS. Nothing like staying in the barracks with the team (and I think 93 other teams) in Cooperstown, NY. and Southhaven had a great set up for baseball.
Anyway, to each his own.

 

[PoppawCat]

So I have 2 kids. They are 27 and 24. They both played travel sports. Daughter played volleyball, son played baseball. While there are parents who think their kids are the next Jeter or whatever sport they are play, most do not, especially as the kids get older. Most of the parents I dealt with were pretty realistic when it came to their kids.
The money spent for traveling, hotels, food, equipment, lessons, etc was pretty crazy and my wife and I would tell people were crazy for doing it, but it was well worth it. Both of my kids look back on their "travel" days as something they wouldn't change for anything. It taught them how to be great teammates, how to prioritize their time, how to be disciplined, how to get along with others even though you may not see eye to eye, how to respect authority, how to deal with life not being fair, etc. Could they have learned those things elsewhere, probably, but it was pretty awesome for all of us and especially for my kids.
BTW, my daughter played on an AAU National Championship team and my son's baseball team was probably one of the best in the state for a few years.
Best tourneys they played in....daughter, Orlando was fun (where AAU's were) but there was one in New Orleans where she played really well that was awesome, great city as well.
My son's favorite, Cooperstown, NY and Southaven, MS. Nothing like staying in the barracks with the team (and I think 93 other teams) in Cooperstown, NY. and Southhaven had a great set up for baseball.
Anyway, to each his own.

Atta boy Dad! Think of all you shared and how and these activities helped your kids develope into such positive young adults. And think of all they have learned from you and others so inclined.
I bet the end would not have been nearly as beneficial if dad had not shared his love and happiness for this direction your family took as a part of the child rearing process.

 

[sg24]

My kid decided not to play his last year of league ball this time. He will still travel. Last year between league, travel, and all stars burnt him out. A couple of his buddies just doing the same. Still traveling but just being a kid as long as he can.

Baseball wasn’t fun last year for him. We took a little time off and got back at it and it’s fun again. He is looking forward to travel with his friends and doing the weekend warrior bit.

He would have probably had a good year in league too. He has hit a growth spurt and is a ton stronger.

 

[anthonys735]

We played both seasons, every year, plus I was playing school league or softball as well. By the time HS team rolled around I had lost all interest in baseball. Got 1 more season coaching him and I'm gonna savor every second. After that he can take it wherever he wants.

 

[8titles]

I think travel ball is creating even more separation and a class system. They're pricing people out of the sport. It's basically what hockey suffered from (the cost) and is now bleeding over into baseball, soccer, basketball, etc. The cost is crazy and is favoring the upper middle class and wealthy.

It's crazy how much has changed in 20-30 years.

I somewhat agree but sadly there are a ton of families that are not in a position to absorb these outrageous costs but they take it on anyway.

 

[JonathanW]

Mens league softball starts here in April.... my old 31 a** is excited to play LOL

"old 31 a**", in no world is that "old", LOL LOL LOL.
I didn't peak in that sport until around 34-35. But dang around 38-40, I quickly noticed by body just unable to do what my mind knew it could do (at least a couple years earlier).

 

[DraftCat]

"old 31 a**", in no world is that "old", LOL LOL LOL.
I didn't peak in that sport until around 34-35. But dang around 38-40, I quickly noticed by body just unable to do what my mind knew it could do (at least a couple years earlier).

I didn't start playing till last year.... wish I played in my 20's !

Good to know I got at least 7-8 years left before ish hits the fan

 

[VaxxedObamaCat]

I somewhat agree but sadly there are a ton of families that are not in a position to absorb these outrageous costs but they take it on anyway.

I know they do and I don't know how that is healthy whatsoever for a family/marriage to devote literally every single weekend to travel to some tournament.

How many times have we seen these families take on this crazy costs for their kid to A) Get burnt out and quit B) Only end up at like an NAIA school?

It just bothers me for the kids. An industry has been created because they know parents will pay these costs. Gone are the days of simply having the local pee-wee league and then the All-Stars from that league playing for a couple of more months. Now it's year-long travel ball, practice 3x a week, out of town tournament every weekend, one-on-one coaching.

The costs are astronomical. Its already expensive enough to just play in any rec leagues or flag football or any camp. BTW, I'm amazed at how crappy UK camps are.

 

[8titles]

I know they do and I don't know how that is healthy whatsoever for a family/marriage to devote literally every single weekend to travel to some tournament.

How many times have we seen these families take on this crazy costs for their kid to A) Get burnt out and quit B) Only end up at like an NAIA school?

It just bothers me for the kids. An industry has been created because they know parents will pay these costs. Gone are the days of simply having the local pee-wee league and then the All-Stars from that league playing for a couple of more months. Now it's year-long travel ball, practice 3x a week, out of town tournament every weekend, one-on-one coaching.

The costs are astronomical. Its already expensive enough to just play in any rec leagues or flag football or any camp. BTW, I'm amazed at how crappy UK camps are.

There is no guaranteed path to success in baseball these days and COVID really impacted a lot of kids ability to get looks due to the additional eligibility that resulted from it. For my son's age group a team that would have typically had 2-3 power 5 and another 2-3 D1 players resulting in a couple of juco and D2 guys that are looking to get early reps and find a power 5 home. We did have one kid go power 5 but he threw mid 90's so he was obviously abnormal. I am with Ollie though, I could afford it and my son enjoyed it immensely throughout his career so it was either that or take vacations and I would much rather watch him than sit on a beach and try to find something to do. My daughter is still in it but more regional than my son was, so it's not nearly as expensive. Good luck to those that take it on nowadays.

 

[HUBER]

Travel Ball starts for the Huber boys next weekend. My oldest and Prime 10U will be up in Hamilton Ohio for a tournament, and my youngest and Prime 9U will be playing in Lexington against his Woodford buddies on the Rockers and BatJackets. They are both excited about baseball getting started and I'm already dreading every weekend at random baseball facilities around the midwest. 😂

 

[CaptainBoogerBuns]

This thread cracks me up as I think about playing baseball as a kid. We only had summers to play, and I don’t think we had but a handful of practices. The rest of the time we rode bikes.

 

[Ollie]

This thread cracks me up as I think about playing baseball as a kid. We only had summers to play, and I don’t think we had but a handful of practices. The rest of the time we rode bikes.

Same here. But my son's goal when he was little was to play HS baseball. My job as a parent is to get him as prepared as I can. That required travel baseball.

 

[cat_chaser]

Not that it means one damn thing, but was cool to see my sons high school team ranked 6th in the state preseason.

First real game tonight. He won’t be pitching in this one, but I expect he will be for Thursday’s game. We returned every single inning pitched last year, so he’s having to fight for a top 3 spot (was the reliever/closer last year as a freshman).

He has done well in scrimmages so far. 6 innings, 3 hits, 3 walks (🤬), 1 run that was unearned….11K’s. Should be a wild ride this year.

 

[8titles]

Travel Ball starts for the Huber boys next weekend. My oldest and Prime 10U will be up in Hamilton Ohio for a tournament, and my youngest and Prime 9U will be playing in Lexington against his Woodford buddies on the Rockers and BatJackets. They are both excited about baseball getting started and I'm already dreading every weekend at random baseball facilities around the midwest. 😂

KBA or KBC?
Do you know if Westside LL is playing in it? They were legit when my son played.

 

[Kingseve1]

My 12 yr old hit his first in game homer yesterday at a PG tourney. 3 run HR in the last inning. We have worked hard and the little dude was so happy.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Excited for the season getting started - coach pitch again.

Lost 2 6 year olds to travel ball. LMFAO

 

[cat_chaser]

Kid had a rocky start to the game the other night, but settled in nicely after the 1st. Won 8-3. He went 5 innings to get the win.

Told him to shake off the 1st inning and build on the 4 scoreless innings. Let’s see how far he can run it up.

 

[cole854]

Travel ball for 10U and 9U...hilarious.

 

[cat_chaser]

They do it much younger than that. There can be a good balance between travel and rec. We made sure to do that with my kid.

In fact, he won our league’s ‘citizenship’ award (very big deal in our community) in his rec league. Only eligible if you play all years.

Granted, travel ball is finally starting to kill rec leagues (ours was going strong up until about 2 years ago).

My youngest wanted nothing to do with travel ball so he only plays Rec. My oldest, tho, owes a ton of his development to playing travel ball at an early age. And he ate it all up.

Just because you don’t like something or it wasn’t how you did it doesn’t mean you have to shit on it. Most folks know what’s best for their kids.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

I think there is a huge benefit to playing normal rec ball as a kid. Learn to dominate - learn to carry a team - learn to play with kids with less skill (which in turn increases your own) - can have a less business like feel.

I would wait until my kid(s) are at least double digits to entertain travel ball (w/my limited exposure to it ages 6-9)

The two 6 year olds I lost are pretty skilled and very tiny. One lays on the field injured if he at any point hits the dirt...the other cannot close his glove yet because its too hard to break in...I just do not see the point of travel ball coach pitch. (I would find the value in having a team like group who practices and does baseball camp like instruction). These guys will probably play outfield in travel and bat towards the end - they would likely be middle infield in rec.

The 9 year old exposure I had was scorekeeping years ago. These kids were leading off on 90 ft bases - yet had no idea how to lead or hold runners on. Fast forwarding the development, when the development is not ready is not beneficial.

The kids who made it furthest college wide who used to run with me was a soccer player until about age 12. My best production in ball was my last year in college, in which I was way better (stat wise and skill wise) than HS. Early travel ball will not make you better prepared or kill your chances if you do not have your kid partake.

Hard to argue if the kids love it 24/7. But dont have parent fomo if they arent doing it or do not want to do it at a young age.

 

[H-D cat]

Just because you don’t like something or it wasn’t how you did it doesn’t mean you have to shit on it.

That's all he's here for. Pay him no mind.

 

[anthonys735]

Our league pushes you hard into their little travel season that fires up right after regular season. We just have no desire at 6-9 years old. If he has a chance to play on the circuit at 10-12 then of course we'd do that, because they've been close to Williamsport. I also don't really consider that travel ball. We always called it All Stars.

We also had him with a coach about every other week in the off-season working on fundamentals and we have little home practices all the time. But after last regular season we were both ready for a break.

As much as I love baseball, we're doing our best to limit it to 1 sport at a time, and encouraging him to play different sports. Basketball, Cross Country and Baseball is the current mix. I'm sure he'll try some other stuff along the way.

 

[cat_chaser]

I guess I should define what our ‘travel ball’ looked like at early ages: we basically stayed within 1:30 of where we lived (plenty of Louisville/Lex teams with lots of talent). Always sat/sun tourneys with very little “travel”.

At about age 12 is when we would start to venture out to places like grand park in Carmel Indiana. We would do a tourney like that once or twice during the season.

Last year at age 14 we did actual “travel” ball. Memphis/East Cobb/panama city and I hated it. Kid loved it tho.

This year (16u) we are doing 2 big national tourneys at Lakepoint and East Cobb, but all other ‘tourneys’ are basically showcases on college campuses (EKU/WKU/UL/UT).

Wouldn’t change one damn thing about it.

 

[cat_chaser]

And he played basketball every year up until this season. He wanted my “permission” not to play (my family and I are basketball people - strokin’ being his uncle). So it killed me to finally give him my “permission”.

Wasn’t going to do it until I realized you don’t play a sport out of obligation. You play it for the love of the game.

 

[HUBER]

KBA or KBC?
Do you know if Westside LL is playing in it? They were legit when my son played.

KBA Prime although we played KBC's WInter League this past season.

Our league pushes you hard into their little travel season that fires up right after regular season. We just have no desire at 6-9 years old. If he has a chance to play on the circuit at 10-12 then of course we'd do that, because they've been close to Williamsport. I also don't really consider that travel ball. We always called it All Stars.

I 100% think you guys have made the right decision. We let our boys have a taste of travel ball and they are all about it, even at an early age. Missed out on alot of family lake time, etc because of baseball, but they are happy, but you guys made the right call in my opinion.

With that said, Lexington League "Allstar Teams" are at every travel tournament we are at, so if you decide to do it, know its not the league "All Stars" like we grew up with, it's just the league's Travel Ball team. The only difference is they don't get into full bore traveling until league play is over. We have friends who have kids on League All Star teams and they have their league team practices, and all-star team practices all season long, so they are literally at the ballpark 6 out of the 7 days of the week. Have fun with that when the time comes.

 

[8titles]

KBA Prime although we played KBC's WInter League this past season.

Hoagie is a good dude. Good luck whatever path you all choose. Fun either way for sure. I personally am a huge fan of league in Lexington because it is still pretty competitive and they get to hang at a home park which was what my kids always remembered. Literally would be there all day on most Saturday's. Regardless, it's all about just enjoying time with the kids anyway.

 

[HUBER]

Hoagie is a good dude. Good luck whatever path you all choose. Fun either way for sure. I personally am a huge fan of league in Lexington because it is still pretty competitive and they get to hang at a home park which was what my kids always remembered. Literally would be there all day on most Saturday's. Regardless, it's all about just enjoying time with the kids anyway.

If we had started in a Lexington league (live in Woodford County) I'm not so sure that we wouldn't have gone down that route. But again, living in Wofo, we already drive to Lexington or KBA's new facility in Nicholasville once or twice a week, so we are happy with the decision we made. Plus all the kids have been together for a couple years now and have really built a bond, as have all of us parents. They are our weekend family.

And yes, Hoagie is just exceptional ( our 10 year old son's coach). Great dude, knows the game, and is great with the kids. Gets on them when they deserve it, but you can tell he loves them and wants the best for them.

 

[H-D cat]

Hoagie is a good dude. Good luck whatever path you all choose. Fun either way for sure. I personally am a huge fan of league in Lexington because it is still pretty competitive and they get to hang at a home park which was what my kids always remembered. Literally would be there all day on most Saturday's. Regardless, it's all about just enjoying time with the kids anyway.

I love this as well. Some of my best childhood memories are hanging out at the park with my buddies and watching each others' games. We basically do exactly what @HUBER described. Play league ball in Lexington, then summer becomes All-Stars/Travel with a group representing the league. My guy is still young so we've pretty much stuck with the Lexington, Nicholasville, Stanford, Georgetown, Winchester, etc. circuit so far, but as they get older and get into the Cal Ripken Regionals, World Series, etc. the travel part of it picks up. We also don't generally start 'all-star' practice until after the league season ends. That might change as he gets older.

 

[LordEggForgotHisPassword]

ive got girls that are getting to play high school softball as 7th graders. i think one of the best parts is watching the pitcher start to self-diagnose problems as they occur and correct without being momma birded on everything. my other one is still pretty immature, frankly. she will get there but is a little behind on those fronts. she may be like me, sorta slow.